Recent content by Agamemnon

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    Help me fill a room (I've the space, but I can't decide on the layout)

    Turns out I don't have the space. I figured on the shelf being 3 feet wide (slightly broader for any loops required), and I just can't fit anything worth the effort into that space. For point-to-point, I'd need another 10 feet of mainline. For continuous running, another 3 feet of width. And I'd...
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    Help me fill a room (I've the space, but I can't decide on the layout)

    It's HO, yes, although a poster at another board noted that the space I have would fit the world's most awesome Z-scale layout... I think I can get away with 22-24" for European 4-6-2s such as the BR52.
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    Ghost Train

    EVPs? Extraterrestrial Visiting Partygoers?
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    Help me fill a room (I've the space, but I can't decide on the layout)

    I recently ran by the idea of a railroad past my folks and to my surprise, they did not veto the idea of getting rid of an ancient sofa in the corner of our lower living room. If done, this would liberate an L-space along two walls approximately 230 cm on one side and 350 cm on the other. (7' 6"...
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    Ghost Train

    I do find it interesting as a social phenomenon that it has attracted this much interest, certainly. At the very least, it's an interesting sidenote in terms of folkloristics.
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    Switch question + wire solder question

    There's nothing stopping you from using old DC point motors with a DCC system, if you have a separate power system for them. If I ever wire a DCC layout, that's what I'll do (Since I have a perfectly fine set of Fleischmann switches).
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    Ghost Train

    I am curious, am I the only person on this forum who does not believe in ghosts, spirits, poltergeists, deities and/or the afterlife?
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    Locomotive Length and Curve Radii

    Have you considered European prototypes? Average car length is noticeably shorter and manufacturers routinely employ design compromises to make their stock roll through short curves. I suspect expense over on your side of the water would be prohibitive, though.
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    Quick Big Boy question

    I actually have an old Rivarossi catalogue on my shelf, which cites something like a 420mm minimum radius for the Big Boy. I can't imagine it looking very good going through that, or being all that stable. They needed to build it like that for the Euro market, because many of even the largest...
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    Quick Big Boy question

    Well, that's Europeans for you... Pretty much everything we make tends to be workable on 18" curve (mostly because the grand majority of Euro layouts use curves in the 15-18-22) range.
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    An Apology.

    The measure of a man is not how he deals with his successes, but how he deals with his failures. Yours wasn't much of a failure by any stretch of imagination, but you handled it well.
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    Operational switching layouts

    I've actually been meaning to start a thread about the cultural differences among model railroaders, it's an interesting topic.
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    Operational switching layouts

    To be honest, my contribution to the thread got off in a very wrong direction mostly because I digressed when writing my first message a bit and then completely forgot to get back into the topic at hand. In my defence, I'm not an an American so any and all errors I make can be chalked off to...
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    Operational switching layouts

    No, I've been without one for the better part of five years now. And until I can get a lot more free space, I'll be stuck without one, I think. Our old one was about 5.5 feet by 10 feet, a zig-zag-zug trackplan that meandered over and under like a straight line in an Escher painting. The best...
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    Operational switching layouts

    Well, I suppose a part of it is just for show. I can't have a station in a layout without there being at least some semblance of sidings, industry spurs, etc. I might not need to use it, but I need it to be there, because if they're not, what I have is nothing more than a glorified oval, which...
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