TRACK TALK LIVE: November 2017

Hello, and welcome to Track Talk Live. I am Doug, Mr. Clickity, and this is Lillia. Hi. Our new moderator Steve is out and about doing other things and busy but he will come back periodically for a guest visits. And as you can see Lillia doesn't have a nickname on her mug yet. So we're working on a nickname for-- I just have a logo. So you should comment below a train related nickname that you think is appropriate for me. We're working on a nickname for a Lillia but I think this is gonna be great so send us your comments for sure. Yeah, all right and I just wanna remind you guys to follow us on all of your relevant social media channels so that you can know when we're doing another Track Talk Live and be notified of when we're going live. On Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram you can ask us your questions there and also be asking your questions below in the chat so we can answer them live. And also right below us you'll see a little banner to sign up for our newsletter which will also notify you when we're going live again. So without further ado let's just kind of talk about what you've been doing Doug and where you've been since the last Track Talk Live Well, Steve and I still work together so we inspire each other and you never know what's gonna happen from month to month. But this particular month I've been working on car loads. And as part of we do... We build system, move cars around in a realistic way and then of course if you have open cars you have to have a correct load. And so I've been working on some rolled a wire I guess it's simulate mesh loads using fiberglass screening And then tied with a thread and abandoned into the car so that's what I've been doing. Yeah, been on any interesting train trips or have any train trips coming up? Well I actually do have a trip coming up actually first of next week, I'll be out... I'm a big Southern Pacific fan as you know, if you've been watching these Track Talk Lives. And I'll be heading out to Santa Rosa, California North of San Francisco for the annual Southern Pacific Historical Society Convention. Cool, sounds really awesome. Well, like I said leave your comments below live and we'll answer them live but we'll go ahead with some pre-submitted questions and get going with what people have been asking. Let's do it. So our first question is from Danny from the US who is doing an N scale model. And Danny asks, "My question is about wiring. "I'm using a 14 gauge wire from my bus line "and I have two open line ends which is 23 feet "or should I have only one open line "which is 34 feet for DC or DCC?" We've had similar questions like that before and if your layout is such a configuration where you can make an entire loop around, that would equalize the voltage all the way around but it's not really that important. He's using a heavy enough wire, and generally if you have a stub ends at each end so basically your feed would come in on the center so sort of looks like a T-shaped the wiring. I mean that's fine, if the your power feed is in the center, then your voltage drop would be less and as you get out toward the two ends. And generally with that heavier wire the voltage drop is pretty much negligible anyway. All right, good answer. Our next question is from Jay, from Columbus, Ohio. "I'm just starting my model railroad. "I live in an apartment, so I don't have a lot of room. "I figured by modeling an N scale, I can do more with less. "So my question is for the framing "can I use one by twos and one fourth inch plywood? "Or do I have to use something stronger? "Say two by fours and half inch plywood. "Also, how long should the legs be? "Thank you for your help." Well, now did he say he wanted it to be portable? He did not mention. Okay, an N scale you're not talking hardly any weight. I mean the only... The critical structure would be to keep your layout level and true. You don't want it to be a warping and actually people nowadays are using like say aluminum structural components because they're easy to saw, you can stop them with a Hacksaw. And you got a lot of strength with very little weight. So he's saying he wanted to use quarter inch ship plywood probably? Yeah four half inch. I mean a quarter inch would probably be fine depending on the size of the layout. I mean, generally speaking that the thinner your substructure is, and the more framing need underneath to keep it from sagging or warping. So if I was him in his situation I would really consider using these structural parts. And you can buy those parts over at the home improvement stores. If you have like say a Home Depot in your area that type of thing, they come in various lengths up to eight feet long and you can bolt them together. It really it's pretty neat so you might consider that, then as far as height goes it really depends on your room. I mean from a CX standpoint the optimum height is high level because that's how you'd see a real trains, but sometimes in a room that's just too high it just it looks too So what I would say is just experiment maybe start a little higher than you think and you can always cut the legs off. And so people 48 has kind of a general base line rule. So I would say somewhere between 48 and 50, 52 somewhere in there is a good place to start. And watch your layout so just make it whatever is comfortable. It's your layout what works for you-- That's right, I got layout you can do anything you want. All right we have a live question from Eric in Montreal, Canada. Eric says "I'm looking for an electric system "because I want to install some lights "in homes in the streets, et cetera. "I've looked around and there's a lot of different systems, "is there one better than any others? "And what would you suggest?" Well there are a systems that made to be... A kind of fancy systems that are made to be compatible and plug in and all this and that and I'm kind of old school, I mean I don't mind doing it the old fashioned way where you actually use a miniature terminal strips underneath and then you would have a bus wire for your lighting just as you would have a bust wire for your train control. So you'd have a separate bus wire and a separate power supply that would run your lighting. And depending on whether you're using say a miniature bulbs or LEDs, sometimes people actually use two separate power supplies. One if you have a little miniature candescence and then a separate power supply, if you're using LEDs and that would mean then you'd have two separate bus wires and then you always do your bus wires in a different color wire so that you don't get mixed up later on. So each bus wire would be color coded or you can label them underneath your layout too but I don't mind doing it the old fashioned way. I mean, Woodland Scenics makes a real neat kind of a plugin thing that it's fine I mean I'm not putting it down, but I'm just kind I'm old fashioned I like doing it the old fashioned way. Sometimes if it's broken, you don't need to change it. Yeah so be sure to keep asking your questions live and we'll answer them live. So we'll go back to some of the other ones. This one is from Wally, from South America but who is modeling Southern Alberta. "In HO scale is there a rule of thumb "for how high the backdrop should be "so it looks just right higher than the tallest building "or some fixed proportion of the depth of the layout. "I have a four by eight table layout against a wall, "floor to ceiling is not feasible "and I believe it would look somewhat too much "because there would be more backdrop than layout." Well, there again there was a lot of variables. It depends on your room and the... All that but the rule of thumb is that for the most realism, your horizon line shouldn't be at eye level, to make it the most realistic. And so there if you're depending on your scenery, I mean we don't know if he's making mountain scenery or what kind of scenery but suppose that your horizon line is at eye level then you want your backdrop to come above that and it really... It's a personal thing, it's get depends on your room so I would say experimentation is the best. I would just... People can do... You can do a temporary backdrop using say foam core, do something sky blue, a pale blue and set it up there and see how it looks. And then if you like the way it looks then you can do a more permanent backdrop. But if you have any more particular questions on that be sure and send another email. Send them on in. All right, our next question is from Tom who is from Richland, Washington working in HO scale. And Tom asks, "How should a bit beginner approach "a first layout design in order to ensure smooth "reliable operations specifically. "And do you recommend DC or DCC?" Well generally your first layout you kinda consider that a practice layout. I mean very seldom the guys just dive into a big complicated project without a little practice unless you have a lot of help in your area that people have done it before and kind of guide you the right way. So I would say if you're gonna start a four by eight layout, just consider it practice, do everything carefully make sure that whatever you're using for track and road bed is done true. If you're laying out your curves for example and you have a particular fixed radius you wanna use and I always draw an arc on the tabletop before I put the track down so I know that I'm following that particular arc. And you can make a Trammel out of a yard stick and having a nail and a pencil clamped at either end and then just draw that arc. And that way it's true. I mean I think a big problem with people starting out as they if use a fixed radius curves they don't follow the prescribed radius and they end up with a kink at the rail joint. So you have a kink and of course your trains aren't gonna like that. Site down like a gun site and get your eyeball right down on the rail and site down there and make sure it's true. And as far as electronics goes DC is becoming homeless kind of archaic. I mean that was all we had in the old days but there's so much advantage to the DCC. And if you're buying locomotives of course you can buy locomotives that are DC and DCC compatible or DCC ready. But there again... If you wanna start with DC that's fine with the idea that should ultimately move up to a DCC because DCC really is the way to go. Everything is geared for DCC now. It's much easier to work. All right, good answer. Our next question is from Ian in the United Kingdom. So we got another one out of the country who is working in OO. Ian says "I want to build a collapsible eight "by four layout as I have limited space available." Again, another limited space from person. "Has anyone in your club got a basic layout slash "construction plan when folded down "I would like the layout to protrude no more than 12 inches "or less any help on this would be much appreciated." So he's talking about maybe a fall down like a drop leaf kind of an idea maybe but he wants to fold it up before he drops it down so that it's only one foot, which wouldn't but you stuck up the starting out with about a four foot. So you don't want it to fold into four sections and drop down. That's a lot of folding. That is a lot of folding. People use piano hinges for stuff like that that'll keep everything true. I mean, that's probably the best thing to do but the problem is is that if you have any kind of verticality on your layout, what are you gonna do with that? Like say you have a building, well what do you You can't fold that up with a building in place. So you'd have to take everything off and then even if your track was on a road bed that could raise the layout up a couple inches and then so when you fold it up you have to compensate for that, so that's all considerations, but there are like we talked about whit the earlier question you can certainly use these aluminum structural elements and put them together, like tinker toys. If anybody remembers tinker toys. I do remember tinker toys. And it's lightweight and very true and it makes it easy to follow up. Follow up. So that's what I'd recommend. But if you have any other questions again or more specific questions to be sure and let us know. All right, we got another live question from David in San Diego working in HO scale. One country Yeah, and he says, "Hi Doug, can you offer for any ideas "for reliable cleaning methods or products that can be used "for cleaning your track, any tips would be great." Well, there's a lot of controversy about that too. Some people like the liquid type track cleaners or oil type track, oil based cleaners like as an example, and or clipper oil some people use clipper oil and then other people just think that's horrible. So I found for personally these oil based cleaners tend to leave a little oil residue on the track, which to me attracts more dirt down the road. I mean any dust is in the air it's gonna stick. So I like to keep it dry and clean, I actually use the one of these foam sanding blocks If you're familiar with those. No I don't, What is a form-- Where you combine them in a home improvement store, it's basically, it looks so big size of like say a kitchen sponge or something and it has a foam inside then it's a, basically like a sanding surface on the top. And I use that and the neat thing about these foam blocks you can cut them down. I use a serrated bread knife so you can actually take these foam blocks and cut them to whatever we want. And as your viewers, know your regular viewers know I'm an S scale and I made my own track cleaning care. So it doesn't have to look pretty, you can saw this block down to the right size block of wood and then put some trucks and couplers on the end of it and pull it around. And that way another thing is as you detail your layout, it's hard to get in and clean your track without reconciling. So the best thing is to run trains that keeps the track clean. That was And it keeps the track polished and use a track cleaning care and like I said I like the dry method there is a bright it was a kind of a well-known abrasive block in the old days that you could buy. But now these foams I just recommend a foams They're good to go. You cut it to whatever size you need. They're customizable, that's always a good thing. Serrated bread knife. Whatever works, getting creative. All right our next question is from Charles who is currently in Berwick, Pennsylvania but originally from Charleston, South Carolina. Working in HO and scale asking, "Do you have any