TRACK TALK LIVE: December 2017

Hello and welcome back to Track Talk Live. I'm Ms. Choo Choo and we're here with Mr. Clickity here. Mr.

Clickity. And we're welcoming you back for another great episode of our live show. I just wanna remind you to ask questions at any time in the chat right below here so that we can answer them live in time. But first let's talk about what you've been up to since our last live show. What's new in your world, Doug?

Well Lily, it's great to see you again. And well yes, I've actually been, I'm in S scale as I've mentioned. And I've got a locomotive that hasn't been in production for about five years. I got it through eBay which is what you have to do in S scale because there so a little available but I've got work to do on it. It came was a DC locomotive.

And I actually have added a DCC decoder to it so it will run in DCC. Then I have plans for extra detailing and then weathering. So, normally when I do this stuff, I have to make a little chart because I forget.. Keep organize ...what I'm up to. So I make a chart for that locomotive and all the things I wanna do to it.

Decoder, then there's headlights and so on and so on. Make sure it's oil and grease. If it's been sitting around a long time that kind of thing. So anyway, that's one of my projects since we've. Keeping everything.

Since I've seen you. Fresh and new. Have you been doing anything Christmas train related? Like seasonal holiday? Well, to be honest not really.

When our son was young, we used to put up an American flyer train that I still have. Like around the tree? But we haven't done that for years. Maybe we should do that actually. Maybe it's time to get the train back on.

Feel seasonal stuff. It's fun. I mean, people my age think of model trains and Christmas because a boy my age kid, I mean, model trains was a best thing. Best Christmas present. Best present.

Hours of entertainment. All right, so like I said before, keep asking your questions live in the comments below and we'll try to answer them. Also, if you look below the video player you'll see a sign up for our newsletter banner. So sign up to be notified when we're doing Track Talk Live again, get some great tips and tricks in your email and be notified of what Model Railroad Academy is up to. But without further ado we'll get into some of the questions.

All right. So our first question here says help, please, Doug. And then in parentheses, Ms. Choo Choo, which I have now officially adopted as my Model Railroad Academy name. So Ms.

Choo Choo here in the building. Very good. With all of the different pins out in DCC, where does one start? I've seen from eight to 21 pin so far and I'm baffled befuddled bewildered and bemused, all of those. Well, all of those at one time.

Well, the 21 pin connector is a connector that's used between the decoder and the cable that connects to it. And normally you don't even mess with that. I mean, that's basically a factory thing you plug it in. The other end that cable that your typical decoder a plug that plugs into a locomotive. If you're a locomotive as DCC ready it'll have a plug there with a dummy, a jumper plug in it already.

So that it'll run on DC. Then you convert it to DCC. All you do is take that dummy plug out and plug in this new one, which is an eight pin. And the eight pins are pretty much straightforward. There's track power, two wires for track power, two wires for motor power.

And then there's a common and the ground and lightning connections. And then usually a couple of wires for other things you might wanna do to automate off of the DCC. So it's pretty straight forward. And there are, we could actually show maybe even on the next show, we could bring a diagram that shows the color code because all the color codes are standard within the whole the realm of DCC, all the manufacturers. Easy to see it all, visual help.

So when you see the color code it makes a lot of sense. All right. I don't know if I mentioned if that question was from a Scott in Gopher Ridge, Florida, who was an HO. So I'll say that from no on in front of your question. Our next one is from Rick in Anthem, Arizona, also in AO.

And he's asking, what's the easiest way to wire track signals to function with Atlas code 83 track to show turnout positions very specific? Well, there are more than some more than one answer to that question. Generally speaking, if you have a way to operate your switch, let's say you're using, let's just say a circuitron tortoise which is real common. A circuitron tortoise has auxiliary connectors on it. So when you throw the switch and not only has a context to throw the polarity of the frog, if you have an electro frog switch but also extra context that you can use to operate a signal to show you the switch position and that's the the easy way to do it.

In the old days with DC, you could actually have a led work off the polarity of the frog, but it's different now a DCC because a frog doesn't work the same way. So the best thing is to have some kind of a controller for your switch as a caboose, hobbies makes a ground throw switch. If you wanna throw your switch manually you can buy a ground throw switch that's still has exhilarated context built into it for a signal. So a few options there, variety. Our next question is from Carl in Arkansas also HO.

A lot of HO already. Carl says that he is six foot three. And is wondering what you think is an ideal viewing height for a model railroad? Well, normally the rule of thumb is chest high for the best viewing angle. If you get a too low it's like you're in an airplane looking down at it.

And so you wanna get more like a natural viewing angle, which is about chest high. But of course, if you have a big layout or a layout that's deep and you need to reach over it. That can be a problem. So sometimes people lower the layout just so they have better access. And you know, 48, 52 maybe even 54 is pretty standard for most layouts.

Ideally you could get like a mechanical table and lower it down to work on and then hire it up to view. There you go. I don't know where you'll find one. And there is a ladder kind of a gizmo. You can buy those kind of like a diving board thing on wheels and then it hangs over the top.

It's for working on cars actually So you can lay on this thing and work in your layout, but it's kind of weird. 'Cause you have to lay on your belly like on a diving board and work. Not super comfortable. It's a little kind of a strange position. Kind of get used to that.

All right, our next question is from Jim in Ohio, also in HO, do modelers typically spray with Dell coat on their models that have been with weathering powders? Does a clear coat change the look of the weathering and is it necessary? Well, it depends on your weathering chalks. The higher quality weathering chocks have a fixative built right into them. And it actually works off of a heat.

If you a scrub of say, you're putting your weathering chalks on with a little brush. Sometimes people use a toothbrush or a small stiff bristle brush. If you rub them in their friction generates enough heat to actually settle them onto the car. So you shouldn't have to worry too much about the chalk where, The powder. Coming off when you handle it.

