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Raymond, Just a quick update to this thread. I was unable to resist the Aristocraft sale on Thanksgiving and ended up with a second 2-8-0, a Santa Fe version. This locomotive has operated as well as the USATC 610. I have painted the wheels with the black paint, but so far, I have no painted the side rods on this one. Somehow, the aristo metal siderods are looking 'okay' for now. I do plan to graphite the smokebox. I had intended to take the two 2-8-0s and combine them to make a 2-10-0 and an 0-6-0, but so far, have not. Again, the locomotive is a great little engine, runs well, and I really like it.

Cliff, Cool! George Schreyer has a webpage of tips he did to his Atlantic to improve performance and reliability. Most of what he did seems to be really simple and the improvement was dramatic.

If the above link works, it'll show you our two 'favorites' on the railroad right now. It's our Mallet 3177 and the newest 2-8-0, 1966. 1966 has had her wheels painted since this photo was taken, so she's even blacker now. I had been thinking about cutting up 1966 and USATC 610 to make a Strasburg Rail Road 2-10-0 #90 and an 0-6-0 switcher. But....I'm hesitant to cut up two perfectly good running engines and possibly end up with 0 good running engines. But, still, it'd be fun to have: For Diesels... But who doesn't like FA-FB-FA combos? The orange and green FA's were custom painted. The McGinnis lead unit is an old shell put on a new FA chassis. Oh wait, I forgot the RS-3s!! The black-yellow RS-3 has the same paint scheme as the green-orange New Haven RS-3....

I wouldn't pay more than $75-100 for the Atlantic. They require a bit of 'work' to bring up to reliable standards. Looks like it has been run quite a bit, based on the wheel wear on the lead truck. I had this particular locomotive when they first came out in 1989 and it was nothing but trouble for me. Then again, I was 11 and didn't think to try and take the locomotive apart and repair. It was, after all, only about 2 months old when it skipped a gear, got out of quarter and then bound up and stripped the gear. I went through three of these locomotives in six months before returning to the dealer for a store credit. If memory serves, the original price in 1989 was about $190. The FA-1 is the older style, too and that means $100 max. The Rogers is the original REA product and should be about $50-$75.

Joe, That's great!! If you do make it up, you'll also meet Jim Miller, who is one of the engineers who donates his time and brings his own equipment to run!

Joe, The whole tour is organized by the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, which is in Strasburg (across from the Strasburg Rail Road). They have had a garden railway tour during Columbus Day Weekend since 2007. We've been a part of that tour every year except 2010. I am planning to be on the tour again next year. "Can anyone come?" Kind of a tricky subject. The museum sells tickets for the event. It's a fundraiser for them. I don't enforce the ticket as a requirement to come see my trains, but I also don't publish the names or addresses of the other railroads. All are within a 20 mile radius of Strasburg, however. This year, there were 9 railroads open for display. Ed, Thanks! The weather was really crummy for that time of the year.

Well, it is that time of year again. Seems like it came too soon this year. But, I guess that's one of the 'perks' of getting older, right? There are a lot of local displays of model trains being set up. Since most of us are spread out all over the place, I won't list them all here. But, it gets me thinking about setting up trains around our Christmas tree. I've set up a variety of layouts under our trees over the last 9 years. None are even remotely like what I used to do when I was 9 and had a lot of space to run tracks (and accomodating parents and siblings..). Most tend to be just simple ovals under the tree. Part of the problem is too much furniture and not enough space and the general layout of the house. I have an unfinished basement, and thought it might be fun to build a giant train layout in the basement, so perhaps that's what we'll do. Here's a pic of Mary Kate running the 2055 Lionel hudson last year.

Looks good, Kevin! Only one question: Why do you keep the bell so shiny when the rest of the locomotive is SO dity?! Kidding...

I was looking at their new 2013 HO Scale catalog and it appears they are testing the waters for European HO scale with the Bavarian 4-6-2. From what I've seen, their O Gauge line in Europe has been well received. I wonder if they are tending toward a 1/32 European offering. On the other hand, there is a pretty good cross over from 1 gauge to HO in the catalog: Big Boys, Triplex, Challenger, GS-4/6, GG1 and NYC Hudson models. (OK, the J3-A 1 gauge is not a streamlined Empire State Express or Dryfuss hudson, but similar). The new offering appears to be a PRR H-10 2-8-0. Not sure if the K4 is new or not for them.