information "on kits or models available of the best friend, which ran "from Charleston to Hamburg a seed during the 1830s?" Very specif. Well, I am familiar with the best friend of Charleston. There used to be one... Oh God who made that it probably 50 years ago, I saw one out in the market. It was a plastic, I could... Maybe Bachman I don't even remember anymore but it didn't run very well because in those days the motor is warranted very good. I haven't seen anything recently but I would recommend maybe just Googling the best friend of Charleston and see what pops up. Yeah, I'd be curious to know so if you find something, let me know, Let us know. Let us know. All right, yeah you can find anything on Google most of the time. Just best friend of Charleston. All right, thanks for your answer. Our next question is from Dave who is from Bradford, Ontario, Canada HOn scale. "What's the best technique for building a lift out section? "Or is it better to go with a flip up, flip down "or swing out section?" Lots of questions about Well down there again. It depends on your situation. I mean if you're coming through a door and do you have scenery on this lift up. You want it to drop down and then every time you walk through there you hit this thing accidentally and it breaks something off and so there's all different kinds of ideas. I know of a guy who actually built a bridge as a lift out and he had it on kind of a track and it would go way the heck up the whole bridge, would go the way the heck up to the ceiling. So I mean generally speaking, you wanna do a lift out on straight track because if you try to do it on a curve, it's real hard to keep the-- Yeah keep it maintained. Curved rail aligned and everything. So I'd recommend straight track and then there are also kinda fill safe things you can do, contact you can put in that will kill the track as you get close to the liftoff. So somebody doesn't accidentally run a train off with the liftoff. So yeah, there again if you wanna send more specifics we can certainly talk about it. It really depends on your room and the space available, and if you have scenery on it or not all of that kind of thing. Lots of people looking to move and lift and flip and fold-- And again aluminum, they do things out of aluminum I mean it's so much more true than wood. I mean wood can work and usually these aluminum angles are structurally true and you can make a lift out of aluminum angle and it's really a slight weight and yet it's dirty and it's not gonna work on it. The good option. All right, we got another question live from John in Maine. He's working in HOn scale, "When creating a block building "do you have tips for painting the blocks to appear "that there's concrete between them?" So in between each one of those Well there's a various methods for doing that depending on really on the material you use. If you have a material that has decent relief in the blocks, you can actually paint the concrete blocks to start with the concrete block color or whatever you wanna be looking at. Then as far as the mortar goes, you can actually rub that in later and then take a... Well it can be, you don't want anything too soft when it's anyway like a rag, very smooth maybe a cloth rag or heavy paper towel, and wipe off the concrete blocks service and that will leave the paint in the recessed mortar lines Leaving on there and offer them So and that's one way of doing it. I mean you guys have different methods or there's guys who use like say marking pencils, you can buy a magic markers and any color you want nowadays. And so you can actually get a like say a gray marker and you can actually find point marker. You can actually take a gray fine point marker and draw it in. So it kind of depends on the relief of the material I think but there's some really nice stuff that's been done. It's got a few different different options there. Got another live question from Frank. Frank says, "I have a Weaver car in O scale "and the tracks are broken. "Where can I get new tracks that will work with this car?" Well, now you don't have to stay with a Weaver necessarily. Now you're talking... He didn't mention whether it was three rail or two rail, but yeah I mean there's a lot of parts available and it doesn't have to be a Weaver. So I would... Probably you could check with your local store and see if they recommend something or there again you could Google Weaver trucks. Freight car trucks and see what comes up and see if there's, I mean there's probably any number of brands. You might have to a little modification as far as mounting the truck 'cause they mount differently different sized screws and so on with a little of work you can make just about anything work. All right, we have a question from another Doug. Good name. Doug is from Verndale, Washington. Working and actually he says 3/16th S scale Ah, my buddy. So Doug and Doug working-- Yeah I like that good work. And he asks, "When you're handling a cold 125 rail or a 125 rail "should a person make their joints even "or uneven by a couple of inches." Well actually talked about this before on Track Talk Live. I'm doing industrial track work and S scale and I'm using code 70 'cause I wanted real delicate rail. But the actually the thing is if you lay your track true to begin with it doesn't really even matter. I mean the train shouldn't even know that joint is there. You wanna be assurance support your joint, sometimes the guys when they put in a say your real connector, your real joiner support that real joiner underneath in that gap. And then you can actually get a little bit of a sag right there at the joint. So no matter what you do you wanna make sure that your... Well we mentioned that earlier in another question. Make sure your track was true, no matter what you do. And then the joints should basically be invisible, the train should have no clue where the joint center, it shouldn't be no bump no anything if the joints so in that case it wouldn't matter. Alright thanks, Doug and Doug for that question. That scale stay in touch. All right, our next question is from Japan. From Toshia who was working in N scale and Toshia asks "How do you make people buy N gauge scale or N gauge size? "It's very small to make by hand, "and do you have any tips or tricks for making structures "on people N gauge size?" Well first of all there's a lot of product available on N scaling. He should be able to find N scale people fairly easily. I mean, you can go online and I know you can buy bulk on painted people. You can buy let's say a hundred people get a bag of unpainted people. And painted people obviously are more expensive but yeah I mean you're right the N scale is pretty small. I'm sure there are guys out there who can carve, people in the old days used to actually carve people out of wax. They make like a little stick figure out a wire and then carve it out of wax. But you have to be like a jeweler to do that Have one of those like eyeglasses-- And it same with their buildings I mean there's so much... There's just unbelievable amount of building material out now the wall surfaces, I mean anything wood, stone, concrete, tin, corrugated metal buildings and there's so much available. I don't think you'd have any problem and