Welcome to the Hints page of 
Here
you can find out helpful hints about your hobby. Although over the years
we have gathered thousands of hints we realize that no one can know all
the tricks. Therefore we encourage you to share your expertise with the
rest of the world. Please let us know what your hint or tip is. We will
put it on this page with full credit to you. In the future we hope to have
the most complete list of hints and tips available, please help us in our
goal. To leave your Hint just click HERE
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Hint #1
provided By : Anonymous
- When building layouts never throw away anything. You will be surprised
at what you can make out of scrap pieces.
Hint #2
provided By : JEFF SHUMATE, ORLANDO, FL
- Need Space? Connect four pulleys to the corners of your board so it
can be lifted to the ceiling. Then mount a lamp or some kind of light to
the bottom. When you are done working on the layout lift it up and you
have a room again. Hard for the wife to complain about that.
Hint #3
provided By : MARK HAMPTON
- If you are making big layouts always make a lake somewhere in the middle.
Make this part with a hinge so you can drop it to get to the center of
the layout.
Hint #4
provided By : Anonymous
- Always run at least two extra wires with the wires that you need. You
never know what else you might put around that area and the wires will
already be run. Might be slightly more expensive at first but it saves
countless hours later.
Hint #5 : Gluing Track
provided By : rec.models.railroad
- First glue down the ties using contact cement.
When firm, lightly sand them down using sandpaper on a block, to
get them even.
Get a hot glue gun an apply a thin coat to the underside of the rails.
Let it cool down.
Now put the one side of the track on the ties and use a soldering
iron to re-melt the glue, pressing down the rail.
Do the same for the other rail, using alignment gauges.
- OR
- After a lot of frustration in gluing track and getting it perfectly straight ,
a friend brought me a 6 foot piece of track lighting. I dont know the brand
but it fits tightly between the rails on code 100 track and allows you to keep
the track perfectly straight and down as the glue dries. It has the additional
advantage of having holes in the top of it so you can nail track with it in
place if you so desire.
Hint #6 Quiet Tracks provided By : rec.models.railroad
- GO under the layout and glue strips of rigid foam board to
the underside of the layout, in the same pattern as the track...the
area under the tracks becomes a "speaker" or "sounding board" when you
lay track...when you put down ballast you inrease the size of the
"speaker" or "sounding board"...the larger the speaker, the louder the
sound, just like in your stereo...by using the foam board underneath,
you are installing a "dampener" for the "sounding board"...it's like
putting your hand on the cone of a regular speaker...it muffles the
noise...if you have enough foam (it's cheap), put wider pieces...btw,
you can use "liquid nails" brand construction glue on rigid foam
board.