How many different forms of transportation can you spot?

Before i get ahead of myself and start building another electric locomotive, I should probably have the infrastructure. This means Catenary. I will try to build the standard PRR catenary i know and love.

Some of you may say "wait one moment GEC, didn't you already have catenary?" that was just an experiment, and it was the only one fully built. I've never seen anyone model a wire cross span, and there was question of its ability to hold up. I personally believe that a wire cross span can be as sturdy but also more flexible, and they are quite common in the areas i model, it is not always 100% K-braced. As we can see in the picture, a wire cross span works.

However, this was just a mock up. Notice how it doesn't have any of the insulators or other important details, and the solder joints are pretty ugly. I plan to use thinner wire and more concealed solder joints, but i think i can make something that looks good. I think Tichy Trains makes PRR Style Catenary insulators that would be perfect for this.



For reference, a K-brace PRR catenary bridge looks like this.



So, here i have my wires, my jigs, and my tools. I have plenty of old rail that looks fine as a catenary bridge. These won't be super detailed amazing catenary structures (to do so would probably cost me as much as the Model Memories kits, not to mention the pieces are harder to find), but they will be sturdy and look good enough.

Its always the headlights!

Ok, basically, all i did was change CV 117 on my Athearn Genesis SD45-2 to 20, and my headlights don't turn on. even though i keep resetting the locomotive, the lights do not come back on. Whats the story?

... did not disappear off the earth. His original screen name here was "Cid" and he had problems logging on, so he created a second account, "Cidchase". He asked me to fix things, and apparently I "fixed" things alright. I had to delete his "Cidchase" profile to change his "Cid" profile the way he wanted it, and I though I could move his posts to his old profile. Well, I deleted him and set up his old profile OK, but when I went to "move" his posts to the old name, bingo... it didn't work. :oops: So in case you were concerned, Cid Chase is here, he's just Cid... well, he is if I actually got the job done 2/3 right. I haven't heard back from Cid, so I don't know yet.

To those of you that have paper backdrops...
I don't recall who makes em right now but I've seen 'em at the hobby shop... they come in a square tubular box and you unroll the backdrop inside to find a nice picture. The question... when taking pictures of your layout, do these backdrops show glares, reflections, or flash highlights? I'm considering just pasting up a ready made backdrop picture as opposed to trying to paint my own but only if they are photography friendly.

Guys, I want to trace my track plan from the paper overlay onto the foam below and I've seen this thing that looks like a sprocket on the end of a handle. Any ideas where I could find one? I've looked at all the arts and craft stores and searched on the internet but have come up empty... well, not entirely... I did find out a lot about the tools needed to make pizzas and 500 ways to make a pizza.

I am adding a Gern facility to my layout. Some of this is already in existence as a truck manufacturing plant and just needed modification. This transformation actually started before I entered this contest. What has happened so far is not part of my entry as it is only cosmetic, such as signs. The facility already in existence is a simple scratch build from about 12 years ago.
My entry is a part to be added to this. Here are some pics of what I have done to this point. these have been posted earlier in the upper berth, under A FEW PICS GERN IN WV .




I am showing this to make sure I am not disqualified on a technicality. Also I have already begun my project a few days ago. So if this is a problem tell me now.I am using some out of the ordinary material. Here is what I have as of now.

This is 2" PVC pipe that I had just collecting dust.


This is what it looks like now.


Plastic Sign I picked up at LHS (local hardware store)


here I now have a top added to it.


Add some steps. and that is all for now.

Stay tuned for more updates

Well, well, today, June 17th is our "official" 6th anniversary. Yep, it’s hard to believe but it’s been six months since we opened Big Blue and welcomed all train enthusiasts. When we (Mikey and Don) started to seriously talk about reviving what was once a top-rated train forum, we had some rather large misgivings. Mikey had some eight years on the old Gauge, Don had almost six and it was difficult to leave all that we built up over that time. We really didn’t want to abandon all the information that was there, plus the tutorials and all those great pictures, wow; but mostly we thought about not leaving behind all the friends we made there. The question was, could we save what we had, or did we need to start anew? We concluded that saving the old Gauge was out of our hands and we had hoped that our friends would all agree, so, we decided to start anew. We wanted to make our new forum, look and feel the same as it was, when all our long time Internet friends were members of that close knit forum. Well you answered the question, and you followed us in droves. All of our staff followed us, and most all, joined our new staff. Some old staff members that had left because of the many changes that happened over time even joined us. The first day that we were open to posting here, we had a phenomenal number of posts and it hasn’t stopped since.

We are proud of what we’ve accomplished, it feels uh, comfortable again. We have close to 300 members and we’re averaging 100 posts a day, not bad for a “new forum”. We appreciate your support and your confidence in what we’ve put together here, and we assure you, that we’ll never let these forums get into the situation that has befallen us in the past. No ads, no unreasonable rules. Our growth has been slow but steady, and we think we’ve given you what you want, the ability to post pictures and links, our own chat room, the return of the Big Blue colors but most of all, a friendly place, that feels like home. Now, for those of you that have a hard time with our color scheme, hang in there. We’ve asked Pat to see what he can do to add another color style so you can have your choice, white text on blue, or black text on white. It’s not as easy a task as it might seem and Pat’s been a bit preoccupied, but it is on his “to do” list. Believe us, we listen to you. Some things take longer than others, but this is your forum, we just make sure it runs smoothly.

Aside from thanking you from the bottom of our hearts for being here, we can’t ask any more of you beyond that. Keep these forums what we intended them to be, a family-friendly place where good friends can come to get away from other worldly things and to share their experiences and information on all aspects of railroading.

Don (ezdays) and
Mikey (ngauger)
Administrators and co-owners of Big Blue