But well, another rule of thumb is I don't mean, I don't handle my cars all that much once weather them either I try not to handle them too much, but you can certainly put a fixed the tube over the chalk. People do that. It may change the color a little bit there again, depending on the type of chalk, a little experimentation would be in order. And just to see, try it both ways and see what you think. Test it out before you put it on there.

Try it on something. People go to a, you go to a flea market, buy just a car for a dollar or something and practice on it. You can practice on it with not only chalk weathering, but with paint weathering or any ink weathering and any of these other things to it. Just use it as an experimental surface. Practice on it.

Practice makes perfect. Our next question is live from Jim also modeling and HO. I have an HO around the room layout. I'm starting to wire it for DCC. I'm going to use Wago connectors instead of suitcase connectors.

Have you ever used this type of connector? That I'm not familiar with that connector? I'm sorry Wigo or Wago. If it's kind of like a suitcase connector. I know people sometimes have trouble with suitcase connector.

If you don't have the right kind of tool sometimes the connector doesn't actually crimp square on like it should. You don't make a good connection. And so I understand that. I mean, some people just strip the bus wire and solder right onto it. I've seen other people use wire nuts.

So whatever works good for you, I'd say use but I'm sorry I'm not familiar with that connector. All right. Our next question is another live question from Roger. Any tips in using static graph application in general? And have you had any problems mixing various types of graphs in the same time, color or size?

No, I really haven't had any trouble mixing the different kinds of graphs. I found that the actual static graphs the machine is you need use the heavy duty one. The early battery model battery powered models just didn't have enough power to really make that static grass stand up. So I'd get the, one of the I like the plug-in ones, the plug-in 110. Then they use the battery to run them, but or a battery eliminator, well like a wall transformer to run them.

But that's what I'd recommend. So get a high power, steady graph machine. High power. And it really, it should work well. Good answer.

All right, our next question is from Steve in Red Bluff California, working in G-scale. I'm a newbie here. I'm planning on running a sealing train with approximately 120 feet of track. Will my USA trains power 10 be able to handle that much track? And do you have any suggestions for me on my layout?

Well, you have a tan 10 amp power supply which is more than enough to run a USA trains. And the only thing I would suggest is that over time your rail connectors can get corroded or dirty. And so I would put feeders in every, if you did a memory 10, 12 feet even that would be great. To make sure you have even power all the way around the loop. You don't want your train to slow down on the far side.

So you wanna keep even power all the way around. So spread some feeders out and you should be fine. Prevent it from slipping and stuff. And then you can run your bus wire over time to shelf. You can run your bus wire light along the backside of the shelf, lay it right there and then connect your feeders right to it as you go.

Easy peasy. All right, our next question is from John. Which DC system do you recommend? I've worked on layouts with Digitrax and NCE. I see differences but wondered about what issues you've heard from other modelers?

Well, there's a lot of controversy on that. Everybody seems to have their favorite but personally I have NCE. And when all that stuff first came out we had a discussion among kind of our local group. And we decided that we thought that NCE was easier to use. I mean, they're all interchangeable and it just the how the controls work and all that.

So, I don't wanna get all kinds of cards and letters saying that I dissed Digitrax, but personally I like NCE. I think it's real easy to use. That's my, just my personal personal opinion. Not trying to cause any controversy. Personal opinion.

Just, there you go. All right, our next question is from Michael working in HO scale in Colorado. What can I use to freshen up my trees? They are drawing up. Well, they kind of the floral trek is to use glycerin.

The glycerin will, if you just take, like if you're making a trees out or something real like some kind of real foliage you can, or laken you can actually dip it in glycerin. And that will absorb into the whatever you're using and preserve it. But also you can use the, what I do is if my trees are starting to look kind of sometimes the foliage kind of gets dusty or dirty or the color starts going away. I'll just take some spray glue and spray the tree and then add a little more say ground form or whatever your particular foliages in the tree just add another layer onto the tree and it kind of brightens it up. Freshens it up?

Freshens it up Would you recommend for trees drying out like doing any kind of temperature control or humidity control in the room? Could that be causing it too? I mean, if your train room gets real dry depending on where's this. Colorado If you're train room gets real dry it could be your scenery is drying out. I mean, the best thing no matter where you live is to keep a constant temperature and humidity in your train room.

So, if it's too dry, you can add a humidifier. If it's too damp, you can add a dehumidifier and so on but yeah, to keep even a temperature and humidity is great. I mean, for expansion and contraction as far as the track goes and everything it's a good idea to keep it clean. And then some people actually buy a portable air filter. So you can actually buy a freestanding air filter and then it'll circulate the air and keep the dust down.

I know that's a huge problem in Colorado. The dry air. All right. Next question is from Dallas in Brisbane, Australia. Working in HO, I'm just changing from DC to digital.

Is it possible to mix products from different manufacturers? I have a basic Roco multimodal system. And I'm wondering if you know the data stream is compatible with any other digi systems? Well, all the DCC they're sold in the US. Now I can't say it's true for Australia, but all the DCC that sold in the US is designed to be in NMRA compatible, National Model Railroad Association compatible.

And so all the manufacturers will intermix, which is really good. So you don't have to stay with just one brand, I mean. Widens your options then. And I'm sorry, I don't know exactly what's going on in Australia, but Roco was is known worldwide. And I would assume that Rocco is following the NMRA standards.

Well known brand, probably should be. All right, good answer. Our next question is from Terry, I have a G-scale aristocraft to craft a locomotive, and I've been looking for some powered tracks for an SD45. Any idea where they could be located? Boy, Aristo that's too bad.

Aristo made some really good stuff but they're out of business. And I work with a guy here in town that does a lot of G-scale work. And he's always looking for aristol parts. And about the only way you can find them now it's from estates around eBay or something like that. That will be on the hunt a lot then.

It was kinda like being an SPL. You have to, the, it's hard to find the new stuff. And so you have to search your own these places for used real estate models. So that's the best I can offer you is just keep keep a watch for that stuff online. Keep on trucking and keep on research.

