GENERAL RULES

1. All equipment must be in good condition; realistically, solidly and properly constructed; and in good operating condition. Standards for all equipment to be operated on the TCMR layout (Hanford Columbia and Northern) shall conform to these standards with National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) and the TCMR conditions contained within this document.
2. Special equipment that does not meet standards as set forth in these guidelines, nor NMRA standards, shall be allowed to operate on the TCMR layout only at the discretion of one of the following operating committee members:
   1. LOCOMOTIVE FOREMAN
   2. ROLLING STOCK FOREMAN
   3. OPERATIONS CHAIRMAN
   4. CLUB PRESIDENT
   Under no circumstances will plastic wheelsets be allowed on the TCMR layout. The discretion of the Club President is final.
3. All cars and locomotives will be free of electrical short circuits through the couplers, trucks, etc., so they will interchange with other equipment operating on the layout.
4. All equipment to be operated on the layout carry unique reporting marks.
5. All equipment to be operated on the layout shall be checked using the TCMR test stand (a.k.a. "the monster") by the owner. Members of the Operating Committee may verify equipment at their discretion, and equipment not meeting standards will be removed from the layout.
6. All equipment which does not operate properly and is suspected of causing operating problems will receive a bad-order "purple tab". A second incident with the equipment while marked with a purple tab will cause its removal from the operating portion of the layout. All bad ordered equipment shall be rechecked on the test stand before going back into operation on the layout.
7. All equipment to be operated on the layout shall have all generally accepted railroad safety equipment.

COUPLERS

1. The standard coupler shall be the Kadee delayed action series. All couplers shall be self centering, the knuckle shall work freely, and uncouple over a standard Kadee magnet.
2. The Kadee B-5 coupler gauge will be used for determining coupler and gladhand height, within a tolerance of +/- .010 inches.
3. All equipment which operates on the standard gauge section of the layout shall be equipped with the standard Kadee HO gauge coupler. Narrow gauge equipment will have the HOn3 Kadee couplers. A limited number of Kadee compatible non-Kadee couplers may be approved to be on the layout for evaluation purposes at the discretion of the Rolling Stock and/or Locomotive Foreman.
4. All cars must conform to NMRA standards with weight equal to 1 ounce plus 1/2 ounce per inch of body length. This standard may vary plus or minus 1 ounce.
5. All equipment must be free rolling, have non-magnetic wheel sets with metal wheels, and the trucks must pivot freely on the car.
6. All equipment shall have, as a minimum, reporting marks and visible numbers on both sides. These must be legible.

LOCOMOTIVE (Motive Power)

1. All motive power/locomotives will be equipped with NMRA compatible DCC decoders.
2. Four digit addressing will be standard.. Decoder address will be the locomotive number with exceptions per the approval of the Locomotive Foreman. In the event of duplicate locomotive numbers, the one registered first with the Locomotive Foreman will have priority.
3. At a minimum, the starting voltage (CV 2) will be adjusted such that the locomotive "creeps" at the first 28 speed step. CV 29 will be configured for 4 digit addressing and Analog "off".
4. Kadee couplers shall be on both front and rear for freight diesels, yard switchers, and way freight locomotives. Couplers are acceptable on the rear only (but preferably on both ends) for through freight and passenger locomotives.
5. All locomotives will be equipped with an operating headlight which lights in the direction of travel. Rule "17" operation will be standard. Function "0" will be used for the front headlight. Function "1" is preferred for the rear light, with Function "4" as the alternate. Function "7" is preferred for headlight dimming.