Weekend Update - 4/12/2009

[bobcat]

Other than that, I've just been stirring up some turd soup over on the A board ;D.

Lee

Lee, you've been a ba-a-ad boy.

[seusscaboose]

that is pretty funny....
bobcat posted the pic and a New Holland skid steer loader ad popped up

[wm3798]

Lee:

I forgot to mention a problem.  Was running a Kato E-8 to break it in.  Ran little over an hour.  When I reduced speed to 0, it kept on running.  After unplugging power and turning it back on, the unit would not run.  Unit did feel quite warm.  Did I burn out a decoder?

This is not the unit you installed for me but the other one that I installed and it ran fine for awhile.

Try reading it back on the program track.  If you get an address, try doing a factory reset.  If it's a digitrax, set CV 8 value to 8.  That should reset any values that are confused.

It's possible that some insulation might have slipped, or a contact is not making contact.  That clip arrangment they've got is a terrible design.  I ended up soldering the contacts in your other one.

Make sure all the physical things are where they should be, then do the readback again and see if that doesn't fix the problem.

Lee

[mmyers]

I've had to solder the motor contacts on every one of the new boards. The E's, PA's, P42's, F40PH, F's all use the same type motor contact.
My older DN145k's still work flawlessly in my first run E8's.

[Robbman]

Other than that, I've just been stirring up some turd soup over on the A board ;D.
Lee

Pfft... wait till you critique someones writing skills over here and have them go eight shades of PMS on you.

I couldn't find any fault with what you said... there is simply no reason for pizza cutters in 2009. 

[wm3798]

Thanks for that, Robb.  I'll have to promote you from Mortal Enemy to Mild Pain in the Arse! ;D

Lee

[wcfn100]

I couldn't find any fault with what you said... there is simply no reason for pizza cutters in 2009. 

While I agree 99% with that, I have to make an exception.  There are those who struggle with laying good trackwork, especially if they try their hand with code 55 or smaller on their first try (whether they should is another debate).  I will always give them more credit than those who use pre-fab track.  If they need the large flanges until they learn to lay track better, I'm all for it.

I doubt my first layout could have handled todays finer flanges very well. 

Jason

[Robbman]

The 'bad trackwork' argument really doesn't hold water with me... we've had rolling stock and motive power with RP25 flanges for decades.

[wcfn100]

RP-25 doesn't actually specify flange depth for any particular scale, but point taken.

If fact, if you want to look at RP-25, for code 54 track it specifies a flange of .016" which is 2/3 the size of an Atlas wheelset* so maybe we need to get on Atlas to quit fudging at the maximum tolerence and get closer to what is specified in the RP.  Of course none of this means anything if the track isn't within spec too, but I have no idea which is and which isn't.


I guess my point was that I hate Unitrack.  ;D


Jason

*Measured from a double sheathed boxcar.

[Robbman]

Atlas will just say you need to use the higher Code 79 spec...


Unitrack has it's uses... it's great for staging yards.

[womblenz]

Not much for me just more windows on sawmill and trying to get some sort of trackplan together for you to look at.

Cheers warren

[Sokramiketes]

I couldn't find any fault with what you said... there is simply no reason for pizza cutters in 2009. 

While I agree 99% with that, I have to make an exception.  There are those who struggle with laying good trackwork, especially if they try their hand with code 55 or smaller on their first try (whether they should is another debate).  I will always give them more credit than those who use pre-fab track.  If they need the large flanges until they learn to lay track better, I'm all for it.

I doubt my first layout could have handled todays finer flanges very well. 

Jason

I feel like I bring this up everytime but...  would these modelers with back trackwork really be affected if MTL knocked .004" off their pizza cutter flange?  MTL could still have a large and small flange wheel, they just need to knock that hair off the current pizza to make it compliant.

[wcfn100]

On a diferent note, I got my Pullman Standard doors for the MT all steal box car.  I hope to get the paint booth up and running this week and really hope that the Alps printer made the journey in working order.





Jason

[sparky]

I couldn't find any fault with what you said... there is simply no reason for pizza cutters in 2009. 

I can think of one- kids who are new to the hobby.  My son was running N scale as soon as he graduated from wooden Thomas trains.  The pizza cutters were much easier for him to place on the rails, and kept the cars on the track in those WOT turns...

[wm3798]

Point taken.  But odds are graduating from Brio to N scale doesn't require an investment in Micro Trains, which I would think is generally regarded as a higher end model (at least in some circles).  You can achieve that transition at a much lower cost with a Bachmann set, or with Trainman if you want something that will last, and my guess is they would be just as easy for the young fellow to handle, and less likely to give you a heart attack when you find him pushing the equipment across the carpet...

Unless you're suggesting that Micro Trains scale back its self image to be the New Entry Level train set equipment...  Then they go after New Ray and High Speed for the push toy market... ;D  Then they make those flanges as big as they like!

(Oh wait, New Ray tries to make prototypical paint schemes... bad comparison!)

Lee