I enjoy Scale Model Trains of all sorts especially anything related to Southern Pacific Railroad, which is the railroad of choice. I model HO and HOn3. I welcome Email from anyone who wants to "talk trains", has a question or is interested in trading stuff.
If you have never tried Model Railroading give it a shot. It is a wonderful hobby that makes use of many talents. These include woodworking, artistry, painting, electrical, electronics and mechanical just to name a few. The real pleasure here is that you can use as many or as few of these disciplines as you choose. There is never a dull moment and there is always something to do.
See if there is a Model Railroad club locally and go visit them. They are always glad to show potential members around the club.
  I have just started conversion of my layout and engines to DCC.  And as I am progressing and see the operating potential, I wonder to myself why I waited so long to change.  I then answered my own question,  it was because I was waiting for the perfect DCC system to enable me to enjoy my railroad and not feel like I am programming computers.  As I am a computer professional this was a big deal to me, I needed to separate the two.
  For those who are curious which system I bought it was the MRC Prodigy Advance.  After a lot of research and comparing features to cost this was the one.  And even with the new systems coming out today I would not hesitate to purchase this system again.
  I have since upgraded to the Prodigy Advance2 with the wireless conversion set...I don't know how I ever got along with that cable dangling around my feet and trying to trip me every chance it got.  So far I have converted over 55 engines to DCC using a variety of decoders from NCE, TCS, Lenz and Digitrax. Out of all the decoders I have used I like the DH163 series of decoders the best of the non sound decoders.  I have now started converting my fleet of engines to sound decoders, only 15 done so far, but the difference in the overall modeling experience can't be matched with non sound units.  I don't even like running my other non sound equipped engines.
  I have found the Soundtraxx Tsunami steam series to be absolutely wonderful.  I have not tried the Diesel Tsunami yet, but I have used several MRC diesel sound decoders and have found them very good.  I know others have had problems, mostly in the N scale area with drop in decoders, but so far I have had no problems with the models I have used in HO.

** IM AC-12 fixes ** I have recently been struggling to get my 2nd run IM AC-12 to run reliably.  Here is a link to a document I put together that explains what I went through. 

** WMC_AM-2 ** I have completed repairs on my Westside Models Craftman series AM-2 4-6-6-2 that had serious problems with the motor size and the gearbox configuration.  Follow this link to see how I fixed my model with a couple relatively easy modifications.

** Sunset F3 2-10-2 Tsunami Install ** I have finished installing a Mini Tsunami-750 Heavy Steam in my Sunset F3 2-10-2.  The link will take you to a page describing how I went about installing the decoder and speaker. 

** Independant operation of the IM AC-12 Number Boards ** Here is a simple way to have the numbers boards on your IM AC-12 operate independantly of the headlight.  The link will take you to a page describing how you can do this. 

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