I've had good results by using blue foam insulation board over 1/2" plywood framed with 1x2's.  EZ track is glued directly to the foam using white glue.

Using two layers of foam insulation allows one or both layers to be cut away for scenery relief.  Be sure to use the dense foam (the pink stuff may work, too) but avoid the white beaded stuff.  That crumbles apart.

Les

hurricane:

It sounds like you are looking to wire a DC railroad.  This is a good choice, especially for a beginner.  The circuit you need to make is basic and simple, only slightly more complex than wiring a doorbell.  If you want to expand on it, that can be done in stages, by replicating the circuit you have started with.

Bachmann products are designed so that one can get started by simply plugging in wires with pre-made terminals.  MRC is a great high-quality line of powerpacks that can be easily substituted for Bachmann.  The only difference in hooking them up is having to make your own connections.

DC wiring is both simple and elegant.  You have a train resting on two rails. The rails are bridged by the permanent magnet motor in the locomotive.  One rail is charged positively, the other negatively. All the control system has to do is control the voltage going to the track (for speed control), and the polarity of the rails (for direction).  Both functions are built into your power pack.

Your powerpack will have two terminals (screw terminals on MRC, plug receptacle on Bachmann) that provide variable DC.  You will need to run one wire from each of these terminals to the track, one wire to each rail.  Bachmann powerpacks use a special plug for this, the MRC will need to have the wire ends stripped and wrapped around each terminal screw.  If you want to get fancy, buy some forked spade terminals at Radio Shack for a neater job.  At the track end, you can use a Bachmann terminal track, or simply solder one wire to the side or bottom of each rail.

That is all you need to get your train running.  If you do not like the direction it runs, reverse the terminal connections at the power pack or simply throw the direction switch.

If you want to have more than one train on your railroad at a time, there are books available by Bachmann and Atlas that explain how to do this.  You basically divide the track into isolated sections that are attached to the power supply individually using DPDT switches.  In doing this, you are simply replicating what you have already done.

Track switches are operated by AC current.  Powerpacks will have AC terminals for this.  Each track switch is sold with an electric controller.  The AC feeds run directly to the control switch.  From the controler to the track switch will be three wires: one for each path through the switch and a third for the return current.  Both Bachmann and Atlas (and many other brands) sell these.  The controllers can be ganged to control a group of track switches with only one connection to the powerpack.  There will be instructions with the switch on how to wire it.  Anyone's track switch should work with anyone's powerpack (except for those designed for DCC control systems).

That is pretty much it.  Welcome back!

Les

jbrock,

If the product performs up to expectations, it is not a waste of money.  Tyco was a continuation of the Mantua line of HO trains, a well-established brand. Their locomotives were smooth running and quiet with an acceptable speed range.

The major problem I had with Tyco was that their couplers were truck-mounted.  While they would operate well with each other, they had problems operating with Athearn stock, which used body-mounted couplers.
It took me quite a while to understand why.

The Tyco Diesels back then used a self-contained power truck.  They didn't have the pulling power of the Athearns, but they were plenty sufficient for short trains on a small layout.

My model trains back then were mostly a mix of Tyco and Athearn.  I had some AHM-branded Rivarossi models, and two sets of Con-Cor streamlined passenger cars.  I remember riding the Milwaukee Road Hiawatha to get to my nearest hobby shop to buy an Athearn SW switcher.  Those were exciting days.

Les

Those 45 year old HO items may be crude by today's standards (horn-hook couplers, passenger cars without interiors, etc.).  But they were affordable, and worked well enough for me.

More importantly, they made the difference for a broke college student like I was between having an HO railroad that provided many hours of creativity and enjoyable operation, and no model railroad at all.

There seemed to be a bigger price difference back then between trainset quality items and high quality brass imports.  Nothing to fill in the gap between them.

Back then, my 4x6 ft. HO railroad had about $150 1970 dollars tied up in it.  About the price of a single top-shelf non-DCC locomotive today.  A nickel-plated brass HO E5 back then (Hallmark) sold for about the same price as an N-scale plastic E5 today (Kato).  I'll never know how well the Hallmark model performed, but I do know the Kato version performs very well.  If I had the attitude that "only the finest is good enough", I maybe could have bought one state-of-the art loco, but would have had no train for it to pull, nor anything to run it on.  So why bother?

Les

Wiley,

I just want to tell you how much I enjoy looking at your railroad.  It reminds me of the HO railroad I had in the late 60's-early 70's.  Yours is much more developed.

This was a sort of "golden era" of HO railroading.  Good variety of products at a low cost, even for those days.

Les

Probably the most practical solution to your problem would be to find a DC locomotive of the same wheel arrangement and wheelbase, and substitute the entire chassis, wheels, and motor into your AC locomotive.

A lot of the more common German steam locomotives are available in two-rail DC.  Not a very cost-effective solution, and what you are apt to get for a donor locomotive may be the same prototype as your AC locomotive.

Les

White River Publications produces some excellent hard-cover, glossy paper railroad books.  If they keep their quality standards with RMC, it will be a well-produced product.

