In the May issue of Model Railroad Hobbyist, the Publisher's Musings column, Joe Fugate writes about track cleaning solvents: polar vs. non-polar. He has some really interesting findings. See https://

Model Railroader had an article which talked about using Automatic Transmission Fluid on the rails. I've used it myself and am pleased with the results. Only a small amount is needed. I don't have tha

Oh, one thing to check before wiring in the auto reverser. Make sure the loop is in fact electrically isolated from the main track; both rails. If it's not, that would be your shorting problem. Tim Ti

Charles, I'm glad you were able to find the photo section, and get your track diagram posted. You've already got both rails of the loop section gapped on both ends of the loop. You need to attach the

Charles, I just checked on the w4dccqa groups.io site after logging in. The photos should be an option on the left side panel. When I click there, I see all the posted photos. Tim Timothy A Johnson, T

Why not use wire nuts? On my layout very drop from a rail is connected to a soldered wire from the bus with a wire nut. I've never had a problem, and it is very convenient if you need to isolate that

I've found Velcro tape to work quite well. I cut short strips, and screw them to the benchwork. It's really easy to bundle the wires with them, and quick and easy to separate them again if you need to

Thanks, Ken. Yeah, it's been way too long ago since I studied this stuff. Tim Timothy A Johnson, Tucson, AZ (www.sbb-bls-bahnen.com) European Train Enthusiasts, Central Arizona Chapter (www.ete.org) O

Len, isn't conductivity a surface phenomenon? I would think the copper surface over the AL would have the same resistance characteristics as all copper. What am I missing from my physics education (ma

I was installing some RC snubbers on the remaining track buses yesterday, and by chance installed one on a bus that feeds power to an occupancy detection block that is monitored by one of Bruce Chubb'

Bernie, Please read/reread Mark Gurries' and Don Vollrath's posts in the Hot Snubber topic dated March 8 (posts 8113 and 8116). They make it very clear that the snubbers are attached at the ends of ea

The link below has a great discussion of this, including a diagram showing the snubber connected to the track bus. In the link below, search for "Solution for unterminated bus ends". http://www.wiring

The gap widths are irrelevant. Think about how the reverser works. If one side of the gap is out of phase with the other, it is precisely because of the resulting short when the lead wheels cross, tha

Haran, Model Railroader had an article in the May 2011 issue called /Improve train performance with transmission fluid/. I've tried this, and it seems to work just fine. It acts as a cleaner and conta

It's a personal choice, and depends somewhat on whether you need central control, or walk-around control. I did what Bernie is suggesting since my mode of operation is walk-around. See http://www.sbb-

How fast a password can be cracked depends on two things: commonly used choices and length of the password. Not much time at all if you use a "common" password that could be found in a hacker's passwo

Along similar lines, there is a neat tool that works quite well: https://www.litchfieldstation.com/xcart/product.php?productid=999003093&cat=0&page=1

I found it. Here's the link to the file itself: http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/IA5lToqH01lnuhHP4pvppK8wjeuaL36FDLlIXQ7Nu01uMZnCnQ634CjCF39IraAb2GlVmN-0Tk1lspaiqXwXC5qWlN1-/DoubleSlip-Panel.pdf

Greg, Are you saying that you have gone to "My Groups", then clicked "Edit My Groups", then scrolled down to the WiringForDCC group. Then using the pull-down for message delivery, you've chosen "No Em

Regarding eye bolts for the bus wires to pass though, I use a small strip of Velcro instead. I buy the Velcro strips in rolls, and cut piece of the length I need, screw it to the underside of the benc