What was your latest purchase?

10 FVM boxcars...new...8.00 each. They will give me a few more cars for my Atlas S2 to switch around Lucky Penny Yard. Plus...will give some more color to whats running on the mains

Already have the weathering stuff on the workbench waiting for them to get here...gotta make em look. 'un-new'...lol

 

Broadway Limited Imports (BLI) E6 units decorated for the CoLA (City of Los Angeles) showed up.
They look nice and go well with City of San Francisco E7 units recently received as well.
Goes well with the City of Los Angeles E7 units from a few years ago too.

I don't like the dummy E7B units in the two unit sets. The B units are heavy 'dead' weight that would seem to add stress to a consist.
It is certainly more economical than buying powered A/B unit sets... but... at least we should have the choice.

'Paragon' DCC/sound was okay... bearing in mind the dual mode DCC unit was being run in analog (DC) mode with a BLI add-on component between the track and power pack to work the sound functions. I haven't tried to use these in DCC mode with my MRC Prodigy Squared power supply. I'm old school... and too lazy to hook-up the DCC system to make my life easier (LOL)...

 

My most recent purchase was the Wheels of Time IC 70' heavy weight baggage car as addition the IC Kato passenger train and a Centralia Shops B&O observation car with lighting installed.
The baggage cars brings the train to 10 cars which I feel is a good length.
The observation car fell short of my expectations; I was hoping it had lighted tail lights like that in the IC Kato observation car. Back to search mode.

 

I have some BLI EA-units that came with unpowered B-units. I model B&O and thus purchased one of the powered B-units. Even though I have not had a home layout since Spring 2014, I have a test loop and recently ran the powered A-B in consist and was very pleased. The train was a 10 car set of Kato B&O cars.

 

My wife wanted to go shopping for several things and wanted me to take her. We got to shopping center before store she wanted opened at 10am- but Hobby Lobby was open. And I wanted to go there to get some metal tubing for waste vent pipes. Hadn't been worth a separate trip yet there but we had 30 minutes to kill. Found K&S hollow aluminum tubing, 1/16" diameter. Didn't have a scale rule with me and Hobby Lobby doesn't have such specifically N-scale supplies... Let's see: 3/4" = 10 N scale feet. 3/4" = 12/16. So 1/16" = 1/12 of 10 N scale feet. Or 10/12th of 1 N scale foot. 10 N scale inches. A bit big for a vent pipe but smallest thing available that's actually hollow. And I can probably use it for other stuff. Not a very exciting purchase but I did get to find something for my trains while my wife shopped for sheets and kitchen doo-dads.

 

I purchased an Atlas Southern Pacific SD50, and a Deluxe Innovations SP Maxi-stack III set #2 (to go along with my set #1)

 

I haven't received it yet, but I ordered it. I should get it soon. I'm just happy to say I bought it !!! Things have been a bit bad, but gettin' better !!! Won't tell you what it is 'til I get it !!! Only clue is, I ordered it from "some guy" in Oregon !!!

 

I was able to go to the train show in Roseville, CA this Saturday and got an Atlas MP15DC in Southern Pacific. I missed out on it when initially released...always fun to get something you've wanted for a while. Runs beautifully too. Now to DCC it!
My son found a Kato SD70ACe in BNSF, I forgot that I had decided not to get any more of these since they cause me such headaches trying to get decoders working. I already have two of them sitting in my work area needing help.

 

HI Ryan. on the sd70ace engines. you take a small piece the foam from the case. and you put the foam in the gap between the board and frame in the front. there is a thread with pics that some one might know the link. I have all the ns sd70ace with tcs decoders and they run perfect.

 

I was able to find and purchase the Fox Valley Christmas Locomotive. Which will pull my Christmas Train this year.

 

Can you tell me....do the sd70ace engines have those 2 tiny springs under the front of the board like the ES44Ac ??? I believe the idea was those springs would push the board up and help it make contact with the frame halves. I lost one of those springs when taking the 2 halves apart for some cleaning. I tried various shimming ideas. That engine never ran right after that. Bad design idea at best

 

sorry no . the kato engines do not use springs. that is a fvm design. I would contact fvm to see if I could get a set of springs from them. some day some one will give me one of those engines that do's not run right and I can try working on. I my self do not own any fvm.

 

I recently picked up two Atlas 2-Bay Offset Side Hoppers and inside the case are two thin strips of black plastic, taped into a recess on the blister card. Any idea as to what these are for?

 

I just bought 4 atlas ore cars 2 buses from cmw and a few trucks for cars

 

Thanks for the tip. I've read that trick before and will try it. The one I have has the little plastic spacer which sits right below where the decoder fits under the frame tabs. What seems unnatural is the bend in the decoder because of how thick the nubs are. I'll try again and see if I can get it going. My son asks EVERY day if it's working yet

 

I found that I needed to take that little plastic spacer out. not use it.

 

So I did some more looking and it looks like there were some edges on the mechanism that weren't letting the decoder to lay flat so the decoder tabs couldn't lift up enough to touch the frame firmly. I left the little plastic spacer in under it (which performs the same function as a chunk of foam would, as recommended by ns737). So after some work, it works! My sons and two friend are over right now playing on the layout. The excitement in his voice when he saw the BNSF SD70ACe on the layout was worth the work for sure. Thanks for the tip NS737 to encourage me to keep working on it with a focus on that front part. Now I have two more to tackle!

 

That auction site has a good photo here. It's the two pieces on the left. I've looked the car over, but see no obvious place for them or what they're for.