...and Gary thinks the forum is too slow , here are a few springtime flowers from my yard. (taken today)

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... or has The Gauge been quite slow on posts for the last couple of weeks?

Are you guys hanging out on other forums? Or just spending all your time in The Gauge Chat?

Hi --

We've had a nasty train accident over here in Oslo, Norway, today - 16 empty flatcars rolled away at the freight yard at Alnabru, and rolled about five miles downhill before careening off the track at the docks, hitting and throwing several tractor/trailers into the harbor and making a office/warehouse building collapse. News reports say three dead, one missing and four or five injured down at the docks :-(

My brother works at the yards up there, went in to work this afternoon, and sent me a text message this afternoon saying that place is full of police, railroad and traffic safety board inspectors, who are interviewing those of his coworkers that was working when this happened.

Only "good" thing is that someone at traffic control seemingly made a fast (and almost certainly correct) decision that when attempts to detour the runaway cars into a single ended siding further up the valley came too late, it was better to route them towards the harbor docks than towards Oslo Central passenger station. I shudder at the thought of what fifteen freight cars moving at 80+ kilometers and hour would have done with an EMU filled with commuters. Too bad the police did not have time to warn people down at the docks - those poor blokes never knew what hit them :-(

Lord knows what set the cars rolling. Hopefully the investigation will find the answer to that question.

This is what the accident scene looks like from the air:


Stein

The train show topic got me thinking about this. About 2 years ago I was approached by a man who wanted to start a MRR club. I said sure its not like I don't have the time to help with it and I do know lot of modelers in our area as I used to help with the annual open house schedule. We got about 4 or 5 guys together to talk about it. First thing that came up was officers and dues. I spoke up and asked if they were a necessity, to which I was told yes. At that point I began to loose interest. Then someone suggested building a modular layout. I got somewhat interested. After 3 meetings there was no progress in any thing. So I just faded away. I am not looking to start a club. But if I were to do it, what would be some do's & don'ts? Also why?

Took a rather roundabout trip to Cleveland this past Friday; as one friend summed it up "three hundred miles to go nowhere."



Eastbound 146 rolls up to the State Route 4 overpass while an SD40-2 is turned on the wye. In the distance Canadian National and Wheeling & Lake Erie power from transfer runs lays over.




Power off the inbound 10E rolls to the service area for attention. Foreign power is common in Ohio on run-through trains operated through Chicago and other Illinois gateways.




Even on a Friday afternoon the Flats Industrial Railroad in Cleveland was devoid of activity. The Flats is a mostly industrial neighborhood where the Cuyahoga River meets Lake Erie west of downtown. In the early 1990s an attempt was made to turn the abandoned warehouses into loft apartments and night clubs but 20 years later crime has run many establishments out. Today a small number of commercial businesses still operate in The Flats mixed with the remaining industrial operations and, of course, railroads.




The view off the closed Rockefeller Avenue bridge included NS 145 on former Nickel Plate rails. The heavy catenary directly behind the train are on the abandoned approaches to Cleveland Union Terminal and behind that are wires for the active Cleveland RTA heavy and light rail lines east of downtown.




Down in Willard on CSX, two new BNSF GEs are headed west on Q393 at the Section Line Road overpass. A former Conrail unit is in the lead.




The day was capped off at Attica Junction where we found this Q137 highballing west with freshly painted C40-8 on the point.


More photos of the day's exploits are available on flickr.

Some of you may remember the manual switch controllers I built a few years ago for my layout. Since I am expanding, I'll need quite a few more. And since I am waiting on the sheetrock finisher to get finished, I figured I would get a start on the controllers. I did brainstorm a new idea that makes my apparatus much easier and quicker to build....

The starting point is a 3-way switch, just like the one you would use in your house (although this isn't the cheapy 57 cent variety, this is the commercial grade switch - a bit more expensive, but more robust - should take the abuse and keep on ticking)



First, we drill the handle. This is a #36 bit which is the hole needed for a 6-32 tap.



Now we tap the hole:



I took a 10-24 rod coupling and used some JB Quick epoxy to glue a screw eye into it. The screw eye is sized to fit over a 6-32 screw.



Here are some parts needed so far - drilled 3-way switch, 6-32 machine screw, 6-32 nut, and the rod coupling eye assembly.



And here is the swithc with the rod coupling attached.



continued next post --

Hey Guys -

Just wondering if anyone has any opinions on the quality of the Broadway Ltd Imports/Precision Craft Models E8A with the Paragon 2 dcc/sound decoder. I ordered one today, so I guess I'll know in a week or so how they operate and look. I was wondering if anyone had any first hand experience with them though. I've read a fair amount on the web about the engines, but much of the info is dated (2007 or so). I hit upon a video on youtube of the engine slowly running someone's layout, but couldn't quite make out the finer details. Plus, anyone had any programming issues with the Paragon sound decoder?

Thanks!

East Coast Large Scale Train Show is this friday and Saturday....

I'm going Friday....

Anyone else heading out there??????

Show Info:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.largescaletrainshows.com/cat_index_22.html">http://www.largescaletrainshows.com/cat_index_22.html</a><!-- m -->

My family & I are planning to visit Prince Edward Island this summer on Canada's east coast.

On our way, I'm hoping to stop at Exporail (<!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.exporail.org">www.exporail.org</a><!-- w -->), a Canadian railway museum. Just wondering if anyone has any tips or suggestions re visiting this museum -- i.e. how good is it (compared to other museums), can you recommend any nearby hotels, do you have any other travel advice re this visit?

AFAIK, the museum is very good. Being a British railway enthusiast, I'm looking forward to seeing the streamlined A4 "Mallard" class loco, "Dominion of Canada" that is now located at this museum (for me, this is actually the main drawing card! ). In addition to seeing their Canadian locos and rolling stock, we would also enjoy their outdoor miniature railway as well as their streetcar ride.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

Rob

I have been trying to wire a headlight into an old MDC 2-8-0. I have white LEDs that I pulled from a cheap flashlight. At first, i tried a 330 ohm current limiting resistor. It flickered a few times, then quit. So, I dug out the LED and put in another one, this time with a 1000 ohm resistor. The loco did not even make it once around the layout before the LED quit. I am using standard DC. I am starting to think these are cheap LEDs and something else is killing them - back EMF from the open frame motor, or perhaps just the reverse current when putting the loco in reverse. Any thoughts?