Eight miles of track in this German miniature world/model museum.

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Quote:HAMBURG - It's billed as the world's largest model train set — a miniature world that snakes along eight miles (12 kilometers) of track, amid fields, cities, even the snowcapped Swiss Alps.

And it's quickly becoming one of Germany's biggest tourist attractions.

Twin brothers Frederick and Gerrit Braun, 41, have turned their boyhood passion for model railroads into a lucrative private museum called Miniatur Wunderland that has kept adding track since its 2001 opening and drew 1 million visitors last year.

Since these aren't trains:










And this, which would make a fine depot but was, in fact, the old hospital:

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:hey: The Fourth Annual Ontario Narrow Gauge Show is less than a month away! :hey:

   

Mark Saturday April 18, 2008 on your calendar and plan to attend...

:hey: Please print the flyer. One for yourself and one for a friend, or Local Hobby Shop. Thanks

(I just figured out on my computer how to resize my photos for the web)

Here's a quick and easy listing of my engine collection (minus the two Kato E-8's in Southern colors just out of the camera frame and a Bachmann J-Class 4-8-4 in NW colors). I obviously have a problem with collecting too many engines (and I've got three more on the way...Bachmann UP DD40AX, Kato UP SD70ACe in Rio Grande Heritage colors, and a Kato BNSF SD70MAC "power wedge" scheme). I'm actually thinking of selling a few engines that I just don't run often (or at all). Almost all my engines have really low time - since I've torn down my old layout and am in the process of building another in DCC. But here's the collection...and I hope to take some real pictures of them at a later time and add them to this listing.

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Who knew that model railroading would prove a valid reason to get the wife to agree that we "need" a digital camera with a flash stick? She's tired of me asking her to photgraph stuff with her cellphone and then transmit it to the Sprint site and download it back to us. Can't blame her - only an outfit like Sprint could come up with such a cumbersome and unworkable plan in the first place.

I'm going to survey the house and see what else we "need". 8-)

Within a few months, I expect to begin converting to DCC. I have both HOn3 and HO locomotives. I am assuming I will have to get Z-scale decoders for the HOn3, and shove the decoder into the tender with a myriad of wires connecting to the locomotive. For my HO locomotives, I expect the same - decoders in the tender and the same myriad of wires.

Since I am new to DCC, can someone recoomend good, dependable decoders? My criteria: 1) I want to control speed direction and lighting only, I have 100% zero interest in sound. 2) I will have front and rear headlights only 3) My locomotives are all "old style" with the engine and locomotive each picking up current from opposite rails. I plan to make them so the tender trucks pick up from both rails, but adding extra wipers to the "insulated" side of the drivers could be tricky. I assume that means I will need 5 wires to run from the tender to locomotive - two for the motor, two for the headlight, and one to bring track current from the locomotive drivers back to the decoder. Am I correct here?

I need advice on what brand and model number decoders that will fit my criteria, and any installation tips. Thanks.

Here are the latest items i have for sale on ebay right now in case anyone is interested:

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/bnsfmodeler123

...And he hangs out at Hobby Lobby.

My wife wanted some items from Hobby Lobby for her current project, so I browsed the model railroad section. I never find anything, but it beats trailing along like an over-sized retriever.

I was looking at the tiny collection of N-scale rolling stock - nothing there for me - and spotted a long, rectangular plastic pack in a bottom tray which looked out of place. When I flipped it over, it turned out to be a brand new Bachmann Prairie 2-6-2, with a store sticker of $11.99. hock:

While Bachmann locos may not be the finest available on the market, I can be very forgiving for that price.

Morale: You never can tell.