Here's the set up: Power coming in goes to the non plug and play board. From there, the motor outputs go to the motor and to the PWC-Linear aristo board. This is a bridge rectifier. The output of that goes to the Sierra board. The only thing I can think that's a possible problem is one of the wires to the PWC-Linear board is not secure enough. But...that doesn't explain why just cycling the power causes the Sierra to reset itself. I have a large, 6 capacitor board that keeps the REVO board powered.

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/199908_4637795472955_802620336_n.jpg Ray, I don't even bother with taping and spray painting anymore. I use Tamiaka (Flat black ) or Polyscale Steam Power black acrylic paint and a blush to paint the wheels on my locomotives. Due to our heavy use and sometimes derailments, the paint tends to chip no matter what, so I've found that this is easy to touch up. On the 610, you can also see that I graphited the smokebox. I used Gunmetal Gray to do this. Also with a paint brush. The bell had to be painted gold and the harp got black paint as well.

Some updates on this. 1. We gave the engine to Luke last Friday night. Putting it on the tracks, it did not run! Oh, the horror! Turns out when I installed the new wheels, I also had to move the brush pickups. There is a brass tube that needed to be moved. For some reason, when I moved it the first time, I wasn't making contact with the bussbar and that meant the loco wasn't getting power. For the short term, I reinstalled the old solid wheels and move the brushes back, and everything worked. Took 10 minutes, but I got it done and Luke was really excited about his new train! 2. During running tests, I've noticed the Sierra sound board will cut out. Turning off the power does some sort of a re-set and the sound comes back. No idea why. Almost like i have a loose wire, but it happens each time I cut the power. Any ideas?

Joe, The issue arose when MTH drawings for their steam engines were given to Lionel by the manufacturer in Korea (IIRC). The result was Lionel got free R&D and that's when you saw the shift at Lionel away from their 4-4-2 and 2-6-4 steamers to more realistic steamers. The end result was a $40m award by the court to MTH. Lionel promptly declared bankruptcy protection, and that's the last I know. The similarities between the two companies is striking, but with the Lionel Legacy system and the MTH DCS system being incompatible, I am pretty sure the companies don't work that closely together. MTH does produce the Lionel Lines standard gauge trains, and uses the Lionel name, but I expect that is more out of convienience than a real desire to work together. It would be cool to see an electric train that looks, sounds and acts like a real locomotive. Maybe they'll add a heater next, so we can burn our fingers, too!!

Ray, In the video of the open house, that's Charlie's consolidation. He did have some issues with his. My 2-8-0 is a US Army version. I got it on a trade. I was surprised at how nice the yellow is. I thought it would be like canary yellow, but it is more like Pittsburgh Steelers gold (or Iowa, if you prefer) . The 2-8-0 gets a lot of run time here. No derailment issues or other quality control problems but I've only got about a 100 miles or so on it. Actual miles, not scale miles. Basically, don't believe what you may read on other sites. A couple of people looked for something 'wrong' and made a mountain out of a molehill. All the controls are located in the tender under the removable coal load. I like having it all there. Made the install of the revo and sierra sound super easy. The down side of this loco is the weight. It could use some more weight. Also, the wheels and siderods need to be painted, but that's why this is a hobby. The other thing I would have preferred them to do is supply the loco with a footboard pilot and front coupler instead of the flat bar pilot. But, again, not a big deal. I have not slipped a driver on this locomotive, but like on my other aristo steamers, I keep a vigilant eye out for that. Mine has performed very well. Runs extremely smooth.

Ray, The Pennsy and Reading Dash 9s were custom painted by Shawmut Car shops. They were definetly a popular part of the show! What I really like about this open house is how my guest engineers also get excited and bring their favorite pieces to show off. If you notice the early videos, Jim had his California Zephyr and Mallets. Chris had his Merchant's Limited and RS-3's and Russ had his Conrail trains. You can even see his (for sale) CR 4020 E-8 locomotive. I just realized that my own New Haven 2-8-2 #3016 actually did run at an open house!! That locomotive has not been very active at the open houses, even though we run that engine a great deal!!