And our next question is from Jim Moe in Pittsburgh, New York, working in HO. I've bought several hopper cars at a show with plugs holding the trucks to the body instead of screws. The plugs fall out. How can I replace them with screws? Well, I've done that two different ways.

Actually, if you would go into the model airplane department over at your local hobby shop. You can find a what's called a T-Nut, a small T-Nut. And normally that truck screws in HO are 256 thread. So if you get a 256 T-Nut. A T-Nut.

It's a little, it has a sleeve. It's like a nut with a sleeve on it. And it generally for my airplane use it's a T-Nut that has little teeth in it where you can push it into some woods and it'll bite into it. Well, I flattened the teeth out 'cause you don't want the teeth. So flatten the teeth out and then you can glue it into that hole.

And then you have a ready-made 256 coal in there that will accept your 256 trucks screw. Now, when you screw the trucks on it may be that you need to use a washer. The actual hole, the mounting hole on the truck could be bigger than a number two screws could have to use a washer. A second way is to actually, and I've done it this way too is to actually fill that hole with body putty. Like you'd use it a model automobiles.

Just fill that hole with body potty, and then you can re-drill it and tap it for a number two screw. So that'd be the right size. That'd be the second way. All right. Our next question is from Chaz in Illinois working in N scale, please explain and or provide a sketch of what a bus wire is?

Does it originate from the power pack and then loop around the layout back to the power pack or just terminate someplace? Thank you. Well, yes. It can do both, but you've got the right idea. It originates from your power supply.

And I mean, a bus wire could be true. You could use it for either DC or DCC as far as that goes but depending on your layout, it could be a dead end where the power supply would tie in, the best place would be in the center. So you have equalized voltage is going on both directions to the dead ends, or if you have the type of layout this and around the wall layout or someplace where you could make it a continuous circle. Well, that's fine too, because that'll equalize the voltage. It'll keep the voltage equal all the way.

There's no dead end. So yeah, either way works great. Just depending on the shape of your layout, really. A lot of questions come back to that. It really depends on your layout quite a bit.

All right, we've got another live question from Carl in Iowa. Do you have any tips or products you've used that are great for cleaning your tracks? Well there's a lot of current a lot of controversy on that too. I use, actually I use the attract cleaning block made out of a foam, a sanding block, and I cut it down. I have a scale, I cut it down to the right size.

So it kind of fits the track. And then I put it onto a little stick. So I can get down there without breaking some of my scenery. I can get down there and actually scrub it with the sanding blocks. And then some I've heard some people say, "well, this sanding blocks has two cars.

So I use a fine grit sanding block. It's not like I'm wearing the rail down. Not scrubbing it hard. No, and I like using that. I mean, with my layout, it doesn't really get greasy.

I mean, as if what's on the track is usually some kind of like dry kind of dirt, but no not in the commercial trains that I work on, I actually use a, they do a good kind of a film in their track and I use lacquer thinner which is stinky but you don't wanna breathe too much of it, but it works. And so you can put a little bit of it on a pad. That's what I do. I have a pad track clean car. I put a little bit of it on a pad and then run the car around and clean it that way.

So you just don't wanna overdo it with lacquer thinner, but a little bit of a goes a long way. Open, a lot of windows when you do that. To be safe. All right, we just got another live question come in and keep asking your questions live so we can answer them during the show in the comment section below. All right, David from New Jersey working in HO asks.

Is there any reason why I shouldn't use real sand for ballasting in HO track or bollasting? No, reason at all. In fact, I think we talked on maybe an earlier at Track Talk Live about the fact that when I travel, I like to bring back sand from different parts of the country. Sand and earth, both. But the story was, they'll get these a Gatorade bottles that had the big wide mouth on them.

Drink the Gatorade while you're traveling, save the bottle and then if you see some earth or sand that you like fill up the bottles and you're gonna bring it home, of course, in sifted. But yeah, they have a nice selection of multicolor sand and earth the same way. It just, and there's no reason why you can't use it for a scenery. When you do your gluing, if you're using any type of like a liquid glue, you wanna make sure you have a little bit of just a tiny bit of a liquid soap in it to break down the surface tension. So that it doesn't beat up when you put the glue in.

It doesn't make any pockets and stuff. All right, we've got another question live from Bruce. I run an HO scale model and have about 50 feet of track looped around my table. I have five or so feet are lines supplying power to the track in various spots. My trouble is this, in one, three foot section the train slows down.

I even have a feeder wire right in that section. Is there any way to determine if there's too much resistance in the track? or better yet what is possibly going on? Well, it could be one small section that's acting up. I think what I would do is I would actually clip get some test leads and clip them onto a good part of the track.

And then try touching the test leads to the area where it's slowing down. And I actually do it one rail at a time. So if it speeds up you'll know what rail is acting up. 'Cause you could have one good rail and one bedrail. Right next to each other.

So that's the best thing to get, you can have doesn't matter, have a five six feet of wire with clip leads and just try it out that way and see. It's more than likely a bad connection just in one spot on one rail, I would say. It takes a lot of testing. Just, that's really it's not that much work. You just test leads and from a good part of the section of the track over to the section that's acting up and just have a locomotive on there and touch it to the rail and see if the locomotive picks up speed.

All right, our next question is from Jeff, in Mountain Lake Terrace, Washington. I have a room full of N scale stuff that I've acquired over 35 years. I'm at the point where I need to use it or get rid of it. I have to the time and everything I need to build a small layout 10 by 10 room. My issue is DC versus DCC.

I could be up and running in a week with DC wait another year or two to have the funds to acquire what I need to build DCC or start with a DC setup and then convert to DCC. So if he converts what specific do's and don'ts can I do to make the conversion smoother when the time comes? Well, it was really nothing much you have to do to switch over because you're gonna have a track feeds anyway and you're gonna have a bus wire anyway. So there's really nothing that you have to do to switch over to DCC other than to just disconnect the DC, connect up the DCC. And actually I've had guys that during their switch over they maybe had locomotives each way.

