Scattered Thoughts . . .

A fter replacing the traction tires on my O scale MTH Hudson steam locomotive the other day, I put my O scale MTH RS-1 diesel locomotive on the test track for a test run too.  I figured it was a good time to maintain and test this diesel locomotive since I was on a roll with all these model railroading maintenance tasks.  Unfortunately, the moment this diesel engine started rolling, the traction tires broke off three of the four wheels with traction tires! I immediately ordered a new set of traction tires that should arrive in the next week.  Installing these four traction tires on this diesel engine should be even easier than replacing the traction tires on my Hudson steam locomotive.  My Hudson steam locomotive ended up being a much easier project that I thought it would be, which was great, but this diesel engine should be even easier.  In the meantime, I removed the RS-1 from the test track and removed the one traction tire that did not break apart.  Even though this lone traction

(As I wrote in my previous blog post, I'm experiencing some lousy health tonight. From past experience, I know I will be in and out of the bathroom for a significant amount of time through the night tonight so that gives me some time to write between the waves of nausea, dizziness, lightheadedness, and all the other 'fun' symptoms.) Power feed panel with simple banana jacks. This little layout is sitting on the floor on top of a plastic drop cloth which is what you are seeing covered in all that messy brown paint. I've finished preparing power feeds for Lukey's new train layout (one of his Christmas presents this year). Making the power feeds themselves was a piece of cake. Actually, it was so easy, I'm not sure why I never did this before now! Putting together the power feed jack panel, on the other hand, was a bit of a problem.... In the future, when I make one of these power feed jack panels, I'll be sure to leave more room behind the panel for wi