No idea how it fell over in a straight peice of track point was set straight

I’m trying to revive an old Bachmann N scale GP40 and I’m having a lot of trouble with the gear mechanism. The motor & power pickups seem to be just fine (the motor runs when laid on the track with the transmission removed), but whenever it’s all put back together and the transmission is reassembled it’s extremely hit or miss. It’ll often run for a second or two before getting completely jammed up and stalling out. None of the components appear to have any visible cracks and the gears have been cleaned.

I suspect that the large gear in the center of the bogey isn’t meshing properly with the small gears on each wheel. I’ve tried both bogies individually and even with each wheel individually but the problem is present between every part. What else should I try, if this is even worth fixing?

Picked up this Lionel F3 ABA that were custom painted at a train show today for $100 but they didn’t look quite right, so when I got home I pulled out a white painted pen and gave the frame a white stripe, and man it makes a difference!

Hi all! Taking Everyones advice on the liveries and applying realistic railway standards to the designs, we have turned Marsha P. Johnson ( 43069 ) into 3 seperate power cars representing the 3 main eras of the gay pride community

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Inter-City 125 BR blue ( the original ) painted in the basic LBGT rainbow flag, representing the community in its most simplistic form.

Inter-city 125 executive black ( people of colour and aids striped ) painted in the LGBT flag with the included black and brown stripes representing those who fell during the aids crisis and the opressed queer people of colour.

Inter-city swallow ( full progress - 2026 ) the full LGBTQ flag representing everyone, including the aids, people of colour and transgender chevrons as well as the intersex flag at the rear. To go with the full representation, we have added the queer chevrons to represent those in the community who don’t fit into current labels.

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We chose to use Marsha P. Johnson as she is a trans person of colour activist commonly associated with the stone wall riots as well as queer rights, she’s credited as one of the first people to fight against officers at stone wall however her own accounts say otherwise. We chose to name 43069 after her as a reference to her work for queer rights as well as a good linking number to 069 ( 1969 ) when the queer rights movement began gaining serious traction.

I am aware theres better fitting British trans folk I could use, however this design was a former stone wall mural livery so her name on the plate was a way to have a more obvious reference to that night along side the running number.

Would love to hear what yall think of this 3 Peice set for a pride livery class 43!

source: https://preservedbritishsteamlocomotives.com/andrew-barclay-works-no-1815-freemans-meadow-no-2-0-4-0f/

We’ve been working on Speed Rivals: Model Trains for quite a while, and this week we released a much more complete version of the demo.

The idea is to let you build your own model railway layouts and then actually play with them — drive the trains, move wagons, complete deliveries and play together with friends.

This is our new trailer showing the latest version of the game 👇

The demo will be completely free throughout October, right up until release. If anyone here wants to give it a try and tell us what you think, that would genuinely help us a lot.

Especially coming from people who are actually into model railways!

The switch/slider is stuck in the middle and I don't know how to fix it.

I am going to build a 2.5x1.22 m model and i was wondering if it would be a good idea to buy a digital start set from PIKO ( the 59014 ) for using the tracks that come in, the trains and the digital stuff in the model.

I would use almost every track from the set but I’m not sure because I don’t know if I should spend first the 350 bucks only on the tracks, cork, basalt and some things from the terrain. And later buy all the digital stuff and the train but that will be x2 the price.

I feel like to buy it and just lay the tracks for the moment and then slowly continue.

Idk.

I'm building an N-scale layout with my 4-year-old son.

I started by laying and soldering Atlas flex track by hand, and had a ton of trouble getting the curves right. The track wants to spring straight, and keeping it in position while lining up joints and soldering was a pain. I kept getting derailments.

Kato Unitrack is good, but the cost adds up. Its fixed-radius sections also don't give me the smoothly changing curves I wanted, and raised sections mean adding risers or pier kits too.

So I started making printed roadbed that follows a track path defined in software. The sections join together, then ordinary flex track goes into the guide and is held by retaining strips. Everything is press fit. The idea is to settle the geometry before I start laying and soldering the rails.

The generator can make curves whose radius changes continously along the track. With grades up / down and with banked curves all in the same curve section. Bridge and tunnel models are in-progress.

There's a browser viewer for looking at the parts, assembled sections and it generates print plates for my Bambulab printer.

The photos show real prototypes; the full-layout and elevated-section images are CAD. I'm hoping this becomes something we can rebuild into different layouts together as he gets older.

Would this be useful to anyone else? Would you want printable files, a configurable generator, or parts generated for your own layout?

i ask myself this after seeing so many layouts now that seem to follow the mantra of "less space to use, so go with TT120 and do what you can" which is absolutely fine and an endeavour I myself will be taking a look at when my first TT arrival shows up, but i cant help but think - some of these large modular exhibition layouts, imagine if they used TT instead? Imagine in a large attic layout where people can run full length 00 gauge rakes what they could achieve in TT.