I think he's comparing that price with the older prices for the REVO. Apparently, RLD has these for sale at $89. I think I paid about $75 for the REVO at the ECLSTS from Robby, but when I added the 6 cap board, that pushed it up to the $90 range. I think that's where the $7 comes from. Ed, do you agree?

Gavin, how close are you to Edmonton? I was there in late June this year for work and expect I will need to return there in the near future. Has it started snowing yet?

Nick, were you one of our guests this year? Jim! Thanks for posting all the videos from the various open houses, but I think you have 2007 and 2008 swapped!!! If you guys take note, between 2007 and 2008, I re-arranged the track to add a long passing track under the bridge. In 2009, Chris, Jim and I adopted the REVO system, which is why you see 3 trains at once on one track. In 2010, we welcomed Mary Kathleen (about 2 weeks before the scheduled open house.). Besides our new addition, we also had a major sewer project which made the whole backyard a mess. It took me 3 whole weeks to rebuild the entire railroad (and add the 300+ feet of track I got from the Ridge Road Station closing) in to a two track railroad. I also added a 54" turntable, but have yet to build a roundhouse.

Hi guys, We participated in the 5th annual Railroad Musuem of PA's Garden Railroad tour on Sunday October 5. The weather was cold and overcast, and rainy until about 10:30 AM. The rain held off until almost 5pm, but it was cold and damp all afternoon. Most of the 250 people who stopped by seemed to enjoy themselves. When I host these events, I try not to be running the trains myself. Instead, friends come and help me by running their trains or mine, depending on how much stuff they want to put in their cars. This year, I had 5 engineers scheduled, but 2 canceled for good reasons. THe remaining three, Jim Miller, Charlie , and Kevin Yutz were responsible for making the operations smooth. Jim brought his new battery powered MTH GS-2 and a modern freight train. Charlie brought dash 9's decorated for the Reading and Pennsylvania RR's (NS Heritage units) and New Hope and Ivyland #40 (aristo 2-8-0) and a coal train. Kevin brought a battery powered Reading and Northern SD-45. I had 4 steam locomotives available along with a freight and passenger trains. My son Luke also ran some trains on the big railroad. I think by next year, he'll be ready for prime time. I actually have two distinct, separate garden railroads: The Millersvillanova and the Pietown and Western. The P&W is a small railroad that was initially built for the kids to operate. That seems to never happen. Seems like I'm always the one running the P&W!! Anyway, we had a decent crowd for the event. Charlie and his wife are professional photographers and were kind enough to put together a video of the event. Enjoy!

Dave, that's a cool time-lapse video!

Hi all. Two updates here. Over the weekend, I installed the aristocraft Revolution in an old Kalamazoo 4-4-0 and installed one of their new recievers with sound in an old FA. FA: I had already wired this locomotive for Revolution, and had recently removed a Phoenix 2k2 board. One of the original Revo recievers was still in place, and I simply removed it, along with the 6-capacitor board. I inserted the new reciever, and hooked up the speaker wire. Now, on this specific FA, I am driving both the A and B units with a single reciever, along with two speakers. I fired up the engine without the B unit first, and the sound was simple and worked as expected. Longer running on the mainlines with both units hooked up and full volume resulted in some choppiness to the sound. WHen I reduced the volume, this seemed to go away, or maybe I couldn't hear it anymore. EIther way, I'm satisfied with the new unit and I like that I no longer need to add an external 6 cap board. There are two caps on the new revo. This is for getting over the minor disruptions between the track and the reciever. The only thing I really would like them to change is the horn. It blows a set number of toots, 5, and I'd rather be able to control how long the horn blows. But, that's a minor thing. I kind of like that my son can't hold the button down for lap after lap after lap!! 4-4-0: This was more tricky. I had to disassemble the entire locomotive and motor block. There is a brass contactor bus bar that is used to power the motor directly from the rails. I cut the pieces of the brass that connect to the motor. THen, I drilled holes through the step in the cab for a 4 wire connector to go through. The motor got two wires and the power pick up got two wires. I haven't wired up the headlight yet, but eventually I suppose that I will. It might have been better if I had used some sort of slip on connectors, but I simply soldered the wires to the motor. The power pick ups each were soldered as well. The sound and control went in the tender. I used the non-plug and play board (with screw terminals) that came with the new REVO installed in the FA. I also had to use a PWC to Linear board to make the Sierra sound system work. Because there's not much room in the tender, I used Duct tape to hold everthing in position until I could get the cover back on. I'm using a reed switch for the chuff, and that's located on the lead tender truck. The 4-4-0's motor (made in USA!) is rated for 12v. Since I run track power (24v), I've limited the maximum on the Revo transmitter to 50. At this setting, the maximum voltage output is 12v, so we should be OK. Might be a little too slow for Luke, but I'll tell him the real 4-4-0s didn't go that fast, anyway. Modifications to the 4-4-0: - New lead truck from Hartland. - Replaced original small plastic tender wheels with bachmann metal wheels. - Modify the drawbar slightly. It was too high and the rear drivers were barely making contact with the track. - Because of the reed switch, I ended up putting washers under the bolsters so that the truck can swing freely. - New spoked drive wheels from HLW. - New straight stack (coal fired locomotive) - All new blue and silver paint scheme. My son turns 5 on Friday and he wanted a blue steam engine. I got it working late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, and am now just finalizing the paint details. I will have photos and perhaps videos to post after this weekend. I'm hopeful that he likes it.