So you put in a double pole, double throw toggle switch. So you have a selector switch. So you can have your layout set for either DC or DCC depending on what you wanna run. I've even had guys with a double track main line where they have one track on DC and the other one on DCC until they get switched over. I mean, that's the easy part.

The locomotives are a little more work, especially in scale, if you're gonna put decoders into them. So if you like real small work, you can do it yourself. Or you can just buy new locomotives that already have decoders in them. And then maybe if you have a old DC locomotives you don't wanna convert then maybe those would be something you could eBay or bring to a flea market or something. All right, I just wanna remind everyone again, to keep asking the questions down below so we can answer them live and then also sign up for the newsletter and the banner that's there.

So you can be notified when we're doing our next Track Talk Live, get tips and tricks and just be up to date on what we're doing at Model Railroad Academy. All right, so our next question is from Eric in South St. Paul Minnesota. Okay. That's where we are.

We're in Minnesota. He's asking, can I run O on a 27 track? I was given a lot of cars in a house, some army items as I'm a Vietnam that and I've had trains since the fifties. That was just some added stuff but can he run O on a 27 track? Well, generally the old gauge equipment was bigger and heavier and required a bigger radius curve.

I mean, that would be the kind of the real crux of it. So, but all you can do is try it. I mean, the cars would run either way but the locomotive may or may not take the old 27 curves. The old 27 is all just lightweight stuff kind of just more for more temporary track, like you'd use for Christmas display or something. But generally that was.

The idea was that people would buy the old 27 and then they'd eventually convert to the big O, as they bought more equipment and larger equipment and heavier equipment and all that. So I would just say, give it a try and then get back to us. If you having a problem, let us know just what equipment you have and then maybe we can be a little more help. Give some specific answers then. Okay, our next question is from Leslie in the USA, working in HO, who is a beginner and asks, what is the best starter set for a true beginner?

Well, he didn't say what scale. I mean. Oh no, actually HO. I mean, well I what I would do, actually most of the starter sets are made for people who have no experience in the hobby and they just wanna just wanna set something up. But what I would probably the best thing to do would be to go to find a local hobby dealer and have them show you the differences in the quality of the various manufacturers.

I mean, you wanna get something that's good quality that's gonna last. If you buy a cheap train set, they have these cheap train sets that like these discount home stores and everything. That's probably something to stay away from. I would get a good quality set. And I mean, I have stuff that I had I've had for 50 years that it's still good.

It lasts. So whatever you do buy a good quality stuff and you'll be much happier in the long run. Speaking of beginner, I noticed we have a lot of people who list that they're beginners on here. And I thought maybe it would be interesting if you have maybe a top five like somebody who's just starting to get into model railroading. What would you like to tell them as a beginner?

Some tips for them or advice in your experience? Well, certainly talk to people who have been the hobby and get their viewpoint. Now, we're happy to help you here but they're Model Railroad Academy has a lot of videos and things that are helpful. And then pretty much any city of any size has a model railroad group. And so I would get ahold of your local model railroad group and talk to those folks and see what they're doing and get advice.

There's plenty of people out there that are willing to help. They love the hobby and they want everybody to enjoy it. So they're more than happy to help you out. If you have any specific questions we're happy to help you here. Just curious if you had anything that you would tell a beginner come right off of the game.

Well like you. Find people. You can get people hooked for life. So be prepared for that. All right, our next question is from Dave, in Grey Cloud Island.

Not sure where that is, but at Grey Cloud Island. Dave, I know Dave. I know Dave of Grey Cloud Island. That's Southwest St.Paul. Is it?

Working in S-scale. Asking what material makes the best backdrop base and why? I've heard of sheet rock, lightweight flexible sheet rock, roll and oleum, roll sheet metal, hardboard, and coated hardboard. And perhaps there are others. So out of those, what would you feel is.

Well, all of the above. I mean, it kind of depends on what you're doing. I've actually, I worked with a guy who's used a stretched canvas. He actually bought canvas by the role and then stretched it. When you use sheet material, the trick is the is the joints.

And how are you gonna seal up the joints and make sure that they don't crack or show later? And so the coolest stuff I've seen is that actually they'd like an artist canvas rolled and stretched. I have a Masonite behind my layout that I painted and put up and I sealed up the joints the best I could. And I know people who have used a sheet rock, for sure. I know people who have used actually tin sheet.

Tin sheet. And so when you do a corner on your layout you don't wanna square square corner that's gonna show you'll wanna curb corners. So sometimes people will mix the medium. They'd be able to use a mason knight for the the flat sections and then maybe use tin or a scored sheet rock for the corners. You can take sheet rock and score the back of it.

So it'll bend. So I, well I'd say all of the above whatever works, that's another one of those things.. It's hard to say everybody has their own idea about what works. And then don't be afraid to mix and match with it. You don't stick with just one, Oliver.

All right, we have another question live from John, in Nebo, North Carolina. I have a line of fast-track six foot by eight foot layout and the locomotive slowed down in a few spots. I have a Lionel voltage car which I have slowly run around the track and the voltage is even throughout the layout. What else can I do to check to solve my problem? Well, you know what can happen though?

The voltage car is great, but your voltage can change under load. So just because you're getting good voltage with no load basically voltmeters with the cars, doesn't mean that you're getting that the same voltage when you're actually running a train. And so I would suggest what we talked about earlier with the other fellow that had a slow spot in his layout was try some feeders. Get some clip leads maybe six feet long with alligator clips, clip it onto a good part of the track, and then try touching it over to the area where it's slowing down and see if you can determine if you'd just clip onto one rail at a time, making sure you have the polarity right of course, make clip onto one rail at a time and see if it improves. And it will tell you which rail of the two is not getting good conduction Slowing it down.

All right. Our next question is from Tommy, in Westminster, Colorado, who works in HOONG. For HO scale please explain the differences between electoral frogs and insulated frog turnouts? I'm running a 60 year old brass engine, which kind of turnouts should I be using, electro or inflated frogs? Well, personally, I like electro the powered frogs.

