Model Forum / General / Railroads / December 2008

Are Keen Couplings any good ?
I am Thinking of buying some for a couple of rakes of Lima mk1 coaches
misc

Have fun....

When I was 9 years old I had been looking at the catalogs from Sears
and Montgomery Wards and JCPenny for about 2 months before Christmas.
Each time I turned to the page where the electric trains were
advertised. I dreamed of these trains and how they would look on my

This is my first post to rec.models.railroad
I usually post at rec.games.pinball
But, I've found model railroading to be just about as addictive as
Pinball!

While I was looking for some decent couplings to get electricity from
one end of a train to another, which I eventually found under "HO
decorative items"
http://www.viessmann-modell.com/en/produkte/ho.php?id=8&offset=6&sprache_

Discovered a way to get really accurate colors for painted backdrops.
Just take a digital photo of anything from sky to distant mountains,
blow it up on your computer until you have a section of one color that
you want, and then take it down to your local Lowe's where you will

I just replaced my Digitrax Empire Builder Command Station DB 150 with a
used Super Chief DCS 200.  With my old DB 150, and on other layouts using
Super Chief, I power up the layout, plug in my throttle, acquire my loco and
start running.  With my "new" DCS 200 I need to power up ...

In a box of miscellaneous stuff donated to the club I found a Hornby
Pullman ("Ruth"). Previous owner had attached 4-wheel passenger trucks
and KD couplers. Doesn't look quite right. ;-)
Can anyone recommend bogies that are correct or nearly so for this

On a Yahoo Group that I follow there was a short discussion about
copying one's VHS railroad tapes onto DVDs to preserve them.  One
fellow said he's done this, and keeps all of the original VHS tapes to
prove that he bought them and can legally copy them for his own

This is the only Westwood kit I haven't been able to identify (I know what
G1, G2, G4 & G5 are) and I'd appreciate if anyone can tell me the name of
the kit.  Additionally, I'd be willing to purchase an unbuilt kit for a
not-too-unreasonable sum of money.

My Lionel ZW (post war), which I bought used about a year ago,  has an
issue where the red light lights up (circuit breaker trips) without
good cause -- at least a good cause that I can find  -- when I use my
2037 and 2046 engines together.  It doesn't happen if just one circuit

Does anyone know when Hornby are going to announce their plans for 2009?

against numerous suggestions here I used 1/8" luan plywood for my roadbed
with some reinforcement underneath to add structure.
It's just plain loud when trains roll over it now with ballast and scenery
added.

I have thank the model railroader folks for information on model building
and adding the detail for streets and sidewalks to complement the scene. See
it at,
http://www.rrscenery.com

When I first hooked up my Digitrax UR-91 I followed instructions and hooked
up the unit to a 12V DC power supply.  The system ran fine but in the last
several months I've been having trouble with a non-responsive throttle even
though I am never more than 15 feet from the UR-91.