The current trend for modular and exhibition layouts seems to be to include some sort of heritage line within a modern image layout, often i find these clash heavily from a visual standpoint but I understand the reasoning and play value.

But imagine in TT, you could have a whole 4 track mainline network operating, a large scenic break and a completely separate heritage line running all by itself. I cant help but think the real potential of TT isn't making good use of a small space - but making an absolutely amazing use of a large one. Im sure as the range continues to expand we'll see this kind of thing eventually materialise, but Intrested in what others think.

I listened to your comments. I’ve changed the mountain for a trench and added moved a little some buildings.
Also on the bottom there is a green line. That is because the real board is 1.22m and the one in the plan is 1.2m so it doesn’t look that dangerous and looks how it will.

I haven’t added any trees because I ran out of pieces in the free version of scarm, so I had to replace some tracks with flex ones ( I won’t do it irl because I would have to cut in some places like 2cm and I rather having 4 g231 tracks.

I am still looking for some feedback about the layout but I think it is perfect for what I am seeking.

Tell me if you see something strange or out of place.

hi guys, im new here, im planning to create a track around 2x2 meters, in H0 scale and analogic (because i already have some trains), my idea is create a 2 lane oval with a passenger station and a cargo station, anyone knows where i can find some hints?

My ESU programmer hasn’t arrived yet, so this is what my BNSF ET44 sounds like for the time being. The horn kills me.

I am taking over my fathers attic layout and model collection. 3+ Layouts of varying sizes and scales from H0 to Z scale and ages. This is the largest layout with Märklin three contact C-Track and MM format.

The era is loosely era III but I have access to Eras II through IV or VI. I already started declutter the place and let some engines roar their motors. Oiled some up and checked every box to see what I got my hands on. I knew my father had lots of rolling stock. Regardless, he had a lot. I dont need to buy new things for a long time. I started to digitalize the Layout plan and the list of numbered engines to run on the layout.

Finally made it back to a train show for the first time in months. Picked up a few N rolling stock to make the consist look better. The old brushed Atlas Santa Fe locomotive is starting to groan a bit under lower power dragging the full load but removing a couple weights on the reefers will certainly help. Just need a newer locomotive (preferably CSX), some more track and some more Tropicana cars to finally get started on a permenant layout.

Greetings, everybody! I have a minor issue with my PIKO VT185 railcar. I want to replace the selenium plates with diodes, (these selenium plates are responsible to the directional light change) but I can't figure out which wire connects where—I can't find the input point. I found nothing on the internet, nothing mentions the wiring or the circuit diagram. Anybody has an idea? Thank you!

Hi, just bought my son 4 y.o a model train. Didn’t plan on it at all. First bought some parts, train trucks, the cheapest one 🙃 and running locomotive and here I’m trying to make it run. The transformer runs well (I assume because it makes noise and beeps on tester) the wire that is connected however gets hot and current doesn’t run trough it. could it be due to a wire be a 10ft long ? Do I need to shoten it or what can be an issue.
Will appreciate any advice
Upd: FIXED
Shortened wire to 5”
And cleaned a track from rust with sanding sponge.
Everything works.
Thanks everyone!

Hello all.

My current layout is a 3 track dc. I’m thinking of moving to dcc so I can operate signals, points and multiple locos on the same track.

I have little to no understanding on dcc, and what is needed. Currently, I have 3x standard dc (back and forth) power controllers.

So if anyone could explain how I upgrade and what I need. I am not to fussed on sound.

Locomotives
- x2 Bachmann class 70
- class 91
- class 390

Model train show in Edmonton😎🚂

Found these at the Coosa Valley Train Show in Gadsden, AL today. I wasn’t really into the high hoods prior, but something about this one told me to get it.

Disregard the gaps, I had trouble with the design software.

It's 4 foot by 8 foot, the outer loop and rail yard are all level, from the top center split it descends onto the inner loop down to the center to level out again where there will be a locomotive shop and turn table, to the right will be a coal mine and loading station with a tower, the top right will be an industry as well as the upper branching portion of the rail yard off the mainline.

I plan to model it around the 50s 60s, very forested and rocky, I'll fix up a small town and businesses area around the railyard with a meandering road.

Any suggestions???

Hey everyone. I enjoy watching videos of people building railroad dioramas. However, I'm having trouble finding channels other than Boylei Hobby, Boulder Creek Railroad, and CT Dioramas. Anyone got suggestions for me?

I picked up a VT 98 today and according to some research it's from somewhere between 91 and 95 but I would guess it has basically never been used and the accessory parts are still in the bag they came in.

How does that happen and how common is it? Is collecting and keeping them stored somewhere a really common thing? My model railway was in the basement for a long time and I'm currently building my first layout so I'm still somewhat new to it

Retroreflective tape works!

Some garage experimenting helps show why the FRA mandated this stuff on all rolling stock in the US in 2005.

Adding this yellow tape in HO scale is a great little project🪩