Model Forum / General / Railroads / October 2003

    Anyone here, say, in their 50's or 60's recall a line of plastic
models of non model railroad items issued by Athearn in the early
1960's? Supposedly it was some old west items and military items.  I
never knew about these. A search on the internet came up empty. Are

FA:Heavily Custom done heavily Weathered Reading 3 bay 100 ton Open
Top Hopper#60194
http://www.homeschoolauctions.com/cgi-bin/auction1/auction.pl?category=toys16&it
em=1068778236

Countless layout construction articles tell me that 'the ballast was
soaked with a 50:50 mix of PVA and water with a few drops of
washing-up liquid'
But what is used to spray the mixture? I'm using ash for ballast, for

I have a few HO brass steam locomotives that I would like to have painted
(along with road names and associated prototype numbering and other
markings).
Does anyone know or could recommend a high-quality, reliable custom painter,

Operations question(s):
Assume a layout design where ONE major train yard interacts with
hidden staging. Assume that this ONE train yard has individual tracks
on the yard ladder which are assigned to collect cars headed to the

I am new to model railroading and want to paint GP38, SD45 and DASH
8-40CW locomotives for Union Pacific. I have two questions, does
anyone have or can point me to photos of these units (I have already
searched google images)? Second question is what are the road

Some folks have suggested that "sunlight" fluorescent tubes will make
Woodland Scenics' Earth Fine Turf (ground foam) look like the real thing.
Well, I don't think that's the answer after all. I tried 2 warm white tubes
and it still doesn't look brown. I even took it outside in ...

I was wondering if anyone out there has any information on modular
model railroading in G 'scale'.  
I've seen standards for things like NTRAK modules, is there a similar
standard for the larger ~1/24th scales?  

Salvé
To the members of this august body....even if it is the end of October.....
in the opinion of the group , which is the best running ( especially
slowly)0-6-0. steam loco, preferably prenationalisation?, company and area

Do any commercial manufacturers offer models of the B&O CPL style signals?
If not, what brands are "close" and/or could be modified to that style?
Thanks in advance

"Just put some images of my latest resprays from Grantham models on my model
rail site.
www.btinternet.com/~modern.image
37402 in unique two tone grey livery and 37803 in Mainline Blue. Also taken

I am looking to do one of two things, either replace my current fleet of
undetailed Lima 47's with Heljan 47's or super detail (which I have never
tried) my lima locos.
What are anyone's thoughts on this, and what exaclty are the flaws of the

At present I am using pencil 1.0, but I'm not averse to the idea of track
planning software.  HVR2 won't actually run on any of my (several) Windows
PCs and having tried the demo version of WinRail, I can't see an easy way
of setting up the baseboards.  Is it just a matter of ...

Alas, poor Scalecoat, I know it well..................
Here is my dilemma.  I have four brass NP cabooses that I am
repainting.  I stripped off the original paint, sandblasted the brass
(followed by a good washing in the ultrasonic cleaner), and I'm ready

   Well just received my E7 today so thought I would comment.  First off I
email them and asked if the LL P2K E3/6 shell would fit.  They emailed me
back and said no problem they fit right on, well they lied!  I have an A
unit and it will need some frame milling to fit.  Will call ...