Willow Glen Junction

Thanks Chuck for your insights. I suspected a coating on top of the lettering, but wasn't sure. Since I don't want the hassle of repainting the car, sounds like if I can find a decal to place over it would be best. Good to know that MTH does a good job on the paint - I had suspected it based on my experiences, but good to know its hard to remove. When you repainted your car (after blasting it), what top coat finish did you use? Matte or semi-gloss? I'll checkout Stan Cedarleaf.

Beginner question here. I got a good deal on the MTH M&M's flat car/trailer combo and I plan to repaint the trailer to Fedex. The first step I want to remove the M&M's logo from the flat car. I know I could repaint the whole thing, but I actually like the color and unlike most more accurately detailed freight cars, it only has the M&M's logo in the center. Is there a way to remove the M&M's logo without hosing the finish and paint around it? After I figure this one out I will ask on advice for repainting the trailer. Also any advice on where to get accurate one gauge scale decals to letter the flat car?

Does anyone think someone will buy the existing tooling to keep making MTH one gauge stuff under a new brand? Or is everyone thinking best case scenario is parts and the app support only?

Anyone have MTH flat cars they want to part with? Road names don’t really matter with the load I plan to put on but if I had a choice SF, UP or TTX would be top of the list. I care more that the top flat surface is the same color as the sides.

I started my g scale adventure ~6 months ago and wanted to share it online. I'm envisioning a Facebook like interface where I can have a "frontpage" that describes my layout, my trains, my control system etc, and also has a place to post pics and videos and people can "follow/friend" me if they are interested in seeing and/or commenting. Basically I want to share my story and invite fun conversation; kinda like as if there was a local club. Has anyone seen such a thing for model trains? I've seen two extremes in either direction from this - on the one hand entire from-scratch websites devoted to sharing this information (like what Ray has), which is good for sharing the whole story but is too much work and on the other hand forums like this where its easy to show pics of specific items or ask specific questions, but harder to share a complete picture of what you have done and why. Assuming the answer to my question is no, has anyone created a Facebook page to do this?

Update (treating this kinda like a blog update): Took Ray's suggestion and built a test oval (40' of H&R flextrack) with "post and open stringer" roadbed method on familygardentrains.com which I could then shim the posts to different % grades to test things out. Here is what I found: 1) An MTH Hudson with new traction tires could pull 7 MTH freight cars and 1 caboose up 2.5% grade around a 6' diameter curve no problem, even at 10 SMPH. The grade started before the 6' diameter curve and continued around it to the end of the curve which was the crest of the "hill" which is where the downhill started. 2) After it rained (and tracks were wet), even on the straight away the Hudson had major wheel slippage at only 2.0% grade and with only 4 MTH freight cars and 1 caboose. 3) Instead if I ran just the Hudson (with tender) for a few minutes first, then added the cars there was no wheel slippage. I didn't time it but figure 5 minutes of running. So in conclusion I suppose it should have been obvious that when the rails are wet the % grade before major wheel slippage drops significantly. this seems to be by far the biggest variable and not the % grade around a "sharp" (ie 6' diameter) curve. I would have not guessed this before experimenting. Since on my real layout I will only have about 40' to get the elevation for an up and over crossing (which works out to 2.5%) I have to decide how important it is to have to "dry" the track first by running just an engine vs not having an up and over. Considering it only rains here 6 months out of the year or so, I will chose to do the up and over and deal with drying when necessary. Extra credit note: when I replaced the final portion (ie the crest of the "hill") of the 6' diameter curve with an aristo 10' radius switch run through backwards at 2.50% with 7 freight cars and 1 caboose the front truck of the Hudson would derail about half the time as it ran through the switch backwards (through the curve, not the straight). Removing just one car helped this, although I suspect with more samples (ie running longer) it would still happen. lowering the grade through the switch seemed to help it the most however.

Thanks Ray. Blid, I suspected the packaging caused this in some way. Good to know. Thanks.