also we've talked on earlier shows about the fact that I like to mock up a building. I use the thin rigid cardboard and actually build a building shape and put that on my layout and see if I like the shape. If I don't like the shape, then I'll modify it. And then if you like the shape then you can actually put your final wall surface. Right on top of that mark up. Yeah, same with windows. You can adjust the windows and do I have all that in the mark up and that's how I'd recommend doing it. A lot of adjusting and readjusting-- You don't have to do the final thing right away. You can set it on your layout for a while and look at it and see what you think. And I mean this is a creative endeavor so you wanna just do the think about it for awhile. we have another live question from Michael in Iowa, working at HO scale like many others have been. "Do you have any ideas for creating large mountains? "What materials should I use?" Ah, well there is a new material out by Woodland Standing. So again is what do they call it? It's kind of a heavier material, I can't think of the name right now. Heavy material that you can form to shape but I think it's probably related to some kind of like industrial insulation material or something. And anyway that's one way of doing, I mean in the old day we would take a basically what would be chicken wire or a stucco mesh and shape it up that way. Because when you're building a big mountain there's no sense making it solid inside it's gonna be a hollow shell. Especially if you have tunnels and things you wanna have access and your tunnel because one thing, Lillia-- I know one thing. In model railroading, it never goes bad at the front. Oh, it's always in the back. There always go bad we can't get at it. So as soon as you put your track in a tunnel it's going to go bad so you wanna have access. So if you build a big a mountain of course you're gonna get in there and-- So much easier. And have access. We use hydrocolloid in the old days with paper towels, now they have the gauze material like the stuff you use a like a plaster cast. For a plaster cast they already has the material the plaster right on it so I do a soak it in water and you can lay it out and build it up and it's very thin but very strong. Actually-- So it's easy to move. And it's and the thing is if you do a few layers on it so not strong the people actually done it we can walk on it. I mean is that strong or lean on it and you have to get at something. That's what I'd recommend is something a hollow shell of with a support and then you can over the top of it. We use the... Once you get the Sheldon you could use any type of scenic materials over the top depending on what you're trained to create rock moles, or real earth or whatever. I can testify to the chicken wire. Actually I made a volcano in the eighth grade out of chicken wire and it was It has been used. Now if you want a volcano on your layout, contact Lillia. Can help me make everything, I don't know. I just want to take a little time here too to remind everybody to follow us on all our social media channels on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. So you can notice be notified about our next Track Talk Live and also sign up for our newsletter in the little banner at below this video and keep asking your questions live so that we may answer them. And if we don't get to your questions, send us an email and we'll try and get back to you as soon as we can. So without further ado, we'll go on to our next question. Another live one submitted by John. John says "I model in HO scale and have a bunch of Tyco cars "and was wondering what type of couplers were used "on them and how do I replace them if need be." Well if these are old Tyco cars, I wouldn't even try to replace those couple of Sorry John. By far and away the number one HO coupler is the Kadee. And a lot of these early Tyco cars had what was called a a coupler where the coupler was on a shank attached to the track so the coupler was swivel with the track as went around a curve and they were designed for very sharp curves on beginner layouts. Well the problem was those things it's really not the best setup because they tend to wanna pull the wheels off the rail on everything. And so basically what I would do is use Kadee couplers and there's a I don't know. Dozens and dozens of different styles of Kadee couplers that you can use for any kind of situation. But you can actually get a Kadee coupler that has a... Comes with the draft gear box that you can amount rigidly on the frame of the car like a real railroad car would have. And just don't make your curves too sharp, I mean that you don't want curves that sharp anyway so I mean 18 inch radius is really about the minimum you'll wanna go for HO. So you have no problem with 18 inch radius mounting your coupler right onto the frame of the car, rather than on the truck. And even a Kadee... Even the Tyco trucks can be replaced. Kadee makes a great line of freight tracks and other brands do too. So you can actually replace all of the running gear and then keep your Tyco car into a much better operating car. And then also... Wait we've talked about this in other shows, adding weight to your car. So generally the cars that are under weighted when you buy them. You have to weigh them down. Weigh them down a little bit, they'll track a long better. I'm learning a lot, I actually don't know We have another live question from Wayne "When joining track in any gauge, should you leave a gap "due to weather changes causing expansion and contraction "due to the temperature?" It depends on your room. All that is depends on the room, if you're building in an unheated on climate controlled room then you might have some of that movement. But generally speaking that's not that big of an issue. When you build a layout... you wanna build it structurally correct as we mentioned earlier make sure you build it structurally correct so there's no sags and sure you can get a little bit of expansion and contraction in the like say in the plywood. But if you're in a climate controlled room the temperature is controlled and the humidity is controlled so if it moves, it's not gonna move much. So if you're not in a climate controlled room, yeah you probably have to leave some room for expansion and contraction. Have you ever seen any really tragic examples of something in expanding too much? You know like that if the of the layout shrinks and then the track is gonna... To the rail joint and yeah that can happen or can pull apart on the other if you get humidity in the room and it expands, it can pull the track apart it can certainly happen. But you don't hear about that so much anymore 'cause people are... I think in the old days people were building layouts and basements and you don't let the spiders and the bugs and everything in. And it was a whole different situation, but now people are building layouts in a more controlled environment. There's a lot more climate control going around. Keep the bugs away. Yeah, there you go. Our next question is from Carl and Arkansas, working in HO. "What's the best way to do inclines, "and how do you best handle the height transition?" Ah, well in the old days you had to be pretty good at math to figure