I posted this in the HO forum but I decided I would get a bigger response in the N scale forum. I have been wanting a defect detector on my layout and stumbled across this one http://www.bouldercreekengineering.com/.Has anyone ever purchased one of these or a similar kind and if so how well do they work?It sounds like you can have your own railroad name incorporated into the recordings and also have different problem scenarios added.Thanks for any info.
I recall operating on a HO layout in Suwanee, GA (northeast of Atlanta), back in 1989, that had several talking defect detectors. The layout's owner had built them from scratch and was hoping to go into production with them but I don't think that he ever did. All of the lighting (layout and room), the CTC system, and signals were controlled by several Commodore 128 computers (they were hot stuff back then). Back to the present, that would make an interesting addition to any modern layout.
So what does it mean ? Does it mean an Axle has left the track ? or not spinning or what ? What would be the advantage of running a defect detector ?
In real life the defect detectors can alert crews to overheated bearings, wheels that have jumped, dragging objects or stuck brake cylinders. Hopefully the crew can stop the train and set the defect car aside before it causes a more severe problem. The advantage to doing this on a layout is that it is more prototypical (and I think fun as well). I think it's great people are incorporating these into their layouts.
I wonder if you can replace the audio in that detector in that video with recorded stuff from actual detectors. It's not difficult to record the audio, I did it with a camera and then ripped the audio from a video to add to another video.
Sooooooooooo...it really serves no 'practical/useful purpose' on a layout...its just an expensive toy. OK...I got it now...thnxs. :tb-wacky::tb-err: .
I am going to add a little to this as well. Not only do they check for hot boxes (overheated bearings) but also shifted loads (high wide Detector) and dragging equipment. High wides protect structures such as bridges and tunnels so that if a train has a shifted load they don't damage train, goods, and structures tying up the railroad for hours to days on end. Hot box keeps trains from overheating. If they overheat they can cause a derailment as the wheels come apart causing lots of damage. Dragging equipment should say it all. Anything dragging could cause track to be ripped up, trains derailed, lots of damage. When a train derails just dragging it along could rip up and break apart all the ties. Dragging equipment could also rip up switches. There are also other detectors that deal with the trackitself and not trains such as highwater detectors. These are located at bridges and culverts that are normally dry but when it rains you get flash floods. These protect trains by being activated by the high water that could wash said tracks and bridges out. Others are slide fences that protect tracks in areas where rocks have a tendency to fall on a regular basis. These fences if broken send a signal to the dispatcher and signal system that puts a red signal up stopping trains until an inspection by a qualified person such as a signal maintainer can get there to see the damage and move rocks off of the right of way. Large boulders can cause damage to trains by derailment and by stiking the rock can damage engines. A couple years ago Amtrak hit a rock going over soldiersummit in UT. Knocked two out of three engines out of service to where they had to be set out for repairs enroute.
On real railroads,every so many miles on the mainlines,and usually a few miles outside any yard,they have "dragging equipment" detectors on mainlines where long freight run at faster speeds.They have infrared sensors on each side that read the temperature of the wheels on each side,and they have steel tubes between the rails and a foot or so outside the rails with switches on them that get hit by anything that may be "dragging",like hanging brake rigging,or a wheel that's off the track.If the detector "sees" a wheel thats really hot,it's most likely got a stuck brake,or a seized bearing,which could easily cause a catastrophic wheel/axle failure..That,or anything actually dragging on the ground from the train,will immediately require the crew to stop the train,and deal with the car in an appropriate manor.A crew member will go back,the detector tells him exactly where to look,what side,what number axle in the train,and after they check it out,they deal with the problem,be it running very slow until they can set the car out,loosen the dragging brake,ETC.The model detector simply simulates this,and gives a cool operational problem to the "crew" trying to run prototypical operations..I think it's VERY slick..
I think it would get annoying unless you had a moderately large layout. I would not want to hear that every 60 seconds-- it would get old-----oh, about the third time I heard it. But if I had a 25 foot layout or larger, then maybe I could see having this. One of the BEST places to put this would be on an N-Trak layout used at shows. Crowds would like it.
I can see where some may want to incorporate this product into their layouts to make them as realistic as possible. Anytime I see a green board with things plugged into it, I get the shakes. Not my cup of tea. BUT, aren't expensive toys what we are actually playing with in the first place?
A functional defect detector would have been really nice a couple of evenings ago, when I slow-roasted a decoder in one of my HO locomotives on our club layout... Just as any ship can be a minesweeper--once, so a decoder can be a really good smoke generator--once.
I actually brought up the idea of REAL hotbox detectors a while ago.Not for actual hotboxes,but to keep tabs on overheating locomotives.I actually may use a heat gun probe at the track,and move the screen to a viewable location.I was also thinking of putting actual switches at the same point in the track,perhaps a microswitch mounted under the layout with a 3 pronged fork that has plates on top that will depress and activate the switch which will give an actual warning of a wheel off,but only when there's a problem..
Actually, it has a very practical use on my layout. I will be buying one of these the next time my budget allows. I have one section of my layout where there are no actual industries, just a passing siding and scenery. Trains come and go and meet in the siding, but no real switching happens. However, there is a house track that will hold about 4-5 cars. This house track will be used to setoff cars that have been flagged by the defect detector. You can program the detector to randomly flag a car as "bad" every X cars that go by. This means that every now and then, an otherwise "through" train will have to stop and sitch out a car into the house track. Adds a lot of operational possibility. Plus, eventually another train will have to pickup that car from the house track. It is a good way to add switching possibilities to an area where none otherwise exist. Jamie
Voice and stuff I noticed it says it works with most scales, N, HO, and O and lager. Also it would be easy to add a switch to kill or mute the speaker. I'm thinking this would be great for one of my Ntrak modules. However I really don't like the voice. On their web page it says you can add word or phrase for ten bucks. I would be more interesting to know how much and if I can change the voice to the real voice. I have a clean mp3 and wav files of most of the words the detectors says including the old "debecks" from the SP detectors. I have sent them an email asking. Mike
I agree Jamie.I never thought about that but it would make a nice addition to a spot on my layout that has nothing.
