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Has anyone had experience with the Hot Wire Foam Factory AC powered hot knife starter kit? This is the basic hot knife with the AC wall transformer (the wall wart)? I'm assuming that the full blown product with their $75 power supply would cut faster, but is the basic hot knife kit OK for use on...

I probably just reinvented the wheel, but here goes. I'm just beginning the scratchbuilding business. I built this structure from balsa wood, but wanted it to be brick. Adobe Illustrator has a brick texture as a standard feature. I filled a rectangle with the texture, imported it to...

Here's a view of my layout as seen from the space shuttle. It's easy to see several things: 1. I'm very slow. Been working on it for nearly a year, but I'm having fun. 2. Did I mention that I'm slow? I've been having something of a crisis of design. There's a coal mine at position...

A Western Maryland coal drag coasts past the old depot on the outskirts of Westminster in May of 1968.

My older son graduated yesterday from the only college in the USA that's named after a railroad. I got to be on stage to hand him his diploma! :)

Hi, I have a yard with the configuration that sidings leading from the yard throat each come to a dead end. My questions have to do with parking freight cars on the sidings. 1970's era, if that makes a difference. Would a prototype road have all the parked cars coupled together, at the...

WM-N-Fan, Some time ago you requested that I post photos of my WM/B&O layout. I finally figured out how to do it. The first one here is the roundhouse and yard at Hagerstown/Baltimore -- whichever you want to be in at the time. The B&O handles freight between the two cities, and all...

I recentlly purchased a couple of PECO PL-10 switch machines, and mounted one of them several days ago. I'm working in N-scale, using PECO turnouts. I mounted the PL-10 directly to the turnout as in the instructions. Power for the machine is 16V AC, as the instructions specify. I'm using...

OK sports fans, here's my problem (or at least the top one of many). I work in N-scale, but am posting here because it's a technical question (I think). I built my layout using PECO turnouts (their MEDIUM #6, code 80), about half insulfrog and half electrofrog. Things went swell until...

I bought an MRC Tech-4-220 power pack for my N-scale layout. It's cool, allowing me for the first time to operate my locomotive at less than 100 mph. Now, the 220 has a "momentum" control and a "brake" control, which supposedly allow more realistic train control. The brake is a...

I just received a Lifelike EMD-BL-2 in Western Maryland livery. It's one of Lifelike's October releases. I love the locomotive, but it arrived equipped with Rapido couplers. I want to convert these to Microtrains couplers. Unfortunately, Microtrains offers a bewildering variety of couplers...

Hello, I bought several Micro-Trains magnets, the type one installs between the rails. I'm using Atlas code 80 flex track, for reasons of price and local availability. l My idea was to: 1. glue the ties to the cork roadbed, gluing only the part of the ties that lies outside the rails...

Hi. I know that opinions are as personal as a toothbrush, but I'll ask for one anyway. For n-scale, Centerline products makes two versions of its track-cleaning car. One is brass for about $70, one is diecast for about $45. My question: What's the advantage of the brass over the...

Hi. I'm new to the hobby. Beginning an n-scale layout based on the WM/B&O combination. I teach at Western Maryland College, the only college in the country named after a railroad. (Guess which one!) We have a WM caboose on our campus. I also had family associated with the B&O, and as a...

Hello. I'm constructing my first layout, N-scale, modeled after the Western Maryland/B&O combination. Part of this will be a loads in/empties out scenario (coal mine/power plant). I'll require some hopper cars with coal loads and some without. I recently bought several of the new Atlas...

I'm new to model railroading, so questions abound. Here's the first one of what's likely to be many. I just built the Walther's N-scale diesel service facility -- with 5 diesel fuel tanks and a "sand house." What's the sand for? Cheers! Bill