As a general proposition, I agree with those who say to use model paints.  However, I have used interior latex paint on plastic buildings and models with an airbrush and achieved very good results.  If you are using an airbrush, all you have to do is to thin the paint.  You can use the thinning fluid for acrylic paint offered by anyone who sells acrylic model paints.  You can even use water.  I have done both.  You just have to thin the paint a little more than you ordinarily would if you were using model paints that are specifically designed to be used on plastics and wood models.

I had no problem at all.  Just don't thin the paint too much.  It works very well with flat colors.  I don't know how well it would work with glossy colors, but you would probably be using flat colors on buildings anyway.  The advantage, of course, is that you would have a much wider variety of choices of colors that you could use.

Thanks.  Using just a truck sounds so simple...

...now why didn't I think of that?

I guess that it was too much like right...

...good answer!  That will tell me exactly where the problem is with the frog.

Hello again everyone.  It's been a while and I hope that all is well with you. I have been working on my layout intermittently while I have had to deal with some other things, but now I am back on it now and hope to get the least few details completed over the next 2-3 months.

I am still somewhat dissatisfied with the fact that some of my Bachmann turnouts (1 #6 and 1# 5 in particular) are still having some derailment problems.  Aftaer I replaced those particular turnouts, the number of derailments dropped dramatically...but every so often, one happens.

I want to effectively deal with this once and for all if I can.

I use Bachmann nickel silver EZ track on my layout.  I am focusing more and more on that plastic frog.  I know that when the wheels of a car pass over that one plastic piece, they rise slightly and I am pretty sure that this is what is causing this.  I found an excellent article in Model Railroading article which has persuaded me that the inside face of the plastic frog probably needs to be slightly filed but before I do that, I should probably check everything with an HO scale track gauge.

Does anyone know where I can get a HO scale track measuring gauge?  Any other thoughts that you have on this subject would also be appreciated.

Thank you to all, as usual.  I hope that all of you enjoy a Happy Thanksgiving.

P.S. - For those who had been following my progress on my layout, I have finally completed the truck-rail terminal and am installing it today.  I have already installed three operating diesel horn modules...a different one for each of the 3 tracks that can be manually triggered.  I am also in the middle of installing operating RR crossing signals at the two crossings...Tomar signals with Circuitron circuit boards.

I still say that the most beautiful paint scheme on a loco was the famed Santa Fe red, silver and gold "warbonnet."  It was most famously on the EMD F7A and the Alco PA-1.  The blue and gold Santa Fe paint schemes for all of their locos was a thing of beauty, too...all of their paint schemes and not just the warbonnets.

I have considered what everyone has said and I decided to repair 2 of the 3 worst parts of the track and have done so.  I am going to check out the third spot as well.  The track was uneven where I had secured it to the layout with screws (I had only done it in these areas), so I just removed them.  It's more even now, the cars ride a lot more smoothly and I am probably just going to stay with the Kaydees for my freight cars and multi-engine consists.

I am going to watch this carefully and may make some minor track adjustments over the next few days before I do the minor trackbed scenery restoration (which can be done in 2 days).

By the way, I do NOT have any uncoupling magnets in the track layout.

Thank you for your advice everyone.  The one thing that I have come to realize is that on an HO scale layout, any even apparently minor track issues that you have must be fixed because the cars are very unforgiving...in terms of uncoupling and derailments...if you don't.  I am going to do whatever has to be done to get it right so I won't have to do it over at a later date.

The majority of the time, it actually happens on straight sections...not curves.  Most often it happens just as the cars approach one or two terminal re-railers.

Both.  Sometimes, they line up just right right when the cars or engines are on on level track and then as they go around the track, they can slide up or down...and then off and the cars or engines uncouple.

Hi everyone.  It's been a while.  I have been working on my layout and then I took a few weeks off and now I am back to it.

I know that what I am fixing to say is sacrilege to many, but I have had very mixed experiences with Kaydee couplers.  Yes, I have a Kaydee coupler gauge, but getting them aligned just right (not to mention the ones that you have to assemble) has become a major pain in the butt! I have had a number of cars that just won't stay coupled.

I think that part of it is due to the fact that on my layout, there may be a few uneven spots on the track (nothing major), but as far as I am concerned, couplers should be able to handle that.