The insulated frog is just that it, when you throw the switch, the frog needs to change polarity because just the way the trackage works. So if you have an insulated frog you don't have to do anything basically but you have that dead spot there. And especially older locomotives, modern locomotives tend to have pretty much all the wheels as pickup wheels, but older locomotives didn't always have all the wheels of the vertical pickup wheels. And so, there could potentially be a problem. You could hit that little dead spot and your locomotive could slow down or stop.

And so, because I'm kind of old school, I like to use the powered frog and that way there's no dead spot anywhere. But then of course, you have to change the polarity of that frog. And that's where we go back to that other comment there where you use whatever you're using to throw the switch be it a ground throw like a caboose industry's throw, or a circuitron tortoise or another powered switch motor machine. You have contacts on there that will change the polarity of that switch frog. Does that make sense?

I think so. I hope it makes sense to you. So I mean, I liked the powered frog, but it's more work. But maybe it works a little better than put more work into it. All right, we have another question live from Dallas.

Is it possible to run a DC track and DCC on the same track using catenary overhead? Well, the problem you'd run into is that the catenary would be just a one side of the feed and you'd have to have the power, basically the power in the ground and say, call it for each system. So that would in theory be true if you could totally separate the two systems but you'd need a two rails or two wires to make that work. It wouldn't work with just a common rail. All right, question from Robert, in Mon Rubin Queensland working in N scale, what's the best startup system for a small layout using a wireless controller?

Well, did he say what scale is in? N scale. In N scale? It goes back because I started with NCE. I like NC and I familiar with it but it doesn't mean the other brands that aren't good.

Pretty much all of the DCC systems have a wireless control. And I use wireless with my NCE and I like it. And I think they're all pretty much the same. I mean, as far as the reception and all that. I think they're all pretty much the same.

Just whatever your particular one you settle on or what do your friends use? I mean, that's nice too. If you have a friends that are using a particular system then you can share the knowledge. Get the information from them. Our next question is from Robert in Merrimack, New Hampshire working in HO and N scale.

They are looking to make an N scale baseball field but can't find any dimensions. How do you suggest going about finding your dimensions or maybe doing some math? We did a model at my, when my son was in grade school, we did a model and you can look that up. If you go to a Google you can find the dimensions of what the standard. It wasn't 90 feet between basis, I think.

I think so. But then you can get all the dimensions, the the you need in the internet. Google. Google baseball field and you'll probably get more information than possibly need, so. All right, another live question from Bob in Canada.

Doug, please talk to us about vertical curves when building grades. Ah, vertical curves, yes. Well, that's a kind of a, that's an interesting thing. We actually have talked about that quite a bit. Must be a popular subject then.

Well, it's a transition than in rail roads used that too, I mean, basically if you're going from say dead levels to a grade you don't wanna go like this, I mean, you have to transition into that grade. And so that's the kind of I think the more model railroad term, not real railroads but I don't know what the real railroad engineering term would be for that, I guess, just to transition but you wanna transition to the grade. You don't wanna have that kink. So you're not going from dead level to 2% in a kink. And the way I like to do it, in fact, I do it on transition curved, horizontal curves too is that I use stiff ruler if you bend it or you can even do that with the right kind of a piece of wood but you can actually bend it, then that would we'll just take just a really nice transition shape and use that for a guide as you do that, the vertical curve.

Nice guide there. Another question live from Harold in Phoenix, Arizona. What is the best method for stripping paint from a postwar Lionel F3 engine? Well, there's a lot of weight and the I'm not sure what kind of paint they would have used back then, but the paints have changed a lot less toxic and all that. And we've talked about this I think maybe a couple of Track Talk Live back but a skill coat paints makes a thing called wash away.

It's a solution that they say will work on just about anything. On anything And if not toxic. The old days people would use say lacquer or thinner. I don't know. People use brake fluid, all kinds of.

You never know what the composition of the paint is. And so you'd have to experiment to get the right stuff. So I would try that scale coat washed away first and just do a little experiment with it and see if it actually takes the paint off See if it starts taking it off. All right, our next question is from David in Pennsylvania working in O scale. I want to unpack, we actually talked about these a little bit beforehand.

I want to unpack my dad's old 27 and we'd like to expand and create a semi-permanent set up. Are all old gauged tracks interchangeable. And if not, can I use any radius O-tubular track with my O27? Well, the differences in the real size between the what they call the big O, the full size O and O27. The O27 is the lightweight version.

I mean, in theory, you could match them up. And the rail size is different. I mean, the rai gauge is the same, but the rail size is different. So if you're gonna try to, but the two together you'd have to kind of come up with a way of adapting the rail so that it matches on the top edges. Most people I think stay with what they have, but if you're gonna go to, like we talked earlier if you're gonna go to bigger equipment, heavier equipment, that kind of thing, bigger locomotives you probably wanna go to the big O anyway just use the O it's much more durable and made for those heavy old gauge locomotives Mid last.

All right, our next question is from David in California, working in HO. What is the best material to model large mountains with? Well, if you're talking about just the base structure, I mean, actually the big mountain back in the old days, we would use say chicken wire and screen a big for a big mountain. So you're doing eight feet a mountain or something. A chicken wire and screen and then use a heavy duty paper toweling shop towels and soak those in Hydrocal.

And the hydrocolloid being wet is pretty heavy when you first put it on but then it dries, lightweight and very strong. And for a big mountain, especially if you wanna be able to lean on it or maybe even walk on it then you have to use multiple coats of Hydrocal but you can actually get a shell. Actually Hydrocal is called a hard shell scenery just for that fact. So it's heavy when it's wet. So you maybe use extra props or whatever you need sticks to hold it up until it's dry then you can take the sticks away.

And that's kind of the traditional way that we did big mountains in the old days. Now they have where people are using the gauze like you have for doing a plaster cast. If you break your leg or something, you can use the gauze which actually is a lot easier than using Hydrocal. 'Cause gauze already has the plaster impregnated in it. Then it has that kind of a cross mesh sort of a fabric and there's that very strong.

