Smoothed out new grade a bit. Had a wicked grade in one spot!! And it was noticeable!! Then ran a 6 car test train over the entire section. Leveled out the curves that hung over a drain, from the roof downspout. Now, lots of fine tuning of the track is needed! Coupler trip pins on locomotives snag a few track joints in places. Have a couple of rail heads that need to be tweaked slightly as well. Just gotta work on getting track smoothed out better. Have a few high spots at a number of joints. Overall, while it DOES run, it's gonna require major work getting it adjusted right! However, the new section needs to be watered in a bit, to help get the dirt settled in a bit! So, there may be more dirt work for a while, as it settles in. Before ballast work is started! A few problems to iron out yet. Almost satisfied! Lots of tuning to do now. Will see how I feel, before continuing on.
RE: Track tweaking- You'll get it all done. hen something such as weather and/or the season will "un-tweak' it again!
Well, tweaking could be one of the following: Getting dirt settled in more. Slightly warped track, that results in sagging between the joiners/clamps. Coupler trip pins hanging a hair too low and snagging on a high rail joint! GP40 coupler trip pins follow centerline of outer rail perfectly! Any high spots, you can hear the couplers hit. Still gotta adjust the grade. Think there's still a steep spot or two that tends to cause trouble! Before the trip pin on one unit snagged a turnout and totally broke the coupler, things ran within reason. If I need to, I can test things it's 3-4 cars, locomotive and Caboose. It's enough to let me see where the potential trouble spots are!! Without having to sacrifice an entire train!! Short and slow, OK. Long and slow, chancy!
Way too hot lately, so nothing done outside. Isolated storms possible for the next week or so. May test the first GP30, after I get wires tied back, and the body back on! Finally got the thing to work! Stock battery plug wired backwards, from the batch I got today. That one thing caused all my problems! Operating test later tomorrow, maybe! Weather permitting. Although, I may try test running, if I'm up early enough. Could be an interesting day!
Yep, backwards right out of the box, Gotta check closely, the other two, and make the change, before I get too far along! Nip it in the rear, before it bites me!! Again. At least nothing was damaged as a result, when I connected and tried testing it. Coulda been worse I guess. Test ran it earlier, after I got it put back together, twice! Got a plug caught between the body and frame! Had to loosen ALL screws again, so I could tuck the wires back under the body! But, it runs pretty good. Needs a little tweaking I think. And it needs to have both boards changed to locomotive address. Once I read up on how to get that done! Now, need to start working on getting the 2 Burlington units converted. Now that I think I know what I'm doing!
I've spent too much time on other things this year and my CBAM&J got neglected. First a small name change to CBA&MJB. There is a new dog in the house....I got started measuring for a trestle off one corner heading for parts unknown. Got all the strips cut and my Dad is assembling sections. Today I finally got out and started cleaning the place up, weeding and clearing sticks, putting the town back together. It's been so wet this year and hot. Tomorrow I plan to go through each car and locomotive and make sure all are in good condition. Maybe by the weekend I can actually do some running!! Rick H.
Have a squirrel around here, that digs small holes trackside. Also eats/chews small tree branches. Have to pick a few of those up every now and then, before I can run! Hasn't been wet here, just too hot for my liking!! Test run the first of 3 USATrain GP30's finally converted to Airwire RC and sound! Gonna take a little getting used to operating them, as they have a delay, when you change direction. Gotta wait at least 35 seconds before you can move again,after a direction change!! When I'm ready to start on the other two, I gotta figure out HOW I'm going to successfully remove 2-3 screws with stripped out heads!
There is a wrong setting if you wait 35 seconds... that's way too long. What speed step does the loco start moving at? Greg
Actually, I seem to recall the instructions stating as such. I need to locate them, and check on board programming, so I'll be able to double check. Gonna be crashing soon. Train Show at the Forney Museum today, and tomorrow. Been on the go since just after 1:00AM. But, a test of the locomotive, after I finished installing stuff, it works!