Question:  I know that Kaydee is (for most model railroaders) the gold standard when it comes to couplers, but has the coupler technology of other manufacturers almost caught up with Kaydee?  For example, Athearn RTR freight and passenger cars come equipped with plastic knuckle couplers that seem to work very well once I switched back to them on my Athearn passenger cars (Santa, Southern Pacific, Denver and Rio Grande Western and Union Pacific).  I am very seriously considering switching back to non-Kaydee knuckle couplers on my engines and freight cars as well. 

Your thoughts would be appreciated.  I just want the engines and cars to stay coupled so I can enjoy my trains.  It's not like I am part of a model railroaders club and I have to use Kaydee couplers, but if I don't go with Kaydee couplers anymore, do you have any thoughts and/or recommendations?

Thank you everyone.  Now I have to get back to work on it.  I just added about 5 more billboards behind the middle track on the back of the layout and will add the work crew for the cement plant tomorrow...along with several nonoperational RR signals.

I am also in the process of looking for some drapes, which will help to muffle the noise.  When I have 3 trains running at the same time, those metal wheels on EZ track mounted on plywood can get kind of loud and the sound is just bouncing off the bare walls and wood floor right now.  As there are 5 windows in that room, drapes will help to muffle that a little.

Once I get the drapes, then I can do the background...and then the wall pics.  I have a number of 8 1/2" x 11" railroad pics in plastic box frames (plus the metal logo signs for each RR that I run...Santa Fe (and BNSF), Denver and Rio Grande Western, Southern Pacific and Union Pacific).  They are not all train pics...I found a great website that had the classic advertisements and marketing slogans for some of the great trains like the Southern Pacific Daylight, the D&RG California Zephyr, the Santa Fe Super Chief and El Capitan, the Union Pacific City of Los Angeles, etc.  They will make the room look great when they are up on the walls and will be concentrated into 4 groups (divided by the windows, with the logos in the middle of each group).  They will be located behind and on the sides of the layout above the top of the background.  A big Union Pacific clock will be in the middle.

Somewhere in all of this, I still have to wire the street lights and install the RR crossing signals.

The passenger station and the truck-rail facility will be saved for last as they are at the front of the layout and will be the easiest to do.

I posted 16 new pics today which are layout overview shots.  These pics show the entire layout, especially the track layout...as well as where everything is located.

I hope that this answers some more of the questions that some of you have had.

These pics were taken without using the camera flash.

All Scale Backgrounds specifically makes them for model railroad layouts...as well as for other hobbies. 

Although they also do custom work, they have stock scenes that can be combined for any length that I can think of (I believe that each panel is 8 feet long) and they are of various heights.  The feature that I like best about their site is that you can take the panel(s) that you select and actually impose them on the background of a model railroad layout scene so you can see exactly what it would look like.  You will be amazed at all of the possible backround variations...several scenes each of mountains, hills, deserts, forests (in various regions of the country), urban, rural...etc.   They have quite a library.

The switches are not DCC controlled. They are manually controlled.  The switch controls are Atlas and are powered by a separate Atlas DC transformer (I had a couple of Atlas transformers that I hadn't used, so I dedicated one of them to power the switches).  When I install the 2 Tomar RR crossing signals (2 crossings), I will probably power them with the same transformer.

The street lights will be a different matter.  I am going to have to talk to Jim Banner again about that one.  I was advised by the manufacturer that I need a 50 watt power source to power 50 of their street lights and am thinking of using a 50 watt Lionel transformer to do so.

I used Bachman EZ-track (nickel silver).  The roadbed is augmented with a little Woodland Scenics plaster cloth (cut into thin strips) and modeling plaster.  I used the Woodland Scenics earth colors to try to match the color of the EZ track roadbed.

I did not use any flex track...or Atlas track...nothing but Bachmann EZ track.

I live on the West Side of Los Angeles.  I don't know of any MRR clubs near me, but there probably are some.

I plan to take a few pics that show the entire overall layout tomorrow morning and will post them to you can see the whole layout.

Re: the lighting issue...I am still experimenting with that.  I have 3 100 watt ceiling lights in the room, plus a 3-light lamp (each bulb is 60 watts).  I did post several  pics that were taken without using the camera flash and it did make a difference when I shot the photos during the daytime or at night.

