Introduction and Questions

Sorry I cant help with your other questions, but if your looking for an Image Editor, then Macromedia Fireworks will do the trick for you. If you visit

Its a full functional trial too.

Quick instructions if your new to the program: (for Macromedia Fireworks MX

1:Open your file with fireowks

Most people try "SAVE AS" to create the image file, but this will only allow you to create a PNG file which are not as universal as JPEGS.

Hope this is of use to you.

Gary.

Brandon:

My experience with hobbycircle.com was among the worst ever for internet orders. Rather the post the whole thing here just check out the Q+A section of my website to read my experience with that outfit. Unless you can walk in and buy those items I'd steer clear of them.

try

Welcome, Brandon! I hope you get as much pleasure from N scale as I have had over the years. I found that Hobby Circle has good prices on locomotives I purchased there and they were ok to deal with. I don't know about track though.

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad:

Thank you for the warning, I'm rethinking where I'm going to order from, however, if I can't find anything near the prices they provide, I'll give it a shot, if something bad happens, my loss eh? heh

I am currently looking at one of the other places you recommend to find a mailorder worthwhile

Thanks

Brandon

Brandon, Get PECO track for your layout. It is the best, functionally that is. The ties are not quite to scale (Micro Engineering and Atlas track is little more realistic), but PECO is the sturdiest flex track in N scale.

You won't have any problems with flange clearance with PECO. Except maybe if you had some ancient Arnold Rapido trains from about 40 years ago... And even those with their huge flanges would probably be ok. The other brands of track should also be ok but you might have a problem with non PECO track brands and Micro Trains cars which use the full profile wheelsets. That is why all the new Micro Trains cars include free low profile wheel sets with every car.

Most locomotives from all the manufacturers (made in the last 15 years) should run fine on any code 55 track.

If you look at the way PECO track is constructed you will notice that the imitation spikes and plates which are molded onto the ties are much shallower on the inside of the track than on the outside. PECO did this so you won't have any flange problems.

Also, PECO code 55 is actually a special cross section rail. You will notice looking at the end of the rail that it looks strange. Well it is a special code 70 rail which is almost half way imbedded into the plastic ties. Which makes it extremely strong and durable. It is practically impossible to rip the rail off the ties.

This feature also makes it easier to join the code 55 and 70 together

- they join perfectly without any special transision jointers. The tie height is little different but that is easily taken care of by shimming the lower one. But the rail heads will be perfectly aligned without any special procedures.

Good luck with your layout ! It is nice to see younger guys taking up this hobby. And this is truly a multi-faceted hobby. If you do it right, you'll never get bored with it.

And the nice thing about this hobby is that you don't have to buy everything at once. Buy whatever you can afford, start building then you can always add more track as you go along. Real railroads didn't start out being fully built - they started small and grew too.

Don't worry about not being a consistent part of this group. Lots of us come and go and sometimes just lurk. I've been away from this group for 3 years and now that I'm back I see things are as usual - many rants and off-topic messages and people who just waste the bandwidth. :-)

But the newsgroup is still quite useful.

Peteski

Peter,

Peco... a little bit out of my price range, and I like the atlas stuff since I have had the best success with it (tried peco once and didn't really like it that much). I thank you for the welcome (and I have very few MT cars, so I won't have to worry about that except on one piece of rolling stock hehe, the rest are atlas/deluxe innovations/Con-Cor. I'm pretty much decided to buy as much as I can at once otherwise it won't ever get laid down by the time I go to college... I'm probably going to go to college near home for 2 years, however, so it'll be pretty easy to keep going. I'm looking forward to asking some questions, adding some input and sharing plenty of digital pictures with everybody here!

Thanks

Brandon

I've just built 3 Bend Track modules with the Atlas code 55 track and turnouts.

You won't have any problem with those locomotives, or any of recent vintage.

Even the large "pizza cutter" MicroTrains flanges WILL run on this track (I've done it). They _do_ "buzz" a bit as the flanges barely clip the top of the spikes. It _does_ add rolling resistance to the train, and may require more motive power. However, a piece ov 400 grit sandpaper cures that pretty quickly. Holding the truck at 45 degrees and making about 10 passes over the paper with moderate pressure will take off enough of the flange to cure the "problem".

The Atlas track gives a MUCH more prototypical appearance for US modeling than does the Peco.

Heh heh heh... Sorry about the UP... But for intermodal, keep your corner radius as wide as possible. I can't run my intermodal train on my home layout because it's too tight and small, but on the N-Trak club setups I typically run a 8-10 car (5 unit cars) intermodal. Check into the Dan Curtis flatracks and bulkhead containers for some unusual stuff to dress up your intermodal. And given your age and sze of your layout, don't forget to make it MODULAR (or at least sectional) so you can move it without destroying it!

-- Joe Ellis ? CEO Bethlehem-Ares Railroad - A 1:160 Corp. ___a________n_mmm___mmm_mmm_mmm___mmm_mmm_mmm___mmm_n______ ___|8 8B| ___ /::::: / /::::X/ /:::::/ /:::::/|| ||__BARR| | | /::::::/ /:::::X /:::::/ /:::::/ ||

---------------------------------------------------------------- [(=)=(=)=(=)=(=)] |_________________________| [(=)=(=)=(=)=(=)] =============Serving America's Heartland Since 1825=============

If you are going for engineering, you might consider RPI Several other schools have layouts....

We are planning one (NIU)

Jim Stewart Associate Professor

That's one of the big reasons also that I have had better success with atlas over peco (easier to work with)

I'm keeping it to a wide turn radius, I'm not sure how wide as of yet, but I'm going to temporarily tack down the track and test a lot of the motive power/rolling stock I want to run

I'm also going to be running the coast starlight with 2 AMD103's painted in the usual amtrak theme. Hopefully I will be able to obtain a few of the newer amtrak diesels they have been running up here, so I will have to be able to run the longer passenger cars, so the radius with them SHOULD work with the intermodal, at least logically it will...

I'll get those pictures posted... don't really like the macromedia image editor right now...

Thanks

Brandon

"N2trains" wrote

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If I lived in Olympia WA, I wouldn't be shopping for lowest prices all the way across the Country [Hobby Circle, Brooklyn NY ] Shipping costs are going to eat up a significant percentage of your hobby budget, particularly in N scale.