out the percent of great but nowadays you can buy digital levels. In fact, well I don't have my phone here, but the you can actually get an app for your iPhone that's will show you the gradient and percent. So you can actually-- You can... I mean you don't have to know anything about math. I mean basically the percent grade, like model railroads and real railroads are kinda similar in the fact that on a mainline railroad say two, two and a half percent grade is really about as steep as you wanna go. Well, that would be two and a half inches in a hundred inches is a 2% or in a real railroad it might be two and a half feet and a hundred feet but anyway that's the ratio. So a hundred percent grade would be a 45% incline. And so if you get a you can buy a digital level of your home improvement store a little digital level and read it right up. So if you stayed to two and a half percent for a mainland railroad, for a logging railroad, or mining railroad, or branch line you can go three, maybe even 4% 'cause the railroads had to do that to get to these more locations. And then you wanna make sure that if you're going over another track, you have the right amount of clearance. Now like it show you need three inches of clearance. Three inches. But that's for the most extreme modern equipment. So if you're doing something old time, smaller equipment you can clear two and a half two and three quarter inches. You got answer. We got another live question from Thomas who says, "Hi Doug, any tips for creating ripples in the water, "on his layout?" Ah, well to start with, you need the base surface and you can use... The people use... There's magic water from Woodland Scenics, people use the varnish, you can use gloss medium depending just to get the lake surface in. And then the color in and if you use something like loss medium, you actually do that in multiple coats you don't try to do it all at once. Then people if you do multiple coats it's kinda need 'cause you can take like say an old tire, and throw it in the water and kinda buried in the water if you have a like say a dock or I don't know something like that bridge in the water then you can actually... It'll actually be submerged in the water. So once you get the actual surface in there then you can whip up waves or currents. And I think the easy way to do that is to use what's called a gloss gel which is available in art stores. Like a Michael's there on the country, Michael's are all over the country. So place like Michael's you buy what's called a gloss gel and it's white, it kind of looks like... I don't know like white glue kind of but then a dry is clear. So you can like say you wanted to do like foam or something at the bottom of a waterfall maybe something like that, you can actually add color to it. If you don't want it to be crystal clear, you can actually put color in it. I like to use a colors, I used to color iridescent white, it's a different name now but it's actually kind of a fluorescent white kind of a color that just really looks like for me water. Okay and so you can mix that in with this gel and the neat thing about this I mean it's kind of a slow process, but maybe in a in a way that's good because you gonna just keep playing with it until you get it the way you want it. so then when you add the color to the gel does it dry like transparent with the color or does it become more opaque with the colors? Well it depends on which color you put in now. I mean, 'cause it's a clear base and so you can play with it I mean, I've seen people actually put fish, bigger scale we actually put fish in the water. You put the fish in there like a little wires sticking up from the bottom you put a fish in there, then you bury the fish in the water. So yeah there's... You can do pads and that kind of thing the same way. So yeah and as with a lot of things in model railroading there was more than one way to do everything. So that's how I do it and that's kinda that's my technique. And I like it, it works out well. And then actually too if after a while I'd say maybe a year later, if you're looking at the layout looking kind of dusty and funky put another coat of There you go, it just become-- Look like glass, yeah. All right our next question is from Mike, from Conroe, Texas working in HO only he specifies, "I have a 16 by six work table that I'm trying to create "a layout into my garage, but every layout I set it up on "it doesn't seem to satisfy what I'm trying to create. "I would like to set up a prototype of the Chicago "and Northwestern but I can't get the distances "from Chicago to Wisconsin without running out of room. "Do you have any suggestions? "Also I have quite a few old locos that I have not run "since the 1970s most, no longer run. "Who can I call to have them serviced in the area?" specific. Well, let's start out with the first one. Okay, so now in HO scale 60 feet is a scale mile. So like I say you wanna go from Chicago to Wisconsin that's what... How far isn't a hundred miles to the state line I don't know, say it's a hundred miles. Okay 100 miles from Chicago to Wisconsin that would be times 60, that'd be about 6,000 feet, right? So that'd be a pretty big layout. That's a big way. So anyway yeah either you have to use a little creativity, a little theatrics and try to maybe a lot of people only have say you have 60 feet that's only one mile and your whole lab is only one mile long. So you have to use creativity and theatrical and try to make it look like a much longer distance and it really isn't. There scenic tricks, few blocks, a little peekaboos, and scene breaks, and all this kind of thing that you can use to.. You're in Chicago and then boom all of a sudden 10 feet later you're in Wisconsin. So yeah I mean you have to use... This is it's creative three-dimensional art is really what this is. And then you have to use your own imagination and creativity to make it look like you're going from Chicago to Wisconsin. And then what was the second part of the question? Asking about... Well let me find it back on here again. He has some old locomotives that haven't been running since the '70s and he was wondering who he could get them serviced by or if you have cars that are no longer running how do you get them running? Well there again, I mean the technology has changed so much and even the manufacturing process all those computer design and all that stuff I mean everything is made now is so much better than what you would have bought in the '70s. I mean it's hardly worth even fixing up this old stuff, I'm sorry but I mean the motors are so much better, the detail is better, everything is better. And so I'm sure there are people around that can maybe fix that stuff but unless there's something you really, really love and wanna preserve, I mean I would just suggest starting over especially there again with the DCC. Now you can buy locomotives that are either already have DCC in them or DCC ready where you can just plug in a decoder. I mean, why in the heck would you try to a lot of work to fix up this old stuff when it was just not gonna be anywhere near as good as the new stuff. You can upgrade it. Yeah, sorry. All right, our next question is from Bill another live question. Is there a recommended distance