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Great Expectations

Hello everyone. Some may remember me from earlier this year with plans to build an On30 Halloween layout. Time nor budget in general cooperated, not to mention lots of work on the house this year. I still have been picking up bits and pieces and working on ideas, and still plan to build this project eventually.

Halloween went well by the way (104 trick or treaters). Just no train display.

Meanwhile I add to my list of elements for the layout and solutions for any problems that may arise. One thing I decided would really help is an electronic thing-a-ma-jig that would stop the train at at least one point for a short delay, then continue on by itself. Since the train would be running continuously I thought it would be a nice effect for it to stop at a station of some sort automatically, ideally I'd like it to also stop in the back tunnel once as well.

I don't know what it was called but saw just such a device in a Walthers catalog. Unfortunately it was around $75 as I recall which is out of the question. Does anyone know any way to make a train stop automatically at certain points for around 10 seconds then continue on?

For those who don't remember or didn't see my old posts, the train will be running at very slow speeds (pulled by an 0-4-0 Porter on a layout with lots of tight curves in places. There will be no one at the helm so to speak so it has to operate itself once it's going.

AND one other question: Since this is a backwoods look railroad, I'm going to be using several cars eventually with that heavy ribbed wood siding (at least on the caboose). I've seen pictures of these (made from kits) that have lettering on the sides that cross over or maybe even also fit into the low sections of the ribs without distorting the width of the lettering. Now I've done a lot of plastic scale modelling in the past and used plenty of decal solvents to get them to do some weird stuff but never anything quite like this. Yet I've seen photos where it has been done. Question is, how? Or maybe something besides decals are used?

I can get a link to some photos if anyone isn't quite sure what I'm talking about.

Thanks ahead of time.

~FlyingDragon64

Reply to
flyingdragon64
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You should find what you need on Rob Paisley's website:

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Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad:

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History of N Scale:
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Railroad Books, Toys, and Trains:
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to 1,200 sites:
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Reply to
Bill

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Lemax Spooky Town items might be of interest:

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Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad:

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History of N Scale:
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Railroad Books, Toys, and Trains:
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to 1,200 sites:
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Reply to
Bill

remember me from earlier this year with plans

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Lemax Spooky Town items might be of interest:

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I don't know what size these are. They might be more suitable for large scale trains. I believe Walmart sells Lemax items.

Bill

Reply to
Bill

Time delay relays such as those at the following link. It would still require some sort of sensor or switch to activate the relay.

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Reply to
Rick Jones

Thank's Bill! Rob's site described exactly the type of feature I'd like to use. In fact it's even better since it first automatically slows the train down for a distance before coming to a stop (don't know if the one in the Walthers catalog did that).

Now whether I can build something like that myself is another story. Never done a lot of electronics and never anything quite so complicated looking. He has an e-mail link listed under "Make Contact" which I'm not sure if it means just to make contact with him or if he can be contacted to make these units. Probably not the latter as he notes the specifics of the design might need to be adjusted per layout. Anyway, I'll look it over more carefully later and see if it's something I might be able to do.

I have a couple of the Lemax Spooky Town buildings. Originally I was going to use selected items from that line but then decided the scratch built structures I'd also like to make would clash with the plastic look of most of these. Still, the animated and lighted items are a good source of pre-built electronics. Some of these have numerous animated features that work in a timed sequence with various lights and sounds. I think I can remove the structure and re-build around the mechanics for some nice effects. Michael's craft stores carry this line here in the Fall. The scale on these might not always be exactly O, but certainly close enough to work.

Thanks also to Rick. The relays might take the place of some of the scratchbuilt electronics. Will have to check ito it more.

Thanks to both of you for the responses!

~FD64

Reply to
flyingdragon64

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