Hmmm... Don't quite know for sure what to guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Smokey Bear loco counted for the Feb release. I'm hoping they do a new Gunderson Well Car sometime soon.
Just my observation! I see several people placing Micro-Trains GP-35's on ebay with little more than nibbles. I see many online Train Stores that have an abundant supply of GP-35's. I see Micro-Trains website shows an abundant supply of GP-35's. It appears the "Z" world is either saturated with GP-35's already, or everyone has the GP-35's they want, or they cost too much for everyone to own a GP-35, or people are holding out for their favorite road name to come out. If I were a betting man, I'd say the GP-35 is fixing to become more like the Gunderson Husky in the fact that the market was saturated quickly and everyone that wanted them, now has them. Joe "D" at Micro-Trains told me that MTL has an abundant supply of Gunderson Husky's in the Southern Pacific and Canadian Pacific paint schemes. I have been bugging Joe "D" as to when they might release the Gunderson Husky in either AT&SF or BNSF paint schemes. As usual, he says good things come to those who wait. I ain't getting any younger! As for GP-35's, I have yet to purchase any for the lack of $$$, but hopefully that will change soon. I see one Undec and one Santa Fe GP-35 on the horizon! Well, that is my observations. As for what will be in the February "Z" line-up, I have no clue! Have a great day! Tim
I have 9-1/2 geeps already, after buying 11 so far. I gave 1 to grandpa, and one of my ditchlight equipt units melted down while running it on my friend's module. A Peter Wright turnout (non DCC friendly) picked the wheels, and while nobody was looking, it shorted. The DCC kept resetting then shorting until the wheel got red hot, and melted down my prize locomotive. -Robert
nooo. I hate to see that. That was one nice engine. I hope you can salvage it, but at least you have extra shells coming. Once I got coupler pin stuck between a switch and it turn red hot, and that is with a gauge master.
No, don't get me wrong, the Peter Wright turnouts are great turnouts, it's just that the common electrical point design is not DCC friendly. So what can happen on DCC, is that if the locomotive derails somewhere, and makes it into the turnout at the points, one wheel can be touching the outside rail, and the other wheel can touch the point, at which time you can have a dead short. On a DCC system the power supplied is greater than a DC system running at full blast, giving say 10-15 volts at 5 amps. All that current will go through the trucks. The DCC system will sense the short, and shut off for a second, then it will reset and pulse another 5 amps through the trucks. After a few seconds the wheels will start to get real hot, and melt the plastic in the trucks. That's what happened to my locomotive. I have done quite a bit of surfing on this subject this week, and discovered there is already a good workaround for this problem. You cut isolation gaps at all 6 rails going into the turnout, and power it with feeder wires. Wire one of the feeders in series with an 1156 automotive tail lamp, which is rated to take 5 amps at 13.8 volts. Now with this setup, if you have a short circuit at the points, the tail lamp bulb will light up and the lamp filament will take the current, leaving the locomotive trucks safe. It's a bit of work, but I put even more work into detailing my locomotive to have it melt down in a few seconds. -Robert
Hi Hemi, I would say no re: DC. Most of the DC transformers are spitting out about 8-10 volts at 1 AMP Max-assuming the throttle is that high, which is 8-10 watts P=IxE or Watts (P) = Current/Amps (I) multiplied by Voltage (E) (visit: http://www.the12volt.com/ohm/ohmslaw.asp for more on Electrical calculations under Ohm's law) 5 Amps at 15 volts is 75 watts. Think about putting your hand on a 75 watt bulb-that's hot. Now run that through a large piece of metal and a lot of excess heat is generated. Because DC is just that, direct current, as opposed to AC, which is alternating, think pulsing current, with DC there is a good chance you'll short out the transformer or create a blown fuse before you end up in situation like Robert did with DCC... Which leads me to an idea: Hey Robert, rather than messing with a light bulb, why not just put a slow blow fuse into the circuit rated at 4-5 AMPS? Just a thought... Michael
Actually, it was not my module, as I am only using Marklin turnouts on my modules. The module that killed my loco belongs to Jeff, who was also running my locomotives at the time. When I asked where my loco was, he told me that it melted down after stalling on the Peter Wright turnout. Jeff had wired in breakers to his modules, and isolated them into blocks, so if you are not watching a train, and it shorts, the other trains n other blocks will keep running. Since we had such a large modular setup in a Y configuration, you could not see all the trains running unless you were on that side of the layout. Those breakers reset after 1 second, just like the DCC boster does, so you need a guy watching all 3 sides of the layout at all times. -Robert
