Boomer John

John, If you are after Digitrax, the consistly low price people have been www.yankeedabbler.com . There might be someone else cheaper but I doubt it.

John,

Railroad interchanges were two basic types - reciprocal and non-reciprocal.

Most interchange was non-reciprocal. This means that after the delivery of cars from railroad A to railroad B the engine and caboose returned "light" (without cars) to railroad A. If there were cars to be delivered to railroad A, railroad B would make a separate run, also returning light to their railroad. This was driven by local union agreements and often favored the union workers to "protect jobs". A couple of other issues impacting these arrangements are size and extent of facilities.

In a reciprocal arrangement, the delivering railroad would take back cars to be delivered to their railroad. In this arrangement railroad A would deliver cars to railroad B, then pick up any cars for for railroad A and return with them to their railroad. Typically the agreement would alternate in a cycle interval (6 months or 1 year) so that the crews of one railroad were not favored with jobs over another.

I recommend getting together to talk through your desires, favorites, eras, etc. Once you have a solid focus we can work together to help you develop your thoughts and that will lead to a workable plan. What to model rests with what you want, but Rick and I are willing to help. You also met many good designers at breakfast Saturday that would be willing to provide input if you would like.

Give me a call and we can set up a time to get together.

Thanks!

Mark