I came to a crossing of the CP Rail mainline just north west of Barrie, Ontario, Canada where the line comes down the East side of Georgian Bay from the north, through Sudbury and Thunder Bay and on its way to Brampton and Toronto. I was a good 1 Km away when I say the intermodal cars across the intersection and it took me a minute or so the get to the crossing to wait. I did not see what was heading the freight but it was travelling rather slowly, maybe about 20Km/H.

I purchased some clumps of Silflor in a late summer green. I've got plenty of them though that I would like different colors without having to purchase another $30 dollar sheet. What is the best method to color silflor? AIM chalk or floquil or pollyscale paint? Can it be done? Here's a picture of what I've got. I want some yellow faded clumps of grass strewn in with the green.

(The woodland scenic straight grass looks bad and will be replaced)

I plan on purchasing the 5A Super Chief Duplex system for running my layout. I also plan on using their BDL168 detection boards for my hidden staging and DS64's to throw my turnouts.

When reading the pdf manual for the detection boards, Digitrax states that Home wiring is the best method. This makes sense to me, but their diagram doesn't make sense (or at least it isn't clear). It shows a typical installation for a detector board with Direct Home and Whole Layout Common wiring. I can't understand (from their diagram) where the differnce is between the two. See below:

Hello, I've started a new layout after 30 + years, Questions I have. Today's layouts have a lot of foam base over plywood.

Would you suggest laying track on the foam base or will I still use cork road bed on foam?

Can I use any of my old DC Atlas & Peco turnouts for DCC, if so what is needed to convert?

What is the ideal curve for my longer cars?

What is a good source for track design? or (custom design company)

Any ideas would help.

Thanks Homer