Electrical cow has been working! Now have a second GP30 just about ready to go. Need to find double sided tape to hold bridge rectifier and sound boards in place, tape all loose wires together, and get the body mounted and buttoned up! Maybe do a test run of not only the DRGW unit, but add the Burlington to it as well. Test them as a pair! Then add the second Burlington unit, after it's done.... IF I can get all the screws out! Think I have 2-3 stripped out screw heads to deal with! Successful train show over the weekend, and being too hot, nothing much has been done outside lately. Hope to get something done before too long.
Double sided tape? Check your hardware store. They should stock such a thing in a carpet seam tape. I have seen this used to hold down track on a small layout. Even tried it myself, on a T-Trak module- it worked. So it should be plenty good for a decoder!
Got what I needed, at Walmart, in hardware. Something to hold the sound board in place, as well as the bridge rectifier. Currently, everything together and working right! Tried the CVP T9000 throttle on the GP30's. works a bit better than the NCE Gwire cab! Going to experiment with them after a quick run to Post Office. Now, just gotta send in the damaged T9000 for repair and I'm set!
After a bit of experimenting, with the T9000, I was able to get all 3 GP30's consisted! Still gotta figure a few things out. Otherwise, I'm satisfied with the results to date! With help from Mom, was able to get plants and rocks pulled out. Short siding is in. Long enough to hold 2 coal hoppers. Although, I'll be dropping off the occasional boxcar of supplies, or a flat car with machinery. Gonna represent a seldom used coal loading site. Or a set out point for the occasional defective car - hot box, sticky brakes etc... Then, Mom kept going, and pulled out the plants from the hill, where the redesign is. I was able to, carefully, remove a number of small rocks form the hill. Will be adding dirt eventually. Not too soon though! Just after I decided it was time to pack it in, we got hit with a severe thunderstorm!! Heavy rain, and some small hail, under pea size. Lasted maybe 20 minutes. Delayed UPS for a while! Package I was waiting on, didn't get here until 8:20PM. About 4 1/2 hours late! Hope to grab some photos Saturday at some point. Maybe a video of the railroad, as it is currently. Last time I thought about that, the weather looked as if it was NOT gonna cooperate! Today, it didn't! What a day.
Cool! I hope you have been keeping a photo/video file all along? That would be great for a look back on how it evolved.
Have photos from the very beginning! Taking out the grass, laying track out temporarily, to get a feel of what I wanted. While waiting for plants to blood on, before I could continue! I've got stuff going back to the very beginning! Seems staring to look back that far, and still see grass in front! Now, its trains on the upper half, and flowers everywhere else! Just one video of the railroad however. And that was a brief trip round the front only. Backyard wasn't done at that point. Or not passable at the time. STill not complete, but it's runnable! Want to get the front done, before I move to the back and side.
Got a little motivation today! Spent a short time, pulling rocks from the east side of the railroad. Maybe half dozen to go yet. Then, I can start hauling in dirt and filling things in more! Also had an AhHa moment, after I was done for the day! Have been struggling a bit, with HOW to build a short tunnel out front. A suggestion by Dad may have helped solve that issue! By using chicken wire, and concrete, or spray foam, over it. Covered with pond liner material, and covered with dirt. Held in place with short, 24" sections of rebar. It an idea. Ne t year more than likely. I doubt I'll be far enough along this year. A couple photos a bit later. Before and after rock removal today. Resting now, knees and feet hurting. Out to dinner with folks pretty quick! Weather becoming questionable as well. Wrong computer for photos as well.
Photos of work done. Before rock removal After rock removal. Hope to maybe remove last of the rock tomorrow. And get started on adding more dirt! Noty much done, due to knee and foot pain! Or weather.
Looks really nice Weather? Hope you have a hurricane proof layout. Ha ha. A person at work last night said he read that after Florida it's heading northwest towards us... Had to wonder what he had been ingesting....
