Everyone says how bad the search is here. Really? I just got a PM asking about truck tuner tools, recalling that a few years back I had one brand that was too short to be of much use and one brand that was just right. I didn;t remember myself which was which, so it was either dig out my toolbox and look, or find the post. So I searched for truck tuner (no quotes) which brought up a lot of threads on the subject, and then if you look on the left you can further narrow down the results by author - so I selected my name, which dropped the hits to 16. 3rd or 4th one down was post relating the size difference (at least 4 of the 16 hits were in that one thread). Seems to work pretty well for me. You just need to be somewhat specific - searching for "boxcar" is probably NOT going to narrow anything down and you should get hundreds of results. It's pretty much the same as Google, the more common your search term, the more hits you will have to wade through to find your specifics.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
There's nothing wrong with going from broad to specific in searches. Using your example, 'boxcar' discussions might uncover useful material I never considered in the original search. Sometimes, going down the proverbial bunny hole is enjoyable.
Who hasn't read post here simply out of interest while digging for golden nuggets? Spending some time looking before giving up and asking a Q simply because you can't find the answer shows much more engagement and will likely yield more fruitful responses.
Hi Randy:
You just did two things for me.
First, I now understand how to use the search engine better, and second, I now know why my truck tuner doesn't work as everyone says it should. It is from Reboxx!
I bought the truck tuner because so many people had said how well they work. The Reboxx tuner, as you are fully aware, didn't do diddly squat so I couldn't understand what the fuss was all about.
I will buy a Micro Mark tuner at some point in the future. Shipping to Canada is not cheap so I will have to put together a larger order to make it worthwhile.
I am using P2K and Intermountain wheel sets exclusively and I do have to say that I have only encountered a couple of trucks where the wheels wouldn't spin freely, so getting the tuner isn't a huge priority.
Thanks
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Oh, there's nothing wrong with going downt he rabbit hole, I do that all the time - look up something and next thing I know I've clicked 20 related links and it's an hour later and I don;t even remember what I was originally looking at. Learn a lot that way.
I was mainly referring to trying to find something specific, and how many people say the search here is useless for that. Like, if I sort of recalled someone made a post about how they kitbashed a double door boxcar, I wouldn;t search for boxcar, I'd never find it. Wouldn;t search for double door boxcar either, that too would likely return far too many hits to be a usable search. kitbashed double door boxcar will greatly narrow it down. If you also happen to remember that it was Dr. Wayne that posted it, you cna further narrow the results by author (I'm making all this up as an example - but no doubt somewhere along the line such a post exists).
Edit: LOL, there are at present 35 posts by doctorwayne related to kitbashed double door boxcars
I'm supposed to respect my elders, but its getting harder and harder for me to find any now.
Brian:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SEicpqdumI
Made the link clickable.
Thanks Dave, how do you do that?
Brian
Hi Brian:
To make a link clickable, you need to put "[ url ]" (without the quotation marks and the spaces) immediately in front of the link, and put "[ /url ]" (again, without the quotation marks and the spaces) immediately behind the link. No spaces. I had to put the spaces inside the brackets or the 'url' doesn't print when I post this message. These tell the system that you are posting a link instead of plain text.
Some links don't require you to do that and some do. Any links to something inside the MR forums need the added commands so I automatically add them. Most links outside the forums don't seem to need the commands but a few do as was the case with yours. Sometimes the link will show in blue when you are writing the post but when you submit the post the link is not clickable. All you need to do is edit the post and add in the [url] commands.
Thanks again Dave,
I'll certainly do that next time I post a link to something.
Unfortunately it doesn't always work for reasons I don't understand. I tried to post a link a couple of days ago and no matter what I did the link refused to cooperate.
Also, just to clarify, I only put the commands in automatically for links to other threads within the MR forums. For everything else I paste the link and then submit the post without putting in the commands. Usually that works fine but on the odd occasion when it doesn't, then I go back and edit them in.