Am I right in assuming, that on the videos of the old steam trains, that when the exhaust smoke changes from white to black, is when the fireman is stoking the firebox with fresh coal?

Well, model railroading has went up in cost along with everything else. My dad, who retired from Southern Railway, died in 1979 and was born in 1905. I have an $18,000 HO layout I have built over the past 7 years and it's kind of a memorial to him, as all of it is in a Southern Railway format. I've had to just stop spending on it because of the rising costs of the hobby. But anyway my dad had a phrase he used to state all the time about the cost of living. He said that there was only two things left that you could buy for a nickel and that was a pack of gum or bag of peanuts. He would say, " Mark my words boy, the day will come when a man will have to pay for a drink of water!" Do you reckon he would turn over in his grave if he could see those prices now? I'm 60 years old now and I gave $50 for my first automobile, a 52 Studebaker. When gas went over $4 per gallon last year, it took around $80 just to fill my old farm truck up! So life goes on an on, I guess.

Adari, Are you  saying that there is $300 more train in the higher dollar one? I don't mind paying the difference, if there is $300 difference in value. Thanks for your info!

I noticed there is $300 difference in the price of Broadway's Cab Forward if you get a DCC with sound, instead of the Blue Line, that you would have to put a decoder in, if you go DCC. A decoder is not that much! Are they the same train? If not, what is the difference?

Thanks guys for all the feedback on my question, but I am still kind of in the dark as I have been strictly HO for years. I do have a Hawthorne Collectble ON30 Civil War train, however, that I converted to DCC with sound and just have it in a display cabinet. But I am wondering about the HON3 scale. How is that scale compared to HO? Like I stated before, I already have all the HO Old Timey passenger cars I am going to use to build the Tweetsie and just need to locate a narrow gauge HO loco I can refabricate to be a protypical Tweetsie. Keep the info coming and thanks a lot!

Does anyone know if there is such a monster as a HO scale Narrow Gauge train on the market any where? I prefer the high end DCC model, but will do the conversion myself, if I can just locate one. I know there is a bunch of ON30s out there, but I have all the HO old timey passenger cars to build a custom Tweetsie train, so using an ON30 loco is out of the question. Thanks for any help anyone can give me, chuffnpuff.

Does anyone know a web site where I can see the complete prototypical Tweetsie train? I know it was a narrow gauge train, but I keep finding conflicting images of how many cars it has and their color scheme. Some show 1 car, some show 2, it seems they all vary. What seems to be the most complete was the loco, then red car, then yellow car, then green car, then yellow car, then finally a green car with yellow section above the windows. They all had black roofs with a black section above windows and gray section below the windows, with exception of the last car, which was green all the way down, below the windows and a yellow section between the windows and black roof. I am starting a project to build the Tweetsie in HO scale and want to keep it prototypical as possible. But then I might have a problem finding a narrow gauge in HO scale. It seems these are all manufactured in ON30 scale. All feedback will be greatly appreciated, especially with leads to images on the web.

Does anyone know if there has ever been a Southern Railway Z scale, table top or briefcase set up, available anywhere? I have been researching this item for a long time and have never found anything on the subject.

Did you call up loco #00, that is what DCC has to be set on to run a DC train on it, as it responds to engine 00, unless it is a MRC Advance system, and then it won't recognize it at all!

This might be a silly question, but are you checking the light brightness with it running or sitting still? A lot of engines have a dim idle light but brightens when set in motion.

Thanks for all the replys on ERTL vehicles. I have a Dukes Of Hazzard diorama in one section of my layout and any of their vehicles are impossible to find in HO. ERTL makes them in S scale however. I use them and keep HO scale items away from them, like the other guy said, and they don't look too bad. Another manufacturer that is getting hard to find in constuction equipment ,at a reasonable price, and that is Norscot. Walmart use to carry them in HO scale, at some stores, but it is hard to find them now. They had the motor grader for $5.95 that would cost you $18.95 anywhere else. They had about a dozen of them when I bought mine. I decided to go back and buy the rest and they were sold out when I got back there, the next week. They stated they could not get any more of them at that price.

ERTL makes great diecast vehicles, but I was wondering why they do not have the most popular scale, HO! When I emailed them with that question, they replyed stating they could not accept any suggestions, by email, on any new product ideas! Most all their small small items are in 1:64 or S scale. I guess they are against making money!

The picture posted by pdlethbridge is not it. The photo I saw is a 8X10 portrait for sale on ebay. It is item #190258248008. It stated it pulled The Tennessean passenger cars.

Has anyone ever heard tell of a Class J Southern Cresent, like the Class J Norfolk and Western? I just saw a print of one and thought I had saw every thing. I am a long time Southern Railway fan and have never even heard of one. It is just like the Class J N&W with the same wheel pattern, but in the classic Southern green paint scheme. If there is such a jewel out there in HO scale, I would sure like to get my hands on one! If anyone knows any thing, give me a holler!

corey9212
Also, be careful if you have any grades to make them gradual with a smooth transition, or you will lose more sleep! SteamGene has helped me a lot of times with some good advice!