between layers on a multi-layer layout? Well, probably I say that there's so many of these answers are-- Subjective. You see how subjective and depends on your room and there's also how far over, let's say on your upper level how far over the lower level is the upper level been hang. So typically your upper level wouldn't protrude as much as far out as your lower level 'cause otherwise it's gonna block the view of the lower level and so there's also lighting considerations. I mean usually like your lighting, your lower level with light from the underside of the upper level so there's lighting considerations and all that so it's really there's so many variables. And then your layout height again as we talked about earlier, I mean how far off the floor you're doing this whole thing and then how far are these levels separated? Sometimes people incorporate the two, different level into one scene. Maybe like it was a big tall mountain or something, but then other times you want them scenically distinctly different. and so there's so many variables if you wanna send me more specifics on what you're doing, or you send photographs you can email photographs I be happy to help you out in more detail. Send in your photos we'd love to see them. All right, our next question is from Clay in Hampstead, Maryland working in O scale. What is the best method for stripping paint from a postwar Lionel F3 engine? That's a specific question. Yeah, well-- Or stripping paint-- Postwar is probably plastic, I would guess. I mean, you don't know how far postwar we're talking here, but anyway the plastic they used in those days was I don't know it was pretty tough stuff. They made those locomotives, that kid could throw it across the room and it wouldn't break, I mean it was really tough. And so that shell would probably take just about any kind of stripper. We mentioned earlier, maybe a show or two back about this scale code two stripper which is supposed to be a nontoxic stripper that will work on even more modern plastics. You have to be careful not to use too toxic a stripper because you can actually melt your plastic even to toxic aside from breathing this stuff. So I would say maybe try some of that scale coat two stripper and see the other thing is the paints. It could be like an old lead based paint on this locomotives so you don't know about the composition of a plastic, you don't know about the composition of the paint and so you're gonna have to experiment and I would start out with that scale coat two stripper they say it a little strip just anything. So I would start out with that and see what happens and go from there. Workup from there. All right the next question is from Andy in Southampton, working in OO gauge, what is the best magazine to buy to look at train layouts on a six by four baseboard please, as I have just started in model train world? Well, it's hard to say like one particular publication is better than another 'cause they try to do a lot of different types of layouts. Big layout, small layout, shelf layouts, switching layouts and all that and you didn't say exactly what you want to model. I would say the first thing is to have kind of a little backstory for your railroad and say okay I wanna model, whatever it is a mining railroad, or a logging railroad, or a mainline railroad, and then kinda work backwards into actually what you wanna build. And then no matter where you are, there's gonna be some other model railroaders around like clubs groups. People. Yeah and I would talk to two other people who are in your area and see what they're doing and ask them questions. So many experience modelers and get some background information and you can always get hold of us. And we'll try to help you in more detail once we... That any of these questions we'll send as much background detail in as you can so that it helps us to answer the question. The more information, the better. We have a live question from David who was working in S scale recommendations for creating a split rail fence. Ooh, well that's a pretty interesting question. Well especially in S scale 'cause you're getting to be a bigger scale, I mean you almost have to do a real wood fence. I mean I don't know if anything that's gonna look as good as real wood. I mean it's gonna be a lot of work. So be ready. But yeah, I mean you have to the holes and the posts so you stick the... Yeah, I mean you kinda shave the wood. I mean and I know guys who actually use real wood you go out like do your neighbor's hitch steal some sticks stuff off your neighbor's hedge that look good and shave him down and he didn't say how long fence he's gonna make but I mean it's gonna be a lot of work but if you want it to look good you almost have to do it on a little you can buy it of course models, strip wood but the strip but I'm also looks too nice. You know what I mean? That's too perfect you want something that looks kinda like right straight out of the woods. Speaking of using real materials, our next question is from John and Bellingham, Washington who asks "What do you think about using real dirt for roads "and or what are your favorite dirt "materials to you use?" Ah, well it's kind of interesting and this is a Gatorade, involves Gatorade Gatorade-- When you're traveling. I would have not have guessed that. Well we buy a Gatorade and then of course you drink the Gatorade first and you've got this leftover bottle is wide mouth bottle. And so if you're traveling around the country there's different soils, so I would always have an empty Gatorade bottle in the car and if I saw something to look good I just scoop it up, throw it in the jar and then put it in my suitcase and ship it home. And then generally you have to sift it, I mean you're talking but you get some stuff that looks pretty close and then sifted and there depending on the locale I mean, now I'm doing Southern California where everything is kind of just sort of a ten-- Yeah Sort of a ten soil color, so it depends on your soil color too. I mean there's a... I'm working with a guy who was doing Arizona's that kind of a red rock color and then if you go with a Gatorade bottle and steal the gravel off of a baseball field, that red gravel I put on baseball dominoes at night-- Just settle it Go steal some of that red stuff and shift it down and there you go. So yeah just keep your eyes open no matter where you are, I even swapped out my garage like in the winter here in Minnesota you get to the junk in the garage and it's just like real dirt but it's already kinda powdery by the time the ice melts and everything and you get this pottery stuff and so I have a collection of all different kinds of stuff and just play with it. Yeah it's wonderful I love nothing looks better than the real stuff The real dirt. Our next question is from Brian also live. "I recently dismantled my HO scale and now in progress "to rebuild it, what be the correct height for my baseboard? "I'm five, seven in height." Is baseboard, you mean the base of his layout? Yep. Well out there again a lot of people start out with 48. It just because it's easy if you buy a two by four and an eight foot two by four and you're cut in half 48, that's kind of a standard for a long time, but I would start out with 48 and