Just my bad luck we are in the path for the solar eclipse blackout Monday. Our little town of 1,400 is supposed to swell to 80.000 . It will probably make some of the locals go . We are a tourist town but the usually means 5.000 in a day. Is it Tuesday yet? :wait:

When I switched to N scale just over a couple years ago, I simply continued to use the transformers which I had used when I was into HO. These are a Railpower 1300 and a similar one made by Athearn (I could post a pic if that helps).

These two transformers generally work well, although I think the Railpower one might be "dying." Recently, I've heard that some other transformers might work better with N. Is this the case and, if so, which ones would be best? FYI, I'm mainly running British N, but that shouldn't make any difference. I'm always trying to maximize smooth low-running operation. And I think I read that some transformers, specially geared for N, might help with this.

Thanks for any feedback.

Rob

Rest in Peace Andy. Your posts will be missed.

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Guys,I have to share this.. While in hospital for excessive fluids my daughter bought me a care package with the current issues of MR,Trains,Classic Trains and Railfan plus a Western Novel. Needless to say my seven day stay was much better.

I never knew she remembered the magazines I read.

Just watched this one and wanted to share the link with all of you. It touches on signals, work in the shops and on the road, even a glance at how mechanical reefers work.
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I seem to be rebuilding a number of diesel models lately so instead of separate threads for each I thought I'd just consolidate them in one.
First a bit of a photo album of what I've built.

This is a Mantua (yes that's right) F-7 with a detail associates F-unit detail kit, Miniatures by Eric winter hatch and icicle breakers. It runs on a Bachmann Plus chassis.

And the matching Mantua B with most of the same parts. I still have to touch up some of the details with Tuscan paint and add some weathering .


A Proto2000 SD-7 in a fantasy Canadian National Scheme. CN never had them or any other 6 axle first gen diesel for that matter.


My wreck damaged F-7.


Proto2000 SW1200rs that I added some details to and painted. This started as a basket case at a swap meet that I paid 5$ for.


Bachmann spectrum GE 44tonner. I modelled it after the same engine that was used as a yard switcher in my hometown in the 50's-60's


Proto1000 F-3a. I added some details to it, weathered it and it's one of my best runners.


Bachmann Plus F-7 a&b I used the detail associates F-unit detail kits on them, as well as some other parts, painted and weathered them. I'm not entirely happy with how the paint came out as I misplaced the yellow stipe too high. I recently painted another B unit with the proper placement and I'm looking for another Bachmann plus A unit shell to paint properly.

With the exception of a Proto1000 C-liner, all my B units are dummys, mostly running on a modified Athearn F-unit chassis.


Cary F-3b. Detail associates F-unit detail set. Drilling through the cast metal is a challenge! I'm on the lookout for the matching A unit


Of course I can't forget my Doodlebug. Not a diesel per se but why not include it here. It's a highly kitbashed Rivarossi combine with 1/2 of an Athearn F-7 drive. The link to the build:
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Finally my two Cary S-2 models.

Well, I've procrastinated long enough dabbling in the Horribly Overscale, and I've sold my entire HO collection and my layout to make space for a new N scale project.

I've tentatively called it James River, after the waterway in Virginia, but I wanted to make a rail/marine layout for a while, and figured why not? I've also been gawping at video and pictures of George Selios' Fanklin and South Manchester, and figured why not set this one in the transition era, to allow me to run my growing collection of steam locomotives?

On top of that, my wonderful wife Laura has allowed me to make use of some of the unused space in one corner of her crafting/computer room, so I've been able to set up my St. Charles, VA. layout up in there. This will allow me to expand on the operations of both layouts, with the St. Charles layout being the source of coal and lumber being delivered to suitable industries on the new project, and vice versa.

Here's St. Charles in it's new home:





A nice bonus here is that I can now get access to the unscenicked coal mine scene on St. Charles to progress the build on that part of the layout.

So, I had a tentative plan for the James River layout by combining a couple of Iain Rice plans, as you can see here:



As it stands, I'm thinking of going back over the long section of the plan and completely re-doing it to put it all on a curve that comes out of the board at the front, like a mini-peninsula, to give me a bit of space at the back for some F&SM style city scenery. I think what I'll do there is build the benchwork to the space I actually have available, then figure out a trackplan that will actually fit into the space I have, rather than the space I THINK I have!

In the mean time, I've been working on some structures and the basic land forms for the harbour area, and I'm getting to a rough mock up that I really like.



Ignore the woodland scenics riser supporting the underneath of the truss bridges, I put that there temporarily so I could confirm that the gradient would actually clear the lower level tracks enough to not foul them if I ever wanted to run high cubes or autoracks.

Some of the buildings I've been working on will be posted whenever I am able in this thread, but here are a couple to get the ball rolling...

Scalescenes Stone Mill:

WOW, I got to start off this weeks thread too :mrgreen:

I was running my Aero Train last night, though in real life they were not so great a ride but they sure looked cool. You know I would have the UP version 8-) , though UP didn't have it long and it ended up with the Rock Island .