I know of a place where I am probably going to buy my background from.  They are called All Scale Backdrops.  I found them surfing the net one day.    You can create your own and see how it looks on the layout even before you buy it.  They have them for all scales and for different parts of the country.  They have urban and rural backgrounds.  It is an interesting site.  There is a difference between backdrops and backgrounds (backdrops are more expensive).  Read their introduction and instructions carefully.  I think that you might be intrigued by them.

Check them out at:

http://allscalebackdrops.com

This is the copy of an E:mail that I sent to Yampa Bob that details the story of the building of this layout:


"I started to assemble my railroad layout in January, 2008 after I had fixed up the interior of the back house during the Winter.  First, I got the Model Railroading book on benchwork,  Then I got a couple of 4' x 8' x 1/2" pieces of plywood and the wood for the benchwork from Home Depot (that's why the color of the outside of the benchwork is Home Depot orange) and put it all together...including the elevated part of the outer track in the back.  I have collected a lot of woodworking tools over the years and really got a good chance to finally put them to work.   I also had a great workbench that I hadn't assembled for years after I had bought it and put it up in the back house.

I had a working track setup by March, 2008 (which I made 4 minor realignments on earlier this year to eliminate derailments) and added the access hatch.  My threads on the Bachmann site began about then.  That's when we first became acquainted.  Ever since, whenever I encountered a problem, I started a thread on the Bachmann general discussion site.

All during this time, I was planning the scenery and settled on the idea of an industrial park in either the mid-eastern or southeastern part of California.  I found a number of the buildings on EBay (particularly the Atlas HO scale Union 76 North Island Refinery, which is out of production, the gas station and several of the detail items) and got the rest through either Hobbylinc or Blue Ridge Hobbies.  I was spending about 1-3 hours on this project 5-6 days per week.  It was a good way to keep my mind occupied.

Next, I measured the layout, planned and painted the streets and sidewalks and the foundation area for all of the buildings (using the model measurements), I got all of the switches working right (thanks to some advice you gave me in a discussion on the Bachmann thread).  Then I did the scenery and one of the sub-projects that I did was to search the internet for logos and ads and make my own decals.  That's how I turned the Union 76 North Island Refinery into a Conoco Oil Refinery...plus I had already had a bunch of Conoco tank cars.  That pretty much took me through the summer.

Between October and December, I assembled and painted buildings and put them on the layout.  This is when a lot of things that I learned during my model shipbuilding years came into play.  Next came the vehicles, street lights (I got them cheap on EBay from China) and figures (I painted most of them).  I made the street signs by using my computer and a scanner.  Most of the billboards were made the same way...I found ads for the early 1970s era and scaled them down to size, got some lighted Model Power billboards, printed my ads on photo paper (coated with clear acrylic paint) and put them on the billboards.

In January-February, I tackled putting the DCC decoders in my Athearn engines (remember those threads?).

Now, as I have previously told you, this project is still incomplete.  After I complete my re-wiring project to properly power the track  (another recent Bachmann thread), I am going to wire the street lights that have already been installed.  Then comes the truck rail terminal and passenger station, the crossing signals, the railroad and the background, which will run along the outer two sides of the "L".  I expect that part of the work to run though the summer."


The layout itself is an a "L" shape (9' x 5' on the left side and 14' x 6' on the other, with an access hatch).  There are 3 tracks.  The outer and middle tracks go around the shape of the "L" and in the rear of the layout the outer track is elevated.   The outer track curves are 28" and the middle track curves are 22."  The inner track is a large oval about 11 feet in length with 18" curves.  All three tracks are connected by switches (#6 turnouts), which allow trains to be switched back and forth between tracks (there are two turnouts at each location so the trains can be switched off of one track and onto the other...each set of two turnouts is wired into and controlled by a single Atlas switch).  All of the turnouts are powered by a separate DC transformer (also Atlas).    There is a siding and small rail yard in the middle rear of the inner oval track.  The 24" square access hatch is located inside of and on the left end of the inner oval track.  Two more lines come off the siding to the small rail yard and engine house (these are #5 turnouts).  At the front of the layout (where the controls are located), there is another siding coming off the outer track (#5 turnout), which is to allow cars to be placed on and taken off of the track.

I'm sorry that I don't have a diagram of the layout to put on the site, but I am going to take a couple of pics that will be aerial shots that will better illustrate the entire layout in a day or two.