it doesn't seem right. Take the off and saw I'm down. Nothing in stone in model railroading, You know what I mean? If you build them off and you don't like it, smash it up, start over. They can Let's take it... So anything the first time doesn't have to be permanent. You stand it up, maybe you don't even screw the legs on or both legs maybe just put clamps on, you clamp them up and you say okay look at it for a week or two. I'm gonna sound that so just try it out Look at it from every angle, stand close, stand If you get a two tall, I mean they also wanna have access. So if you get the layout too tall then it might prevent access depending on how deep your layout is, you can buy a stool, or they have those automotive type ladders that are sort of like a diving board that hang out and you see guys to get those where you can actually lay in it on your belly, like a on a diving board and work on your layout. It's just kind of a weird but it's working but-- Maybe it's comfy, who knows? But anyway, so I would just try it out and there again let us know what you decide. Yeah, if you ever have any feedback, send it in-- Yeah we like to hear how people are doing. How are they working. Our next question is from EJ in Florida working in HO scale, "I have electrical "or electrical is the hardest part of the hobby for me. "What suggestions do you have that might make it "easier to learn more or make it easier?" Or make it easier-- Well, that's a pretty general question too but we were talking about DCC and DCC has really made the hobby a lot easier because in a simplest form especially basically just two wires to the track wonder which rail on the way to go. In the old days if you wanted to run multiple trains you had to have blocks and toggle switches and all this stuff, and there's all kinds of operator error involved with everything and it's... So the basic thing is start out simple I mean you can make it as complicated as you want but start out simple, if you're gonna go you can buy a basic DCC system, very simple like a one amp system for... I dunno, probably 300 bucks say, and two wires, hook it up to the track and go. And then learn as you go you can certainly send us questions as many as you want and we'll help you along with it but don't let the wiring scary. I mean you can go, there are guys that go computer systems and all that stuff. You can go completely crazy if you want to but you don't have-- If that's your thing-- Yeah, you don't have to. All right, I also wanna just a moment to remind everybody to again follow our social media channels to get great tips and also learn when we're doing our next Track Talk Live. So Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and also sign up for our newsletter, which is another great option to see all of our new content that's coming up. And again, when we're doing another Track Talk Live so be sure to follow us and sign up below and keep sending your questions and we'll try and answer them in the time we have left, but if not send us an email and we'll try and answer your question that way as well. Our next question is from John in Oregon, working in HO a lot of HO. "I just bought an AR1 auto reversing unit "and four optical sensors, has anyone used a setup "like this to run a trolley forward and backwards? "Is there a way of having the trolley pause "before returning the trip? "I have relays and diodes on my toolbox, "thanks for the help and I don't want a bunch "of other ideas presented." Well AR1 as I remember, that's a circuit tron board and it seems to me that there is maybe it's the next kinda step up in that board. But I think there is a way you can actually reverse the polarity of the track right as part of that just single board. Normally like with a trial if you're doing something like that it doesn't have to be DCC 'cause it's so simple. And if you use DC all you have to do is reverse the polarity, so generally speaking, what happens you have that AR board which will works off of a photo sensor when the trolley hits the photo sensor, it reverses the polarity. But and I think there's also a time delay, you might talk or get ahold of go online or call secretary and I know Steve and secretary very well, call him up and just tell him what you're doing. And I think there's a particular board, or maybe an add on board that would give you the reversing relay and a time delay. Complicated wiring in there, all right-- Well that too, really it's not pretty simple. I mean 'cause these boards are pretty straight forward and there Steve designed these back in the DC days and so they're really designed for that type of operation. Cool, all right our next question is from Lloyd in Issaquah Washington N scale. And he was wondering what your favorite commercial products are for telephone and power lines. Ooh, well there is a... As you by my remember the manufacturer now there's a line called Easy Line and I wish I could remember who the manufacturer this. Now but anyway you can look it up on online under Easy Line and it's the coolest stuff. It actually drapes, in the old days people would try to use thread but I wouldn't really hang/ ride that you had to pull it really taught and it was too stiff looking. And so there's easy line that comes in different thicknesses and different colors, and it's so cool. It actually it will drip like a real line and it's kind of springy. So if you're working on your lane and you accidentally hit it just kinda springs back, yeah it's it's a stuff. I don't know where it comes from, but it is so cool and so basically you stretch it in between the insulators and put those little very small dot of superglue right at the insulator and then just kind of let it drape and go to the next poll and then do the same thing, a very tiniest bit of superglue and it works great, it's the best stuff ever. Sounds good to me. All right we have a question from Tom in Kentucky, working in HO. And this is... Let me see if I can say this right here. Did you tracks Zephyr controller? Can you measure the output voltage, if you can I'm only getting 0.5 volts full of throttle. I get 13.52 at both DC volts. It's a complex Did you track DCC system? Yep. Well because DCC is not a ... It's a carrier at since a 14 volts alternating current carrier voltage with a radio signal superimposed on it, she can't use a regular meter it's not gonna work. You're just not gonna, there's too many different things going on in that signal so generally speaking our power supply itself would be a little higher voltage say 16 volt going in and AC into your... And then depending on the current, like say that I'm not sure what current reading that is, let's just pick a number, say it's a five amp I can't remember for sure. But anyway say it's a five amp so you'd have a power supply that would handle the current for that unit. And then it goes into the Zephyr box which is like a little brain and it switches everything around, does a lot, it takes the signal and sends out the correct signals from the throttle and all that kind of stuff. And there are a meters that will read the voltage. Tony's train exchange out of Essex junction Vermont makes one out of there... Well seems so bad at names anymore anyway, in their electronics parts that they actually