Chuck and Ray, I'm excited to see what MTH offers, even if it is out of my range. MTH has been offering an interesting range of locomotives. For me, their steam engines are what I like the best. And now that I've had some opportuntity to see and operate their engines, I'm more likely to add one to my roster. Based on their previous offers, I could see them making a x-6-6-x articulated and a x-8-x locomotives. Possibilities include a N&W A or J class loco, but also the Reading T-1. They already have the artwork for the AFT coaches, so that'd be one set of coaches they could re-run or build a new market for. With the 4 T-1's that ran in excursion service, there's a likely market. I'm just thinking of the number of paint schemes MTH could offer on a single model: Reading (in service and Ramble paint), AFT 1, R,BM,&N, D&H, Chessie Safety Express, other?? Looking at the success of Aristo's 2 bay hoppers, a T-1 or other coal hauling road engine should be a good fit for the current 2012 market. Speculating is always fun, right? What do you guys think? What'd you like to see made?

Chuck, thanks! Things on the railroad went a lot smoother this year as compared with 2011. I attribute that to having improved my trackwork. The weather could have been better, but there's no controlling that. The trains (most of them were visitors) ran great, too. Mixed battery and track power. Nice to have flexibility.

Hi guys. OK, quick update. I installed the revo on saturday morning. Here's my set up: I have a non-plug and play FA-FB that are hard wired together. Essentially, the REVO is driving four motors. Sound comes on and the unit runs smoothly. Looks like they added two small capacitors to the board, so no need for the 6 cap board, which is nice. SOund is pretty good. You get some starting sounds (bell and horn) and you hear the engine rev up and down some. When you slow to a stop, you get a pretty good brake sound. Overall, I think it sounds fine. THe only thing I had to do was go in to the auxiliary function set up and LATCH function 1 (The turn on function). Once that was done, the sound stayed on. Field testing showed a bit more. I'm driving 2 speakers (and Jim pointed out that they should be the same resistance, I have no idea if they are or not). The sound would get a little choppy at full volume. Going to the mid setting or low setting (there are 3 settings for volume) reduced this effect. I like the horn and bell. No problem. I do wish the horn had been a real time horn, but it is OK for now. I can always turn it off. For the REVO itself, on my track powered layout, the 2 caps built in to the board appear to be doing a good job of bridging any of the minor power losses. When I first had the REVO in my mikado, I would keep losing connection until I added the 6 cap board. This is a nice change they've made. Overall, I would buy more of these. As time goes on, perhaps they'll be able to improve the system and add capability/flexibility to them. For now, it works.

I have a friend who has a lot of the MTH one gauge, and having seen it and run it in person, I have to admit it is a really nice product. I'm looking forward to what they make and offer next. Personally, I am hopeful they'll make the N&W J steam engine and cars. Imagine if they decided to re-tool and make their product 1/29!!