Your comments and vids on these Model Power locomotives have motivated me to look at some of these models still out on etailer shelves. I just purchase a DCC/sound equipped ATSF #457 mogul from Model Power... it was on "sale" from one etailer for $140.00 delivered... and was the only one left (for ATSF). Hoping it performs properly when it gets here next week. Sent from my SM-J737T using Tapatalk
If it is good, we will all want to see the video! In progress news, got the GN S2 wired up. Here's a video, which shows how much programming needs to go on yet! It is too fast, wrong direction, chuffs are SLOW and etc........ But it stays on the track!
So, I have been working on programming this thing a bit here n there all week. It isn't too bad, but I can't seem to get the chuff rate to change. Tried everything I could read in their manual, but nothing seems to affect it. This morning I sent Soundtraxx an email to see what they suggest. Hopefully it isn't the decoder. I even de-soldered the little keep alive cap to be sure it wasn't an issue, reset it all with the cv8=8, tried a few other things they hint at. Hmmmm...... part of the fun!
And Soundtraxx got right back to me today. It turns out that I was working from an older Tsunami guide, which had a multitude of errors in it. So, tomorrow I pick up a current one from my printer, and get 'er done! His suggestion did help me get the chuff rate closer in one switch. Yay!!
Good news and sounds like you got some excellent customer service sir. That is a rare thing these days.
Progress is being made! Not only the chuff rate, but a lot of other settings are much better. Speed is under control, no more scared rabbit in step 20! But still have to fit the tender body, redo the boiler after painting inside the smokebox, add a crewman or two.....
I have been tweaking on it and it has an extremely slow crawl now. Unfortunately, it is back on the bench for final assembly. And new smaller capacitors. In other news, got the 12 out and a short NP local passenger train.... And a short video, of course. This has an Econami in it and a light in the brakeman's house. That light is manually 'on', but only in reverse. I don't know why I set it up that way, probably just 'because!'
I have some Bachmann ten wheelers with only the dual mode decoder... none have sound. These darn things have been more trouble than they are worth. The problem is mainly the tender... the wheels/wiper assembly on all of them fall apart. I have other B'mann tenders but not the 'right size' for the ten wheeler... the Goldilocks effect... too big or too small. Because I can not keep them running... I can not tell if there are other 'fish to fry' with them. I like the look of the ten wheeler so I hope to get back round to them. Any one else have tender issues with the ten wheeler that can lend some repair advise? Sent from my SM-J737T using Tapatalk
I did replace the tender with a smaller USRA tender. Besides the DCC / Sound, I added weight in all the little nooks and crannies with steel birdshot. I have one, the 11, which has seen a lot of service with very few hiccups. I did finally burn out it's motor a couple of years ago, and replaced it. Still going!
That #12 is a nice looking engine there Badland! Really enjoying seeing all your steam out and running.
It has been a long week! I have a close friend, RailBox on here, that I am caretaker for also. Yeah, guess we are close as family. Anyway, I had to hospitalize him on the 1st because he was just confused and messed up and in severe pain. Turned out to be a UTI he recollected that went septic over a couple of days. Infected his blood. Have been spending a LOT of time up there keeping him calmed down and onboard with the staff as much as possible. His memory is hit and miss anymore. That all makes any kind of intense puzzle solving a bit too much. So, I went to something simple for a bit, adding lites to my GN set. Yes, Kato, but I don't have their liting kits available, and do have a handful of power supplies, some 2 pin plugs, and LED's on hand. And they are flicker free!
Soo, the first part of the lit up GN train is together. I figured out a way to hold the LED's up to the roofs, and have to go back to fix the first three. Here's a vid of the set, so far, This a.m. I was up at 0230 for no good reason, so went and worked on the S2. It will be dedicated to pulling the GN set, so, I decided a plug on the end of it would connect it to the whole train nicely. After I spent time setting a coupler on the rear. Cap's first, Then some weight, Coupler mounting, And the wires routing.
And the 844 has a hitch in it's gait. Am going to be disassembling her to reroute the wiring twixt tender and engine, and will have to be checking the quartering and such then.
I would set up a loop and let it run for 20 to 30 minutes not pulling anything, after that add a couple to 5 cars and again let it run around the loop for an hour or so, then a couple more cars, such as it would typically pull and let it go again for an hour or more to get things worn in. I have been using this method for my trains for years and it seems to work pretty good.
I just realized I forgot part of my break in process. I also run them in reverse for an hour or so after the forward process is done. I usually don’t pull any cars in reverse, but it wouldn’t hurt anything. Also change the direction. This way the U joints can get left turns in as well as right turns.
