Peter, and all!
I was open yesterday for the home layout tour till mid afternoon. Don
Hand volunteered to help run things. He's getting pretty good at
running things. We had a light turnout, however with a dozen layouts
and about 6 hours of time during Friday's traffic--maybe that was okay.
All but two were from out of town, and the locals were newbies! We also
might have gained a new (but old) member.
When I physically moved my DCC system several months ago, you might
recall that I was having trouble 'booting-up' the system. I seemed to
always have to unplug part of the system. Well lately it's been back up
and running the way it was supposed to--go figure. I had been jumping
through hoops (actually six conductor table and RJ-12 plugs) but nothing
seemed to work. Let it set and things are now right with the world.
Something about the doctor telling the patient to heal himself!
We did have a couple of cars that liked to derail, interestingly both
had vintage Rex trucks. I worked on them a few hours ago. I suspect
that there was too much side place in the journals, so I inserted some
of the Ace tiny spacers. These trucks only use the original metal
castings. I modified them with Ace delrin bearings and NWSL
wheel-sets. The original Rex trucks were good looking but rode like a
lead sled!
I also had a SHS 2-8-0 go down--well actually just wouldn't start-up.
That one is a mystery. I was trying to retrieve it from the roundhouse
and she wouldn't budge! So with some hand wrangling, I found the motor
was running but one of the gears wasn't engaging, as the engine would
freewheel. Also the headlight was flashing, indicating some electronic
malfunction. So I guess it's back to the roundhouse in Jersey for some
heavy repairs.
I did have a turnout leading to my longest passing siding that had to be
embargoed. When I was doing my scenery update, I apparently glued the
points--I hate it when that happens! I got it working again, but not
dependably so I didn't want to push my luck.
A couple of other problems popped up but I don't think my guests noticed
my apparent lack of maintenance. I have realized that I slightly
over-reached my maximum layout size and complexity for a one-man show.
If you add my modules, building new things, and some work for friends, I
always seem to be maxed out when it comes to fixing things--or maybe
it's just my age! --and I'm younger than my friend Bill Fraley.
Anyway, I've go an assignment this evening, so I'll be back at it on
Sunday after taking two Aleve tablets! I've got that turnout to get
working again and it's located in a backache location.
Next week, both Peter, Bill, and Don (our local members on this list)
will be getting ready for our annual Father's Day weekend mall show.
Bob Werre
PhotoTraxx
Hi Ed,
That's certainly a theoretical possibility. I literally turned on the
system, last night, moved the throttle to speed step 3, the engine
moved about a foot, and stopped! I suspected dirty track, but pushing
it by hand did nothing. I forgot to turn the throttle down from speed
step 3 to zero last night. I then spent about 45 running my other
engine. If the decoder had reset during that 45 minutes, it would have
moved. Tonight I turned the system on and turned on the track power
and the engine started running right away (because the throttle was
still at s.s. 3). I had already resigned myself to having to take the
engine apart this weekend. I assumed one of the wires must have come
loose. This engine's been running fine since I finished building it
over a year ago. Oh well,... gremlins... :-)
- Peter.
On 06/08/2012 8:48 pm, Ed wrote:
Last night I started up my RS-1 and it ran for about a foot and then shut down!
No lights, sounds, motion, nada! Completely dead in the water.
Tonight I turned on the DCC system and the RS-1 starts running! Go figure!
- Peter.
One possible cause is the decoder overheated for some reason and the thermal
protection circuit breaker cut out. After cooling, the circuit breaker
returned to normal and the loco ran as before. There might be other
explanation, but that one came to mind first. Ed L.
--
Peter Vanvliet ([email protected])
Houston, Texas
http://pmrr.org/ (my model railroad - RSS feed <http://pmrr.org/rss.xml>)
http://fourthray.com/ (my company)
http://houstonsgaugers.org/ (model railroad club)
http://nasg.org/
--
