Week of 11/11 Lounge

[bnsf971]

Good morning, and happy Veteran's Day.
So far, it's been a quiet morning. I had forgotten how much I disliked MRC's sound decoders, but it's all coming back to me now. I went to my not-so-LHS yesterday to pick up a Tsunami decoder for that FP45 I got a month or so ago. They were out of them, with no firm restock time. They did, however, have a drop-in MRC decoder for it. Priced at $40 less than a comparable Tsunami, with speaker included, and instant gratification, I yielded to temptation, and took it home. So, first it had the 710 sound instead of the 645 sound, but most people (other than me) would probably not notice. Then, I wired up Athearn's wonderful light bulbs to the board in the manner set out in the instructions. I tested it, put it back together, and sent it off towing a short train to make sure there were no glitches. Unfortunately, there was one. A big one. After about 20 minutes' running time, suddenly every light bulb blew out simultaneously. I checked the voltage output again on the 1.5 volt pad, and discovered it had started sending out 12 volts to it. No wonder all the 1.5 volt bulbs performed their own little imitations of flashbulbs. Sigh.
I have an email out to MRC, but it may be a while before I get a response, since their offices are not all that far from Atlas.
Other than that, everyone have a great day. I will do the same, though my FP45 is currently restricted to trailing-unit-only, until the lights get fixed.

[rhpd42002]

Good Evening Terry and the rest of the Forum Folks.

I Salute all our veterans and Thank You for your service.

Spent a good part of yesterday and a little time today with LD and another friend, helping get yet another friend's house ready to be moved into. It needed a good bit of cleaning and some minor repairs.
Also picked up a few housewarming gifts too.

Back at it again tomorrow, though the Town Hall is closed and the rest of the employees have the day off, we don't.

I'm trying to get a Bachmann 70 tonner broken in, as it has a bit of a "hitch". If the test running doesn't smooth it out, a breakdown of the gear/drive system will be in order to look for flash or burrs.

Terry, that decoder experience sounds pretty rough. Besides the bulb issue, does if have the 645 sounds you want?

Hope that everyone had a good day.

[bnsf971]

Nov 11, 2012 14:36:00 GMT -8 rhpd42002 said:

Terry, that decoder experience sounds pretty rough. Besides the bulb issue, does if have the 645 sounds you want?

No. It was supposed to have EMD 645 turbo (what I wanted),ALCo 539, EMD 567, and EMD 710. It has 2 different 710 sound files, and no 645.
And then, this afternoon I was running my BLI 2-10-4 when it started acting up. Looks like the multi-pin connector and wires are having a connection issue, again. This will be the 4th time in less than two years it has had to go back to BLI for warranty repairs. The third time for the connector.
After the troubles I've had with model trains this year, I am starting to rethink my hobby.

[bnsf971]

Well, I heard back from MRC. Not surprisingly, they are saying in almost as many words, I am an idiot that can't follow instructions. So, I offered to send them a c=scan of the instructions they provided that I followed, with the relevant instructions and diagram highlighted, along with a photo of the board installed in the locomotive showing how I have it installed. We'll see what the response is to that.

[James Brodie]

Sirs,
All these problems with this DCC system....
I don't think I will bother now fitting out my clockwork 4-4-2 Hornby Nord (Pacific).
JB

[bnsf971]

Good afternoon. Once in a while, a customer will either come by or call, and let us know what a great job they think we're doing. That happened this morning. The customer was tickled to death by their experience and our customer service.

Also, MRC replied to my reply to their response about the decoder, and I can send it back for repair.
Still waiting to hear back from BLI about that locomotive.
I'll take the good, it helps outweigh the bad.

[fr8kar]

Finally made it to my weekend, which amounts to Tuesday and Wednesday night for me. I got some work done on my Free-mo group's yard throat, which will depart along with two modelers from my group, bound for a Free-mo setup in Sioux Falls, SD. Most of the ballasting has been done over the past month, so tonight was cleanup. I worked all the switches (all are Fast Tracks no. 6 and 8) until each of them could throw without a hitch. I managed to break a solder joint on the throwbar of one of them, but that was a quick fix with a hot iron.

And since I work third shift, I'm still wide awake. After the yard session I got home and started back to work on some SD40-2 projects I've had in the works for years. All four of these SD40-2s are Athearn blue box models, so they're in the process of getting major upgrades. All of them will have Kato motors, Athearn hex drivelines, a bunch of Cannon parts - fans, nose, cab, subbase - and a variety of other detail parts. So far tonight, I got the fuel tanks of two of them detailed. I've got another Cannon fuel tank detail set somewhere. When I find it I'll detail the last remaining one.

[bnsf971]

Good morning. I heard back from BLI about my engine.i have removed tge motor decoder from it, and have it boxed up to ship back to Broadwayland today. It turns out the part it needs is NLA, and since it is still under warranty, and has been returned repeatedly for the same problem, it is probably going to be held as a parts source for other engines. I will be getting credit of my purchase price towards another locomotive of my choice.

[jamesbrodie67281]

Gents
English time 10-41hrs saturday.
Reading through the 'HO' section about M U connections between diesel locos do the American locos have symbols painted on their nose ends shewing compatible equipment etc ?
English locos had symbols like a blue star or red square sort of thing and like symbols could work with other like symbols irrespective of which firm built what. You could have a type two and a type three and a type four coupled to work in multiple even a 75mph type two and a 90mph type two all the driver needed to know was what his maximum speed was and possibly route availability--compatible brakes as well came into the equation vacuum braked only engines naturally shouldn't be coupled with air braked locos otherwise the engines would be worked in tandem--a driver on each engine--Once when I was a loco inspector I was riding on a Deltic (type five) and at Doncaster a type three was needed to be coupled to the front of the train. We were the only path available to have the engine do it's test run....ex workshops..... I decided wisely to ride on the lead engine which also had a mevhanical inspector riding. Part way on the journey the driver said to me "any time now we do an emergency stop to test the automatic brake working" I had to over rule the inspector and driver as they were not on a test train of empty coaches but a London Edinburgh Scotch express!!They could have spilt the porridge or upskittled old ladies. This was a case of a type five and a type three being coupled together and both with the same end symbols on them but the three 90mph and the five 105mph and the unusual circumstances as well. Not often I could point to the single stripe on my sleeve (lance corporal) and say "what do you think that is ? Scotch Mist??" Well I thought it anyway. happy daze. I did have an incident when on snow plough working over the Whitby Branch two type threes had been coupled but one air and one vacuum ! I had to bend the rules for the driver to leave the vacuum engine controls unlocked and the reverser in mid gear so he could still drive from the air braked engine end. No wonder I have grey hair !
JB67281.

[bnsf971]

James, aalmost every locomotive will MU with every other locomotive currently on the road. Of course, there are only two manufacturers now, so it isn't as chaotic as across the pond. In the olden days of yore, we had locomotives that would not MU with other brands, and sometimes not even with others of the same model. Most of these had air driven systems, rather than electrical. If a unit had one, it could not be used with the other, even if it was the same exact model otherwise.

[bnsf971]

Well, there's a swap meet 3 miles from my house. I guess I'll have to suffer the inconvenience of driving all the way there this morning.

[gregw66]

Nov 17, 2012 6:02:38 GMT -8 bnsf971 said:

Well, there's a swap meet 3 miles from my house. I guess I'll have to suffer the inconvenience of driving all the way there this morning.

You are lucky, I'm off the the church Christmas bazaar.