designed themselves. And it's actually as a DCC meter that you can mount on your layout or use it as a remote unit you can actually sell a little bezel reconnected monitor right on the face of your layout and reads not only the voltage, but the current as DCC. And that's what I would recommend getting, most everybody I work with has one of those meters and it's really great. Super handy. So you might contact in Tony's train exchange. Tony's train exchange get a should be good. We got another live question from Bill at what distance should feeders be put in the layout that connects to the bus wires or around the layout that connects the bus wires? What distance would they be? Well that kind of the general rule of thumb is like six to eight feet, Six to eight. Roughly I mean that can very depending but the other thing is if as we talked about how things go bad in the back. If you got some track it's hard to access I would put in extra feeders because if the real connector is gonna go bad to always go bad in the back never right in the front. Or you can't get it. Yeah, so I would say at least every 68 feet if you have more switches and things in a kind of more complicated track work it might be better to put more feeders in just to be safe. If it goes bad in the front you can always add another feeder, it's real easy. But in the back. But yeah generally speaking 68 feet 68 feet, all right we got a question from Paul in Birmingham, UK. Working in at says NHO and British OO skills-- All right. So a variety of skills. "Can you suggest a relatively inexpensive way "of adding locomotive and rolling stock zoned "on a DC layout? "DCC is not an option for me as I have too "many locos varying in vintages to economic proposition "to change over." And he lives in the UK, he wants to just remind. Well there were some simplistic systems that worked with DC and basically there were a kind of a sound module you can put in the locomotive and as you increase the speed of locomotive of course that would increase the voltage and the track. And so it's like a volume control, as you increased the voltage it got louder. But the trouble is there's so little of that stuff available anymore 'cause everybody's going DCC. So there might be some old units around the predecessor to soundtracks and next decoders out in Colorado now they had, it was a throttle up I think it was the brand. They actually made soundboards-- Specifically. But I'm sure they don't make them anymore, but they might look up that name throughout a lot by I mean there are other people that would put like speakers around it layout and like hide speakers and buildings or something so it kind of seemed like it was coming from the track kind of thing. And then, oh men they would use like detectors so that when your train is in a particular area that particular speaker would be on and that kind of thing. But I think that's so complicated and I just... But I know the problem of switching your locomotives over to DCC because you have to put decoders in every locomotive. And if you want sound are a hundred dollars a piece to put us on decoder and so we're good luck and let us know what you come up with. What'd you come up with yeah. We have another person Everett in Portage, MI who is also working in multiple skills. GSO and HO, who was asking "How do I create a "layout that I can incorporate multiple scales in "and how do you suggest to group them?" Can you do as the multiple skills in layout? Well people have done that for the skits into the theatrical. Or you do at the bigger scale in the foreground and then use forced perspective as you go back and then the smaller stuff is in the back. So it actually works I mean that's called first perspective. And people have done some really cool stuff with that, I mean can do that I mean in a some plastic thing like seen people like say you wanna do have an HO layout, you wanna do a ranger tower away in the back. We can have it's bits little four stranger tower and the top of the mountain this not HO scale, but it forces that perspective. And so yeah basically I would say use the bigger scale in the foreground and then work toward the back with your scale. And wouldn't be the most natural way to do it. Yeah, line them up in order sort of there. Cool, all right our next question is from Joseph in Virginia working in HO scale, " I own four Bowser steam locos " and would like to know what motor I could use instead "of the DC 70?" Ah, well Northwest Short Line is they make an amazing amount of stuff. I don't know how they even keep track but they make so much stuff. But Northwest Short Line makes Can motors in just all different kinds of sizes, and diameters, and lengths and I mean they make a million I don't know where they come in. Anyway all these different motors and you can... And they come in millimeter size they measure the inside of your Bowser boiler and see what diameter motor would fit inside of there. And that's what I'd recommend, and generally speaking those motors around they don't mount the way an old DC70 would you just basically model in silicone you can just lay it your motor in the bit of silicone and then it's sound isolated and everything and it's just perfect. And then Northwest Short Line makes universal joints and flywheels and all that work along with your motor so I would say go online check out Northwest Short Line, well measure the inside of your locomotive to see what it'll fit and then look at all the parts they have. Just they're they're a fantastic operation, they've done so much for the hobby of model roadway. That's cool, all right our last question that we have time for is another live one submitted by Lou. Lou says "I have an O scale layout "that I'm using an empty HTIU." I'm not sure what that means. "And handheld a DC remote controller. "There are three separate transformers running "three loops that connect to each other via switch tracks. "All wiring works great usually, but now and then I get "shorts when I'm passing from loop to loop. "This seems to happen only when I have too many engines "on the tracks. "Any thoughts on my issue would be appreciated?" Well, well it's hard to I'm not quite sure what that would be without seeing the setup it's possible that it could be if you're running a lot of trains at the same time, you're overloading the system. I mean it just you're... It's all scale takes more current than a smaller scales and it could be that you're just overloading the system you get on, you're crossing over to the on another line which has another power supply and then all of a sudden this power supply is getting all this current draw and it can handle it. So that guessing that would probably be the most likely reason. The most likely. Yeah but let us know if you figure out something I'd like to know what you find out. All right, I just like to remind you one more time to follow us on all of our social media channels and sign up for our newsletter below this video and the little banner so that you can be notified about our next Track Talk Live get all of our great tips and tricks and do you have any closing comments for us Doug? Well thank you for being a great new moderator. Thanks for having me. And as always . Run trains. Bye, see you next time.