Yesterday I asked students to first estimate, then calculate, the speed in miles per hour that this train was traveling with respect to the HO scale figure walking along the tracks (this "scene" runs along the whiteboard on the north wall of the classroom):

Jeff Allen

I have recently completed track work on my small (2'× 9') switching layout. All track is hand laid and I used fast tracks jigs for the turnouts. My question is this, do I really need to gap both sides of the frog? On of the things that always drew me in with hand laid turnouts was the point rails flowing all the way to the frogs. I just think it looks better that way. Is there a real world practical reason to gap the point rails before the frog?

Things have been moving along smartly and we’ve got enough sections up and operational to run a switch job in the town of Park.

I appreciated the recent article on super detailing a freight car.

But why has Proto:48 been associated with the super detailing of equipment? 

Was it not meant to focus on accurate prototypical trackwork and wheel appearance?

Was the association of Proto:48 to super detailed equipment the original intention?

Does Proto:87 have the same association?

The freight car could have easily had standard wheels and still would have been a great looking model.

Eugene