I prefer RMC over MR, primarily because of their editorial policy of favoring creativity and not constantly pushing the products of the advertisers.  The emphasis needs to be on modeling and operating, not gadgetry.

I gave up on MR because of a lack of articles on N-scale model railroads, and emphasis on electronics.

Les

Most tank cars used by the oil industry are leased cars, like UTLX, or ACDX.  These cars are black or (less often) white with plain lettering.  They do not carry company logos, but sometimes carry descriptions of materials carried (chemical names).

This way, many oil companies can ship their products in cars owned by lessors.

While the main products shipped are fuel oils or gasoline, there are many by-products produced by refineries that are shipped, too.  And major oil companies sell these by-products to each other, so one brand's refinery may ship by-products to a competitor's refinery.

If you research this, you will find many of these products are hazardous materials requiring spacer cars between the hazmat loads and locomotives and occupied cabooses.

Les

I think it all comes down to simply demand and supply.  There just isn't a lot of demand for used low-end stuff, or even low-end new old stock.  At a train show last weekend, I passed up an N-scale Rivarossi new-old-stock 5-axle Fairbanks-Morse C-liner in Santa Fe paint in original box for $20.

This is a prototype that was used by only a handful of northeastern railroads, painted for a road that never used them.  It would not have fit in to my Denver-centered model railroad.  Making it worse, this 1960's-era model drove through the rear truck only, with a weak plastic-framed can motor.  I had experience with one of these before, and it didn't last long.  It was not a state of the art loco even for its era.

$20 is not much to ask for anything that runs, especially for something new in box.  That price was probably pretty close for what it sold for in its day retail.  I was a little tempted to buy it as a curiosity, but really had no use for it.

1958 Chevys:  I remember very well when one could by a driveable example for $200-$500.  There again, it was a situation of supply and demand.  I bought a 1957 Chevy 2-door for that kind of money.  Back then, it was just another old car, although a rather flashy one.

Les

There are too many variables, even between two supposedly identical pieces of machinery, to expect them to perform identically.  Generally, if the units are the same, they will run close enough to the same speed to allow them to run coupled together.

If identical speeds are important to you, you would be better off using DCC and tuning the receivers to get the locos to run at exactly the same speed.

What are the variables?  Friction in the bearings, smoothness of the matching surfaces of the gears, play in the gear mesh, end play in the drive shafts.  And so forth.

Les

I wish these things had caught on in the US.

Can you imagine a UP or N&W version?

Les

You can convert your railroad to DCC as it is.  Feed your DCC connections through your present block selectors.

This will give you an advantage over a one-block DCC layout, as individual blocks can be depowered if you have locos stored in them.  If you solder all the track gaps together, you will deprive yourself of this capability.

I think the Arnold B units were all non-powered.

Those old metal-geared Bachmanns sometimes did have a smoking problem.  I think lube oil worked its way onto the motor brushes.  I once had a pair of those A units that smoked so much I named them "Cheech and Chong".  One day, on my old layout, they went "UP in Smoke" in front of the depot.

I have a couple of the Arnold FA's with the metal bodies.  They are noisy, but good pullers.  I think the use of the metal body was a good idea because it allowed the use of a bigger motor, since no separate weight was needed.

Since the F unit bodies shared the same dimensions (except for the FPs and FTs), there seems to be an opportunity for Bachmann to offer a variety of models based on minor variations on the same shell and chassis.  F2's to F9's could be produced with minor changes in die work.

Les

Gee, Brokemoto, That's a pretty fine treatise on F-units.

One of my older locos is an Arnold FP9 set (A+B).  It is a nice runner, but a little noisy.  The A and B units were drawbar connected.  I replaced it with couplers.  The B unit is unusual in that it has steam generator detail on both ends.  I don't know of any actual F units to have that.  Some E units did come with dual steam generators at the rear end of the A unit.

Bachmann F units have shown tremendous improvement in quality.  The original N gauge units weren't even N scale, they were OOO and were about the size of a UP turbine cab unit. The next version was true N scale, and had all-metal gearing that was even noisier than the Arnold units.  Us N-scalers liked them for their sturdiness, although we called them "coffee grinders".

The next version had white nylon axle gears.  These were quiet, but the gears were prone to splitting.

The current version has a black plastic axle gear (Delrin?) and dual flywheels.  These are their best so far.

If you want to add steam generator detail to your F units, just look in your junk box.  There are lots of possible things to use to make a stack and steam vent.  Try cutting off the top of a truck pivot pin to use the shoulder and head for a steam vent.  The exhaust stack can be a short piece of tubing, a small bushing, etc.

I usually weather the area around the steam generator detail with a little black paint around the exhaust stack, and a little white paint below the steam vent to be "hard water deposits".

Les

I remember those things from when I was a kid.  They burned with a yellow flame and were very smokey.

In those days, the county shop saved drain oil and spread it on the gravel streets in town to keep the dust down.  My mother hated it because it would get tracked into the house.  I suspect that was what fueled the pots, too.

I thought they looked like the bomb in old pictures of the Haymarket Riot.

Nobody seemed to be concerned with pollution back then, least of all the Government.

Les