There is no reason why you can't move the Mayfield station to the NYC, NKP or PRR mainlines. It could stand in for a suburban station where LD trains would stop in stead of making the long trip downtown. You could decide if another town (Aurora) was at the start of the commuter district or if Mayfield (Naperville, La Grange) has an old station to sell tickets.

Commuter trains use F's or GP's with 2-3 heavyweight coaches & 1 combine for the mail & newspaper baggage. (The first train outbound delivers the AM paper. It needs to be OT for commuters to buy it at the station).
Some LD trains stop so that passengers don't have to make the long trek downtown. LD trains stop only to pickup/drop passengers for far away cities. The 20century Limited stops at the wrong time of day. Something called the Pacemaker stops during daylight hours. The train can be heavy with baggage, express & mail with a few coaches. You can have a mix of heavyweight & lightweight coaches, lounge cars, tavern cars, etc.

Since diesels are replacing the old steamers, it would be smart to get tickets in advance. I don't know if Mt Washington offers "reservations" but having tickets should put you closer to the front of the line. I forget how large the coaches are. With a big crowd, you may have to wait for the next train. Enjoy your trip! Mt Washington does a good job providing service.  Bring a camera! We want to see pictures.

Not sure if you need a Atlas Connector box in between your turnouts & your power supply. Most of the time you will switch 1 at a time. A LHS should be able to help you.

Something to consider is having some extra power drops from your power supply to the rails. You may not rely on just the rail joiners to carry power throughout the layout. Having a drop for every 3ft of track is a good ratio. Atlas sells rail joiners with soldered wires you can use.

At $500 MSRP, the Grand Valley layout is too expensive. It does cover a 4x8ft area with generous 18" curves.
The problem comes in cutting the HO material down to N scale geometry. For example, you don't need 4" clearance for trains, 2" in Nscale is fine. The 18" curves would allow you to run most N scale equipment. This is before getting any track.

WS does make a Nscale layout that fits a smaller area, but as published includes too many sharp curves unless you want to run 4axle diesels & short 40ft freight cars.

Compare WS prices with a 4x8 sheet of plywood & some blue or pink insulation foam board. Prices should be better.

Quote from: BestSnowman on October 31, 2009, 10:50:55 AM
I'm actually going with a small Inglenook switching layout (http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/Inglenook/inglenook-trackplan.html). I've designed it to support a maximum length stock length of 56' foot with most of it being 40' or 50' stock.

I also won't have much for curves so I don't think I'll have too much trouble (at least until I get hooked and convince my wife to let me build another layout in N-scale).

If you use Snap Sectional track, you can figure 1 straight piece to be about 5". You have a choice of Atlas #4 or #6 turnouts. Both will work fine in a slow switching layout. I'd get the manual kind. No need for a powered unit! Taking the time throw the switch for each move will make it seem more realistic. (Dimensions are easy to find in the mfr product catalogs). Atlas may have a free published plan for your Inglenook or TimeSaver switching pike.

It appears your layout would fit on a 1ft x 3ft board. You may want another 3ft for the yard lead. A TimeSaver puzzle may require a 1ft x 4 ft board. The modules could be connected with a 1x1ft corner using 9-11" radius curves.

The December MRC has a great article on using paint pens & markers to color the track. At Hobby Lobby they sell a floquil set of weathering colors for rail that is neat. Don't forget the 40% off coupon!

Now here finally comes the question. Well  being in the evening hours the Hobbies shops are closed.  I looked at my paints, these are the sample paints that can be bought at Lowes or Home Depot and thought why not try them out. I have all of the colors I need here. The paints are latex eggshell interior. I looked everywhere and cannot find if the paints can or cannot be used on plastic. 

Well I tried an exterior wall and a window. Well two coats later they look great. I do see a few imperfections but they look like they belong there. I do not think I will do this with all of the models but this model was only $4.99 and said what they hey, lets give it a try.

I would love some feedback.  Thank you in advance.

Robert

You may have been lucky with the house paint. Very quickly you would know if the paint would attack the plastic.

Model paints are made a little different to fit our models. You don't want the fine details to hide under a coat of paint.  Some posters may be confuses with the type of paint you used. It would be funny to go to HD, Sears, etc & use their sample paint. Hope the price compares to $1.50-$3.50 Testors paint.

A few guys use housepaint to cover bare plaster & plywood . Lucky to find some CHEAP paint to use. Unless you are into custom painting to use a quart to cover a bunch of buildings & sell them on feebay.



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You may get a track set & a decent power supply at your LHS. You could go with a set of Unitrak.

Perhaps Bachmann could offer a "cash for clunkers" program? I can understand not selling new units for $15-$20 when they cost more than that. We do want Bachmann to make a profit. (Don't want to undercut the good dealers, either).

Most likely a late GP9 or 18. Having 2 large fans in place of smaller ones makes a difference. Having 2 exhaust stacks makes it non-turbo.

Lifelike has been a maker of GP18-GP20's.

Having a pal go with you cuts down the shoplifting opportunity.

If you have locos, have a test track so you can show everything runs. some shoes provide a track in the corner that becomes out of sight.

Check with the authorities to see how they handle sales tax.

for your first time, you may not want to handle credit cards. There may be equipment that would have connections with a laptop or cell phone.

The NMRA convention begins July 5 with the NTS July 11-12 Hope to hear some good news then.

Bachmann may have some other good news for 2009-2010 delivery?

Depends where you buy your cars. Hobby Lobby can have a mix of both types. A good Etailer may say in the product description.
Newer product will have knuckle couplers.  At HL you can look on the pricetag to see how long the cars have sat on the shelf.

Are you still running DC?
This is one time to switch to DCC.

Try the "faster" or "slower" loco in both directions, to see what makes a difference. The headlight may be making one unit "slower"?

In a DC world, you want to buy your locos in pairs. That way the motors turn with the same RPM for a given voltage setting. The only way to fix dissimilar locos is with DCC. You may also need to check for any burrs in the drivetrain.

With locos of different speeds, take care for all the couplers to be square. One bump and the speedster will be at the other end pushing the train while the other one struggles to move at all.

I doubt if the houses were "white white" but some shade of grey.  I suspect the color had a lot to do with the ability to "hide the dirt".  an older house needing some attention could have peeling paint, especially on the sunny side of the house.

I'm not sure when the water based acrylics became popular. Most likely the paint came in a basic near white color to which you could add a tint of another color.

In a block of houses, you can be sure that the trim would be different from green to brown, black, blue, etc.

Quote from: derricknscaler on March 13, 2009, 08:23:43 PM
i just read a old railroad book over that todayi tought it would be cool to have an n scale model of if bachmenn comes out with one i will deffently get one i like old 4-4-0s

I'd like to see Bachmann upgrade & update the Old Timer lines. New cars, new Americans, etc.