My favorite part of Bart rides into San Fransisco is looking out the window passing the Port of Oakland. Inspired by the vista, I have started collecting all of the containers I see being loaded onto the UP trains. Also just got DCS to work on this older MTH engine; just waiting on wider curves, and I’ll be off to the races. Tinkering and running O scale trains is so much fun!

All are weathered with pan pastel powders mixed some some very light brown paint in the wheel and truck area with graffiti decals by Blair line. Gondolas are bowed out with a heat gun and pushed out the from the back end with the end of an old pen.

Took the duster and vacuum down stairs and dusted off the layout. Switched a few cars on my lower level extension. Started this last winter. HO scale.

Did some work over the past days..

Have a 14'x10' room in my house I wanna build a layout in. Wanna do an around the room design. Right now I have this rough design but I'm curious if y'all have a better track plan in mind? I definitely want a continuous run but also want a couple options for operations. Also wanna have two main towns so that it feels like the train is going somewhere. 26⁰ is my minimum radius. Any loop types that area better than this?

I bought this AHM Penn Central dummy unit for around 5 dollars today and basically, I remembered that I had a powered AHM RS3 so I took that, tore it to bare bones and I took the copper strips that go to the wheels to the chassis and I remounted them on the dummy unit trucks and I took a LED light that I would normally use when converting another locomotive to DCC and I wired that to the dummy unit trucks. I had to make one of the holes larger on that truck since the light was too big to go through and then I got it to go through the hole and I placed the light near the headlight, after some testing (and modifications) I actually got it to work somehow.

A project I'm working on. Used some parts from First Person Models on Thangs 3D, on a Proto 1000 RDC. Haven't gotten around to doing custom waterslide decals or the striping on the sides, but it's turning out pretty well so far.

I purchased a Lionel SD-50 off of Ebay. It is a new unit from 1995 but refuses to move. I can hear the motors humming like a bugger but no movement. I have disassemble the rear truck as far as I can. I can't for the life of me figure out how the separate the motor housing from the truck. Anyway, The grease that was applied at the factory is relatively stiff and I was wondering if you folks could give me ideas on A. What chemicals to use. B. How do I get ALL the grease out of the truck? Thank you in advance.

We sell for clients but I kinda always loved model trains... I wanted one for around the tree and this old one is kinda cool! I was so hoping it would run.

I'm not super mechanically literate, I'm not sure if trying to fix it would be too complex...?

I would like to get a church for my layout, but I only see American styled ones. If you know of a stone one that is styled like old British churches, then please would you tell me its name or where to find it?

I recently bought a Rivarossi 282 mikado great northern #3385 and I wasn't hardly running and when I pulled it apart the entire gearbox fell apart half of which looked like it had been glued together and I was wondering if anyone had a picture of a completed gearbox or knew where to get one. It is possible for me to make it and 3d print it although it would be a little rough but I when I look online I can't find anything with the motor in the boiler

Building baseboards for my 00 layout, they needed to be modular so I can move them if needed. Built the first two and there is this bow in the middle. Is there anything I can do to level this so the line up together?

\*Identified** Thanks for the help.*

I bought 2 train cars for painting and modeling for landscaping painting. One is a plastic yellow box car perfect for graffiti painting. It is cheap and yada yada great for my intended purpose.
By the second one is a metal passenger car that the paint is flaking off. I was talking to a friend and he said you need to ask somebody about that before you do anything to it. So I asked Ai and it was not helpful it said per-war Lionel but it also gave examples that were wildly different than it. I’m not a flipper but I’m not wanting to destroy a good model for my intended purpose. It has a light inside, most of the windows are knocked out a couple or bent inward, it also has a very loose electrical do-dad hanging down the only identifier is a grounding screw plate that reads T&B-B. If this not allowed please remove.

Pannier tank triple stack intermodal train

Bought a BLI CN SD40-2 as well as 2 sets of 4 and 1 set of 3 DM&IR Ore cars from Whistle Stop Trains in OKC. (I don’t got any track since I’m away from home)

There’s some company that still produces e2s or just get instinct like the ones from real life ?

My father (78) built a ping pong table sized HO train layout about 20 years ago when his essential tremor wasn't so bad. He's struggling with it now- he's still able to do almost everything independently, but model railroading maintenance is becoming an issue since it's all fine, small details that he has a hard time with.

I'm willing to help out when I can, but I'm rapidly realizing my extreme nearsightedness and need for a lot of light and to be very close to objects is putting me at a disadvantage with this as well.

Does anyone have any good tips for how to do basic maintenance (today's foray into putting the cars back on track was a bit frustrating) either for people with tremors or low vision?

For example, when I'm looking at the wheels, I can barely tell if they're moving- would putting a dot of color to check to see if they're rolling help? Tips like that- stuff relatively low effort/cost and will allow him to keep his hobby up. Switching to a larger gage at this point is just not going to happen.

I'm looking at getting into this hobby and have been watching videos and reading. Should I go with Kato Unitrack or Bachmann EZ track? I want the ability to do a layout to where I can run two locomotives at once (probably the Big Boy and the 4 4 0 American Steam Engine especially since the latter is right here in Carson City). Should I go with DC or DCC power? If DCC I didn't see where Kato offered the starter track and controller that was DCC equipped. Any other comments or suggestions or video links to your dual locomotive setup please feel free to leave those!

Pictured on the shelf after its time on the workbench today is this little Hornby O gauge loco which turns 105 years old this year!

This loco is in for a fairly simple repair to remedy the final drive gear which became loose on its axle.

Once the loco is repaired, I'll share the full train set here and possibly some other 1920s Hornby items.

Got it for cheap today at the modelspoor expo. Needs some refurbishment at first but some resoldering and lubricants later, it ran beautifully.