So that's what I'd recommend to get started with. Of course, then when you're, that's just the shape the overall shape, and then you're gonna use there's all kinds of techniques you can use for the actual, the mountain surface. I mean, there's rock casting and all that kind of stuff that goes into the top but you wanna get a good structure on the underside before you do the detail work. Something sturdy. All right, our next question live is from Jay in Minneapolis.

Do you have any tips for building tall skyscrapers perhaps like structurally making sure they don't fall over and making them sturdy? We all don't want them to fall over. Well, what's happening now is that if you're doing any kind of a big building that has a lot of windows, I mean say you're doing a building as a hundred windows or something that would be like crazy to try to build that thing all by yourself. And so people are using later laser cutters now to where you can lay it out on the computer. And especially if you're doing a building that has a lot of hundred windows that are the same.

You can just lay it on the computer and just have it cut this thing all out. And it's just.. Handy It's really great. And then as far as the structure goes in any building depending on what you're doing you wanna have a structure. So depending on how big the building is people use, you can use like a rigid wood, basswood or a spruce or something or in a bigger building people are using a metal structure like say brass angles and I-beams and all that.

And then you can actually solder them together. So in a big, very strong building. Very structurally sound. And then it shouldn't fall down. We hope not.

Unless your cat jumps up on your Then you got a problem. Worst case scenario. Okay, our next question is from Clay in Hampstead, Maryland working in O scale. What is the best method for stripping paint from, we just had this question. Stripping the paint.

Let's see. This one is about laser cutting from James in Rochester, New York, working in HO scale. I bought my first laser cut wood building kit. How do you paint it? And what issue MR of Model Railroad Academy had an article on how to assemble this type of kit?

Do we have an article on painting laser cutting wood? Well, I'm sure there's something there. I would have to look it up. I couldn't tell you that my brain is that good but generally speaking, depending on what you're doing with the building, if it's a laser cut wood kit, are you gonna leave it? Is this supposed to look like a wooden building or is it supposed to look like a brick building or whatever it is?

Well, yeah. I mean, if it's a wood building generally you can use stain, if you want it to look like a weathered like an old wild West building kind of a weathered old wood building, or if you want it to look like a well-kept building and you seal the wood and then paint it. So yeah. I mean, the neat thing about laser cut kits is that they're so well cut. I mean, in the old days.

Very precise. The old techniques were as kind of closing, but now everything if it doesn't fit right, you're doing something wrong. I mean, it just the kits are so good. And so that's the main thing. And then you just stain them or paint them to whatever you need.

But I would, if you're gonna paint I would seal seal the wood first. Seal first. All right, I just wanna remind everybody quick again to keep asking your questions live in the comments below so that we can answer them before Track Talk Live wraps up and also sign up for our newsletter to be notified of our next Track Talk Live and get tips and tricks in your inbox. You can also follow us on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram where we're always posting model railroad related stuff. If you're interested in that.

So make sure you're following us asking questions and signing up. All right, our next question is from Charles in Springfield, Montana working in HO scale. I'm having some trouble making a waterfall on a backdrop. I'm trying different things but they don't produce the results I want. Just painting is okay.

However, caulk on wax paper, I'm trying caulk on wax paper and I can't get that to transfer to the painted waterfall. Do you have any tips? I know that feeling. I know there's different ways of doing it. People use caulk with tinsel tensile as the base.

'Cause it gives you that kind of silvery reflective look of it. It's a good season to get tinsel And buy your tinsel now, or maybe right after Christmas. Get it on sale. But, and build it up that way and then attach it to the. Well, if you use a flexible like silicone caulk or latex caulk that where you can actually pre-build the waterfall on your workbench.

And then, and I think that's what he's talking about there and then attach it on there. And there's also paint that I like to use. It's like a glow white, what are they called? Phosphorescent white or artists paint that actually I use that in clouds too. And it works really good.

It kind of gives the clouds that glistening luck. But I mean, I think he's on the right path there. I just keep, keep experimenting with what you're doing. And I liked the tinsel because it actually gives it some if you do the tinsel vertically it gives you a structure to them, holds it all together. Holds it all a little bit better Tinsel in the waterfall.

All right, our next question is from Mike live in Pennsylvania, working in HO scale. How do you recommend building a decreasing radius helix to simulate a mountain with a 360 degree visual access? I need to have a vertical increase of 24 inches. That's gonna take a little engineering and that's all possible. I mean, actually people, we were talking about transition curves.

People can use the way of coming up with variable radius and those things to by. Actually it takes a little practice, but you can actually take a like say something tubular with your, with a line and your pencil on the end that you're doing your radius. And then of course, as you work around the tube then the radius is going to get smaller. So you have your tube in the center, that's your center point and then your work around and so you'd have to experiment to get the right diameter tube and all that kind of stuff. But that's kind of the simple way of doing it without getting into all kinds of fancy engineering, I suppose, there's the way you could do it on your computer too if you could.

Figure that out. If you can do it but the simple way is just having to have a tube. Have a tube. All right, our next question is live from Bruce. I have a wide variety of HO scale locomotives.

Some purchase new and others used. Is there a simple way to determine if they are a DC only DCC ready or DCC equipped without taking the locomotives apart and not having a DCC system at my disposal? Well, I mean, generally they should be, if you have the boxes it should be identified on the box, what they are. If they're not identified on the box, I mean and he doesn't have DCC. So he could try just putting a locomotive on a track and see what happens.

I mean, if it runs then it's a DC. If it doesn't run. Normally well, earlier we talked to the DCC ready locomotive would have that dummy plug in it to allow it to run in DC. So if it runs in DC, it could be a straight DC or it could be a DCC ready locomotive. They'd tell you that much.

And if it didn't run it all, either it's just dead or DCC. Maybe if you have a club in your area or something like that has DCC you can take your equipment over there and try that and see that would be, that'd probably be the simple way of doing it. Otherwise you have to take the shell off, and depending on the type of locomotive, it might be easy. It might be hard, but you have to take the shell off and look inside if there is no other way to find out. No other option, right.