Hi all, I'm new to model railroading and MTH one gauge - been doing it only 3 months so forgive me if this is well known already. Since most of the stuff I'm interested in MTH made 10-15-almost 20 years ago I'm buying almost all of my stuff off ebay (ie not from MTH). About half the boxcars I have bought so far, even the ones with little or no run time, came in original packaging with deformed brake wheels. I pinged Ray and MTH is out of stock on them, so I experimented to see if I could fix them. Turns out if you pop them in hot water (about the temp you would want for really hot tea) for about 30 seconds they pretty much pop back into original shape without any manipulation. Figured if I've seen this a few times in 3 months others must have seen it too, so posting for the community's benefit. thanks, keith

Bueller?

Hi Jerry. Thanks, yes I did google search the item number which pops up that MTH page as the first item and checked the "find it locally" tab - no dice. The google search also shows the recent-ish sales on ebay and trainz auctions. I was hoping to get lucky by posting here. Does anyone have experience with http://www.choochooauctions.com? I see a few have been sold there over the years.

Hi guys. I'm new to G scale and looking to build my first train. Going for 1947 and so I'm looking for MTH NYC Pacemaker Freight cars. I already have the caboose. I'm mostly interested in the boxcar, which is 70-74034. I'm also interested in the tank car, which is 70-73004. I know these were made 2003~2006 timeframe by MTH. Anybody know where I can find some?

thanks guys, this is super helpful. Sounds like I should make every effort to stretch the loops to 40' and use every inch of it for grade, which will get me 2.5%, or darn close to it. Blid, thanks for sharing your layout and your grades - its a helpful reference. I did do some sketching in SCRAM, the problem is I'm doing things backwards. I already have landscaping and I need to lay track around it. Its hard to capture the shape of the plants in the software. I think I need to go old school and "sketch" it out in place. Need to think how to do this. Good to know my 12" calculation lines up with yours. Ray, thanks for the details on the engine. Sounds like there's really no way other than building it and trying it out. At least with your details on what will fail (and not fail) I can experiment without fear of breaking the engine.

Hi all. I'm new to model railroading and outdoor/G scale/1 Gauge. I'm building my first layout and I need to "phone a friend" with experience (but I don't have any friends that do model railroading), hence why I'm posting. I'm space constrained to about an 80' figure 8 or oval layout and I'm trying to figure out if I can get the height for an elevated crossover for that 8 or not. My setup: - MTH Hudson engine (ray is fixing it up for me) - No more than 8 cars (less if long passenger cars). figure total train length limited to 15'. can shorten it further it its the difference between me getting that crossover or not. - my tightest turns at the top/bottom of the figure "8" are slightly gentler than the minimum R2 MTH rates the Hudson at (R2 for MTH is slightly over 5' diameter, I will have 6' diameter 180's) - I will be using the "post and open stringer" method to lay my roadbed (https://familygardentrains.com/primer/roadbed/ladder1.htm) and thus I figure 10" of clearance + 0.5" of track height + 1.5" of stringer height means I need to gain 12" of vertical over slightly less than 40'. So rounding down, over 35', 12" of gain is 3.0% grade. - H&R stainless track Here are my questions: - With only running 8 cars on an MTH hudson, how bad is a 3% average grade on a straight track? - Does the answer change for a slightly better than R2 curve (ie will my train fail to make it up an R2 @3.0%)? - Is it better to increase the % grade on the straighter sections and decrease on the R2? It makes sense to me the answer is yes, but then how to figure out how to divide the % grades between straight and curve portions? - More general question, with an MTH Hudson what fails as I increase % grade with 8 cars on an R2 curve, is it wheel slip, engine stalling, or the train derails? Also as long as the train makes it up, what is issue or problem? Is it just more wear on the traction tires and so if I replace them frequently problem solved, or is more serious wear happening inside the motor? Googling these sorts of questions all the info seems to be based on experimentation by building and seeing what works. I'm trying to gain some insights before building. I’m hoping someone with an MTH Hudson can give me insights on their grades, curves and train lengths. thanks in advance for your help! -keith