Mr. B,
Please ask Mr. Riley to sell separate sound decoders for Bachmann locomotives.  I'm sure I can live with the simplified Tsumami, as I really don't need Fireman Fred and it would be nice to have an actual plug and play sound decoder. 
Gene

What do I need to create a passing siding with EZ-Track with #6 turnouts? 
Gene

Bridget is the service manager at Bachmann, right?  I need to call back and talk to her.  I called today about a 2-10-2 that isn't performing correctly under DCC.  I opened up the tender and discovered why - no decoder.  So the guy on the phone wants me to send the locomotive back!  Why not send me a decoder?  This would be cheaper for everybody. 
Gene

Since Bachmann now sells regular decoders, will it soon start to sell sound decoders as well?  If so will they be a drop in fit for a regular Bachmann decoder?  That is, if I have a Bachmann DCC ready or DCC installed loco can I merely fit the speaker and plug in the decoder, or do I have to go through the snipping capacitor drill as well? 
Gene

I'm about to start on the old Bachmann Plus coaling tower and sand storage unit,  There will also be a water tank and maybe a whistle stop station with a small mountain village behind it all.  This is Sarah's Mountain where a train can take on fuel, sand, and water after climbing up from Bradyton to the east.   The coaling tower models a wooden coaling tower and is cast in a dark brown plastic that is not really a creosote color.
Here's the question.
Should I paint it a oily black to come close to creosote, or the corporate Confederate gray?  I've looked at plenty of black and white pictures of wooden coaling towers and I really can't tell if they are painted or not.  Quite frankly, I don't remember from when I was a kid. 
Sarah's Mountain came as a result of my kids objecting to the fact that nothing on the VT&P so far was named for them.   
Gene

Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation

Hmm the hot link didn't work, but they are hosting a fantastic train show.  It's a bit far for me to go.   A miliary brat friend of mine living in California sent this to me. 
Gene

Where can I find Pliobond Cement?
Gene

I just had to throw away several unopened containers of CA because they had become hard.  While I'm aware that CA has a limited life once its been opened,  I didn't realize it could dry up in an unopened tube or bottle.  Has anybody else had this problem and is there a solution?
Gene

Has anybody put DCC in an IHC steamer?  I want to upgrade my IHC Consolidation and 0-8-0.  Does the motor need to be isolated?  Insulated from the frame?  I assume the bulb needs replacing.
Gene

Just to reactivate an old topic:
A caboose was fitted with red lights called markers to enable the rear of the train to be seen at night. This has led to the phrase bringing up the markers to describe the last car on a train (these lights were officially what made a train a "train"[1])

This comes from the Wikipedia article on the caboose, but note it has a footnote.  The footnote is a reference to ATSF operating rules. 
Gene

I have a model of a Fairbanks-Morse sanding tower made by Winchester Station.  (Anybody know what happened to that company?)  The kit has, and the plan mentions, saftety cages or hoops for the ladders.  Somehow I wonder about those on a railroad structure in 1957. 
Thoughts?
BTW, the kit comes without the standpipe to fill the sanddome of the locomotive, but I will use the "modern" standpipes from the new Walthers kit and the old standpipe with the Walthers sand storage building in one of the towns.  Climbing that 2% grade those 2-6-6-6s and 2-10-2s and 2-10-4s use a lot of sand!
Gene

I'm building the Walther's 150 ton concrete coaling tower for South River Yard's engine facility.  The kit comes with the bunker roof and the parts for the dump house molded in a dark gray color.  I'm thinking that  painting them alumninum or silver and then dullcoting afterwards would look more prototypical.  Thought?  The dump house looks like it's made of corragated siding and roofing.  

When did the heavy wooden grade crossings begin to be phased out?  My memory is the wood was replaced by metal sheets with a waffle iron pattern and the current standard is a thick rubberized pad with a similar pattern.  When did they start?
Gene

Micro-Mark is having a sale on "fleet cars" - 50, 70, 100 T hoppers, 2 bay covered hoppers, 40' gons, and 50' flats, painted with dimension data.  You letter for your road. 
Only problem I see is that some are in black and some boxcar red, but all cars of one type are the same color. 
I have more than enough C&O hoppers, but VT&P uses red hoppers - except for their special "War Between the States" centenial, which they began early.
Gene

In various ways,I've managed to acquire several of the Atlas under table switch machines.   The instructions all for the machine activating rod to be attached to the throw rod between the rails.  Is it possible to attach the machine with the hole where a Caboose ground throw is attached?
Gene

I'm in a motel tonight in Ashland, Kentucky, right across the street from the old C&O main line, which appears to still have three tracks and a spur with a grade crossing at the motel entrance.   I had to sign a card saying that I've been informed that the engineer "blows a whistle."  I've got my cameras set up to catch that T1, K4, H6 or 8, F19, J2, etc crossing that little street. 
Better not hear a horn.
Gene

I assume that to build under layout piano wire throw rods for turnouts, the hole in the layout surface has to be big enough for the wire to move the entire distance to throw the points.  What is a recommended switch to attach to the other end of the rod?
Gene

Is there a special Caboose ground throw for the Atlas code 83 turnouts?  I've just installed two and each required me to drill out theturnout throw and shave the ground throw pin in order to fit.
Gene

There is some DCC programing shareware available on the net.  Anybdy have a clue as to where to find it?  BTW, the B&O Railroad museum seems to be doing fairly well at Good Search now.  
Gene

The C&O Historical Society has the anticipated 2-8-4 for sale for less than $150, with even less for members.  The predict an arrival date of November and apparently offer only one number - but that might be because I only ordered one locomotive.
Gene