Since the last post, I’ve simply spent some time running and breaking in the re-powered CF-7 on my Downtown Spur layout.  I don’t know how long the donor Kato mechanism was sitting in the box (over a decade maybe?), but it has really smoothed out to be a silky smooth runner after logging some run…

  Adding A Kato Drive Train and Wow Decoder to an Athearn CF-7 Well, that was a process (or, in terms my less refined readers can understand…a major pain in the ass) but in the end entirely worth it.  The CF-7 now houses an upgraded Kato drive and TCS Wow decoder.  I’m happy.  Essentially the…

My venture into making the palms entirely on my own from scratch seems to have worked.  I wasn’t sure going in if it would.  The trunks were made by taking a 1/4″ styrene rod, chucking it in a drill, and spinning it slowly while holding the sharp edge of a jeweler’s file against it as…