Yes, mountain.  We do a LOT of selective compression in model railroading.

Yes, the B&O was the first American railroad and it was a major player in its region for many years, but it had some big competitors nearby - NYC, Pennsy, N&W to name but a few - glamorous railroads in the wide open spaces (AT&SF, UP, SP, GN, DRGW, NP, Burlington, and many colorful local or regional pikes which all offered competition for the railhound's interest.  Hence, the B&O today only has followers in proportion to its size in the grander scheme of things, not a whole lot.  However, you will find big B&O equipment with some regularity on ebay.  Check especially for brass models.

I note sadly that only one of the railroads I mentioned is still in service, the UP.  The N&W, now NS, almost counts as a survivor.  I never thought I'd be saying it, but than God for the UP.

Welcome back!

You can get a pretty broad range of track and swittches for your Bachmann black roadbed EZTrack but you might want to shift to the grey roadbed with nickel-silver rail.  The steel track may rust, plus, there's an even larger array of pieces available with the grey roadbed.  If you plan to return to the hobby in a big way you might want to go to separate track nd roadbed.  It will be much cheaper and look better. 

Once again, welcome back!

Dear Bach-mann-

Do you recommend putting this in with the stemware on the gentle cycle or with the really dirty stuff on put-scrubber?

Okay.  Then try this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/GN-Live-Steam-2-10-2-By-Sunset-BRASS-HO-UP_W0QQitemZ200458967367QQcmdZViewItemQQptZModel_RR_Trains?hash=item2eac491947

Jhanecker2-  No offense but I don't like the Atlas wired rail joiners because the feeder wires are so very tiny.  Also, taking the existing rail joiners off of Bachmann track (at least EZ Track) is the devil's own work.  One can tear up a piece of track very easily pulling one of the stock joiners off.  Plus, it takes more timethan it's worth.

Wounded-  I don't know if this toothpaste story is better or worse than yours.  A couple of years ago my wife and I were to fly away on a vacation.  She had a large (7 oz or so) toothpast tube but it was mostly gone so she figured she was well within the 3.5 oz limit, or whatever it is.  Wrongo.  Despite the well documented difficulties of putting something back into a toothpaste tube, the security people confiscated hers because the nearly-empty tube was too large.  Go figure.

As for the filming of trains regulations, I think they are good ones, and not so new.  Train crews and maintenance people have been tasked with keeping their eyes out for suspiscious things for many decades.  And it's not necessarily about passenger trains which rarely crash and don't generally have many casualties when they do.  How would you like to be living in some small town somewhere when a train full of chlorine or such like passes through in the middle of the night and some terrorists who have been surveiling the rails blows it up?  The human costs could very quickly surpass even those from 9/11.  Think of the dead (by hideous means to boot) and the injured who would suffer and need care for the rest of their lives.  So, like it or not, we'll have to live with some restrictions.  That's not new; there have always been rules.

Janie-  As long as you're going to replace your couplers, I suggest going all the way to the established best from Kadee.  Yes, they are a little more expensive but you will enjoy their quality long after you've forgotten the price difference.

I think they are both transitive.  Think of their sybnonyms: I separated, I stared.

You don't need to replace track with terminal rerailers.  Just solder your feeders to the outsides of existing tracks.  This will be a lot easier than pulling everything apart.

This material is very much like Homasote.  I wouldn't use it as sheet material over my whole layout for two reasons: First, it's just too expensive and too much work since it is only a half inch thick.  Second, as a Homasote-like material it will move quite a bit with changes in humidity.  (Temperature won't make much difference directly, but relative humidity changes due to temperature changes will play havoc with changing dimensions.)  It would probably work very well as a subroadbed as long as it is painted/sealed on all sides to block as much moisture penetration as possible.  If you use it for your subroadbed, do the cutting outside and try to find a saw blade that looks like a scalloped-edge knife rather than a toothed blade.  This stuff makes an incredible mess when it's cut with conventional saws.

An easy workaround might be to put a capacitor in the system so the loco can cheat its way across the troublesome frogs.

Adding flywheels won't be a problem if you have a 3+" space for your motor.  Go for the largest diameter flywheel which will fit.  These motors, at under four bucks, won't have anything fancy like rare earth magnets.  I'm pretty sure, however, that they will work.  You will have a tremendous mechanical advantage when you reduce that 1250 RPM to what you'll have going onto your drive axle gear.

The Geep and 40 footers will probably handle the radius but just barely.  I'm concerned that you may be adding to your operational woes by including a grade with the very tight curves, especially if the grade and curves start at the same point.  At least start one before the other.  Moreover, I strongliy urge you to reconsider this plan.  In fact, I urge you to everything you can to get away from the 15" curves altogether unless you are modeling an early mining or timber road.

Yes, there is a correlation between price and quality but it isn't a linear correlation, that is, it isn't perfect.  Some moderately-priced cars will run better than pricey ones and some cheepos turn out to run surprisingly well.  You have to know the merchandise.

Look for quality trucks and couplers.  The amount of detail and paint quality are secondary indicators of how well a model is made.  In any case, recognize that you can improve any model by making sure you have good running gear (trucks and coupers), in guage and properly tuned.  Couplers should be firmly attached, at the right height and center reliably.  Trucks should be loosely enough attached that they swivel easily and allow the car to rock a little.  One can be a little tighter but you want at least one to rock.

Look to ebay, train shows and even your LHS for used equipment in great condition or for solid cars which will run great after a little updating or servicing.  These may seem to be priced a little high but you can almost always haggle about the prices on used merchandise.  Plus, it's a real accomplishment to take some sorry derelict from a train show and turn it into a good runner and a good looker.