Mike,
Holy Shiitake mushrooms! (pardon my french.) That is one heck of a
layout you are working on. Those photos do not do it justice. It
appears that you are using Kato Unitrack. That must get pricey. I like
to use atlas flextrack. I dont quite like fudging with the snap track
because if the track shifts even slightly, then the joints could
become kinked or something.
I too like LONG trains. I have decided that i will probably be
modeling the ore train industry, during the steam era, possibly in the
steam-diesel transition era. I'm focused in the santa fe area, though.
That means no Big Boys for me :( However, i've obtained the lifelike
2882, and it runs like a champ. I'm converting it to DCC sometime
before the MVNS (
formatting link
) show in october, where i
will be pulling a 45 car long ore train. Yes, thats right, i have 45
of those little ore cars. Perhaps i should switch over to MT
trucks/couplers as the atlas ones are starting to get unreliable at
such a heavy load with one loco. Hmm... Perhaps i'll be able to get
another LL 2882 to start help pushing when i get up to about 75 or so
cars :)
Mike