Our next question is from Danny in Rhode Island working in HO. I've had two layouts in the 70s, lots of old bruh brass track. Now I'm retired and I wanna get back into modeling. So can I mix brass and steel track? I wouldn't.

No, that's old technology. The, if he had really had steel, but people use nickel silver now, and it's a nickel silver doesn't tarnish like brass and it looks more natural like a real railroad rail, but that brass tracking Nebraska oxidizes so easy, and you're always cleaning your brass track. It's just a big pain. And steel would rust. Well, same thing.

So yeah, it wouldn't for the track isn't that expensive. I mean, I would just start over. Go ahead and change it up. The other thing is there's much better quality switches now than there used to be. Time for an upgrade.

All right. Our next question is from Joe in Brandon, Florida working in N scale. I'm looking for various ways to paint my track to make it look more realistic. I've had bad experience in years ago when I tried this and the electrical conductivity was horrible afterwards. What is your best practice for achieving this especially in an or with later engines?

Well, I mean, I pre weather my track before I install it and I just actually, I use a, just a spray can. Just lightly, I don't try to completely cover it up. I just give it a light coat which actually acts kind of like a primer. It's a flat finish, a primer that I put on the track, It'll little hold the paint, the final paint. And then after I lay the track, I can go back with my airbrush and actually weather the track how I want, because actually, in real track it's not only the rail is weathered the ties are weathered, the ballast is weathered, it all gets dirty.

But then you come back with your track cleaning block. Your sanding block and your sand off the top. And then you don't have to worry about it. Don't even worry about getting paint on the top of your rail. Just clean it off.

All you need for contact is the top of the rail. So the sides can be dirty and it actually does make the rail look more realistic because you look at a real railroad track and it's not silver on the side then it's a little dirty. So a silver on the top from the wear of the rail equipment. So that's what I'd say. I just, gives some kind of a primer on it and come back with the airbrush and tweak it up with or whatever you wanna use.

Sometimes the sightings are more rusty than the mainline that type of thing. And then just clean off the top and you should be fine. A better conductivity then. All right, our next question is from Larry in Washington, working in HO scale. I'm in the process of designing a shelf layout.

What are your tips and or good books for reference for designing and DCC wiring on a shelf layout? Well, there's a lot of stuff available on shelf layoffs. I mean, there's so many there's publications on shelf layouts. There's things you can look up on the internet and I love shelf layout. I have a shelf layout.

And first of all, it depends on just what your theme is gonna be, what you know like doing an industrial area. But depending on your theme just what you wanna accomplish. You wanna get something that works well, mine is a point to point. It's not a continuous run. So that if you're not interested in continuous run and then you're maybe you're interested in operation.

Mine is designed for operation with a waybill system and cars are moved in a realistic fashion. And so yeah, if he wants to send us more information about just what they're or send me more information about what he's interested in, I'd be happy to help. 'Cause I love shelf layouts. As far as DCC goes, it's no big deal. You just put in feeders like you would normally.

And if you have spurs and switches and things, I mean, it doesn't hurt when you're building the layout to put in plenty of feeders because that way you don't have to come back and add them later if a real joint goes bad. So just put in plenty of feeders and for DCC they're basically all interconnected anyway. They connect down to the bus. And so the DCC is really not a big deal. All right, good answer.

Our next question is from Tony in New Zealand. Say he's working in HO scale. A lot of HO today. Is it possible to connect two marklin crane magnets together in order to make a container grab for the marklin swivel crane? Do I need to increase the supply voltage to the magnets?

Well, that is a good question. Well, all you can do is experiment. I don't know. I mean, you have to get the polarity correct in the magnets, right? And then you're gonna have some kind of a generally the containers they're just plastic.

So you'd have to have some kind of a metal strip or something inside that the magnets would grab onto. So, I mean, I've never done it. I don't know, but it seems to me, if you just try them out. Try them out. Try a couple of magnets and a metal bar inside the container and click and.

See how it goes. Should be easy, right? Let us know, that's a good question. Send your feedback back to us. We will go to New Zealand and check it out.

I'd love to go down to New Zealand especially now. It's cold in Minnesota get the warm weather. Although I do like the snow. All right, our next question is from, let's see, is from Bob in Hendersonville, North Carolina, working in O scale and high rail it says. I'm trying to run both TMCC and MTH proto two through an MTHTIU.

Lots of acronyms happening. The TMCC runs pretty well, but the MTH often doesn't. I've previously had bus wiring, but replaced that with star wiring, but it still doesn't work very well any suggestions? Also how to wire switchers DZ 1000 to an MTHAIU I'm not, I don't know all those acronyms either to be honest with you, but generally MTH works real well. I mean, there's a a quality stuff, and it sounds to me like there may be a more of a problem in the wiring than anything else.

If you wanna send in there again, if you wanna send it in more specific diagrams, I'd certainly be happy to research it and try to help you out. But it could be just a wiring issue. I mean, if you're having a problem, I mean, you can always just go by process of elimination and start disconnecting some feeders and maybe get yourself down to one set of feeders and on one section of the layout and just try it and see if that works and then expand And then expand from there. Okay, our next question is from Lester in Columbus Georgia asking, how do you make ripples in water? Well, I like using gloss gel, which you can buy at an art supply store and that's like gloss medium.

Gloss medium is sort of a like white glue kind of looks like white glue, but it dries clear. Well, gloss gel is kind of the same thing. And so it's kind of like putting frosting on a cake. You can put your own ripples in there, Harvey one. And don't try to do them all in one coat.

'Cause unless you're maybe professional cake decorator then you can do it. Then maybe you can try it. But otherwise the thing to do is just don't try to do it all at once. You can actually do a little bit at a time and let it dry and look it over. And then you can add some of that effervescent white paint I was talking about and add that if you wanna actually make little white caps in the ripples, you can actually paint those in.

If you have some extreme weather happening. You could have a tsunami wave or something hidden in pure layout, but, and then wood because the gloss gel dries clear here you can actually do a clear coat over the white caps and then kind of have the white capital's sort of buried in the gloss. So that's what I'd recommend and I like it because you can, it takes longer but you're gonna work your way up to it. You don't have to try to accomplish it all in one shot. You can just play with it and get the ripples the way you want it.

Get it just perfect. All right, our next question is from Hank in Georgia, who first says, hi, Doug. So I joined hi Hank, any recommendations for making more realistic brick buildings specifically making the individual bricks look real? Well, there are outfits now that are actually selling laser laser cut brick sheets that you can use for buildings. A monster model works is California's great.

That's what I use for S scale. And they have brick and stone and all that. And then the mortar lines of course, are just cut right in with the laser cutter and they really look great. I mean, to me I wouldn't wanna try to do it myself. I mean, I got plenty of other stuff to do on my layout besides make a brick wall.

You know what I mean? So I would rather buy a quality material and in the case of the monster model works it makes them at all different scales. I mean, I can buy S scale brick and even sidewalk. You can buy a sidewalk with a crack in it. You don't even have to crack it yourself.

It comes pre cracked. Or a pavement, like it had a paved like a concrete paved street with cracks. Cool stuff with cracks. I have some neat stuff going on. Why do it yourself when you can buy it.

It just, I got a lot of like say a lot of other things I can be doing besides. There's so much to work on. So you gotta pick and choose what's your favorite. It's all a priority thing. All right, our next question is from Walton, Texas, working in HO.

Do you recommend soldiering every rail joint? And if not, how much spacing between each one you solder Well, to be honest, I don't like to solder rail joints. Because you need a little bit of expansion and contraction. And depending on your room, we were saying earlier, if you have the temperature of control year round and the humidity control year round and all that kind of thing you're probably not gonna have a lot of trouble. And most guys where they have trouble is the, when they first build their layout maybe say they're using plywood and you should really bring it in and let it acclimate your room before you work with it.

But the plywood could move around all this kind of thing that it would affect your affect your layout. So I don't, I just don't start or I put plenty of feeders in. And then if you put plenty of feeders in there's no need to solder. We've heard plenty of feeders several times. So I guess that's the moral of the story.

Plenty of feeders. Especially in the back, because you know that's the old story about model railroading never goes bad on the front. It always goes bad in the back. Always goes bad in the back where you can't reach it The hardest place to get it, of course. All right, our next question is from Bill in the United States working in HO.

I'm making my own buildings from scratch and I need to know how and what to light them? Also, how to make an incline like to go up into a mountain on the buildings. I think he's saying, incline on the building. Well, maybe he's talking about a track, a grade in the track which goes back to that vertical curve idea. That may be two separate questions.

Well in S scale as far as doing buildings. I mean, there's so little available in S scale. It's pretty much a scratch builder scale. And so I start out with rigid cardboard and I'm using these priority mail post office boxes. So if you get something in the mail priority mail..

Save it. ..it's thin rigid cardboard. It's really nice. And you can shape out a building out of the cardboard and you can draw windows or doors or whatever you want onto it. And rough cut the roof line wherever you want it.

And if you don't like it, recycle. There you go. Recycle Start over. But in my case, once I get the building as I like it, then I take the sheeting like we were talking about, you could use a brick sheeting or tin siding, whatever you're doing you can actually shoot right over that cardboard. And I bought an assortment of doors and windows just kind of different sizes and stuff that I.

So I can look at my building and say, "I wanna put this size window here, this size window there so on." And I think that it's really a neat way of doing it. Now, as far as the grade goes, you can buy a digital level now that actually will read out the grade. In the old age had to go through all this mathematics. Do it manually. To try to figure it out.

But nowadays all you do is put a digital level on there and you can see what your grade is. Much quicker. And model railroad is pretty much worked the same as real railroad is as far as the grade goes, I mean a 2% is pretty steep on model railroad and a real railroad unless you're doing a mining railroad or a log-ins or something, but a mainline railroad 2% is pretty steep. So, and you can actually, when you do your transition grade you can do the same thing. You can start out with actually transition ended up say from 0% level up to a 2% by transitioning.

And I actually have an app for my iPhone that I can use. I can actually set it right on the track and it'll read out the percentage grade. Well, that's handy all in one there. Cool stuff saves all that mathematics. You keep upgraded And you have more time to work on the things you want.

Exactly. All right, we're coming to our last question here. Went a lot of time, this last question is from Kevin live in North Dakota. He says his engines run smoothly in one direction, but when they changed direction they derail at the same part of the layout. Any ideas on what can be causing this?

Well, it doesn't sound like a mechanism problem but it sounds like it, he turned the locomotive around on the track to see if it runs okay. Is it just because the locomotive is going one direction or going one direction on the track? You know what I mean? So sometimes you could have a little funny little thing like in the trucks, there might be something in the trucks that'll hit a little under body detail just enough to clip it and that cut off the track. And so, yeah, I would try reversing the engine on the track and trying different things.

Try different locomotive. Does a different locomotive work okay? And then if it was just one particular locomotive I mean, you gotta get down there. I mean, I get down there with a flashlight and I just watch it and see exactly where it comes off the track and try to pinpoint it. It could be a little, maybe a slightly narrow gauge section of the track and the gauge might be pinched a little bit and maybe other locomotives work fine but this particular locomotor might be just fussy.

So yeah, you just have to experiment and See what it is. Could be the littlest thing you never know. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us at Track Talk Live today. Thank you Doug, for answering all of the questions.

If you didn't get your question answered, you can send it into us and hopefully we can get back to you. But like I said before, sign up for the newsletter down below to be notified of the next Track Talk Live. And as we say here, run trains, run train. So do you have any other closing remarks for us, Doug? Thank you Ms.

Choo Choo, wonderful. Yes, thank you. So we'll see you next time at Track Talk Live.