Help Need HO Scale Steam Locomotive that steams and whistles

[jbrock27]

You are welcome.
I would forego the expense of buying a piece of terminal track and instead, if it turned out you need more power feeds either a) make up your own by soldering similar size wire to what you have now on the joiners, to some additional joiners (use the ones you bought as a "pattern")  or b) solder feeder wires right to the sides of a rails somewhere on the layout.  Again, being consistent with the North/South Rail thing.  I have confidence given your soldering pencil use, that you could do either of those options.

[Martha]

I wanted to share what the platform looks like I will be adding my new EZ track to. This is actually the first platform, I redid it last year with the extruded foam and made it wider. The reason for it not rectangle is I have this on top of entertainment center and need to get around it. Everything has basically been remodeled. Those of you who have gone to youtube and seen the video can see the end result. This year, knowing me, it will be different again.

One NEW thing this year is Prairie.


Isn't she a bute Clark? (what movie?)

Can't wait for my new track so I can get going on this!

thanks to past post on how to add photos to my post.


this is Jamestown in all it's glory last year.

[jbrock27]

National Lampoon's Vacation

[Doneldon]

Martha-

You absolutely do not need the terminal tracks. In my view, they are a rip off because you'll pay a good sum for something which won't work any better than soldering your feeders directly to the rails or to the bottoms of some rail joiners. A tube of conductive lube will cost a fraction of the cost of a terminal track and will do more to enhance electrical continuity.
                                                                           -- D

[jbrock27]

It was Jeff aka NarrowMinded, who posted that video I was thinking of about removing rail joiners from EZ track.

http://s792.beta.photobucket.com/user/NarrowmindedRR/media/20121110195709.mp4.html

[Martha]

I am still smiling and remembering all the post I just finished reading and it started with Jonathan and his night lights. He will be next in the line of fire once this track is up and running, I am going to pick him brain till sawdust comes out! There was quite a discussion on many topics. Us New Yorkers called them smug pots. So I guess we are all dating ourselves with them. Hopewell Junction!!! My daughter, son-in-law and family lived in HJ for a year or so and now moved to Beacon, NY. My Son-in-law is an instructor at the Fishkill Correction Facility. I actually stayed last April on the grounds where they live. Strange seeing inmates out your front window picking up trash and mowing lawns. I am from the Catskill Mts. outside of Ellenville (which used to be a nice thriving little town when I grew up there).  My dad was born in Brooklyn moved to the country on a farm when he was 7. Small world sometimes.

Okay getting off track oh excuse the pun! I went and watched the info on removing the rail joiner on the EZ track, good to know in advance. I am not so concerned about saving it (joiner) I am more worried about ripping the rail loose so I will be extremely cautious doing that. Thank you for sharing that!

HA! I knew I didn't need those stinkin rerailer terminal things! I found this how to and would like your opinions if this is a good way to do the feeder wires, it starts at 2.25 or so. http://youtu.be/8QdzJZmgVfw

Where might one buy conductive lube? Also should I be buying grease, lube, etc for Prairie or is she good for a bit before she might need maint? I tried to open her up, worse day in my life I think, I know how Jonathan felt about Connie. I didn't get the cab off of her, I made the mistake of unscrewed a screw that didn't need to come out and the little tin part that has those oh so tender feelers on them that I am guessing supplies the power to those wheels. there was 6 of them to get safely back into place. I have quite a time getting that all back together. I probably won't ever attempt that again. I will just send her to Jonathan when she needs TLC!

Back to supplying power to the track(s). in the video I posted, he has a black wire and a white wire on each side of the rail Jbrock77 - is this what you mean by north and south rail? So IF I need more power to more tracks I can hook all the black wires together to one side of the power supply and all white wires together onto the other side of the power supple (on the dc side of the power supply of course). Is that correct?

This is the power supply I have. This photo happens to have the small pin connector that would go to a terminal rail, I am not using it, just happened to be connected when I took this picture. What gauge wire would I want to use? Stranded or not? Sorry not sure what the solid wire is called. that is the type of wire the guy used. AS I am a novice at this, it would be smart for me to choose two colors to do this, whether I get black, red, white, or any other color out there. one color is for the north and the other for the south right?

I will do two sides of the oval, probably the straight sides, would be easier right then trying on curves? I am getting better at soldering well maybe not better but understanding the method to the madness better. Tinning the wire makes sense to me now.


One last question. EZ track is just a plastic bed, not really track bed right? Since I have new foam track bed left over can I use it under the ez track or will it not work? or is it a waste of time and energy? Does it have any purpose if I do use it? make it run quieter?

Need to sign off, Reno is under extreme unhealthy air quality due to the King Fire south of us. My eyes, throat and nose are irritated and I haven't gone out all day, it is just saturating everyplace. Thanks as always for all your expert advice.

[Doneldon]

HA! I knew I didn't need those stinkin rerailer terminal things! I found this how to and would like your opinions if this is a good way to do the feeder wires, it starts at 2.25 or so. http://youtu.be/8QdzJZmgVfw

Where might one buy conductive lube? Also should I be buying grease, lube, etc for Prairie or is she good for a bit before she might need maint?

Back to supplying power to the track(s). in the video I posted, he has a black wire and a white wire on each side of the rail Jbrock77 - is this what you mean by north and south rail? So IF I need more power to more tracks I can hook all the black wires together to one side of the power supply and all white wires together onto the other side of the power supple (on the dc side of the power supply of course). Is that correct?

This is the power supply I have. This photo happens to have the small pin connector that would go to a terminal rail, I am not using it, just happened to be connected when I took this picture. What gauge wire would I want to use? Stranded or not? Sorry not sure what the solid wire is called. that is the type of wire the guy used. AS I am a novice at this, it would be smart for me to choose two colors to do this, whether I get black, red, white, or any other color out there. one color is for the north and the other for the south right?

I will do two sides of the oval, probably the straight sides, would be easier right then trying on curves? I am getting better at soldering well maybe not better but understanding the method to the madness better. Tinning the wire makes sense to me now.

One last question. EZ track is just a plastic bed, not really track bed right? Since I have new foam track bed left over can I use it under the ez track or will it not work? or is it a waste of time and energy? Does it have any purpose if I do use it? make it run quieter?

Martha-

The basics he shows for soldering tracks together and feeders are solid. I do think, however, that he uses more solder than is necessary, resulting in an unsightly blob which should be removed for asthetics, and larger wire than is needed. I use 16 ga wire -- stranded wire like for a lamp or light duty extension cord -- and then 20 or 22 ga feeders from the 16 ga buss to the rails (using 22 ga only when there is less than six inches from the buss to the rail). Also, I prefer to solder my feeders to rail joiners and then solder the rail joiners to both rails. This saves at least one unsoldered joint between the feeder and a loco's wheels. His idea of using wet cotton balls (or anything absorbent) as heat sinks is very good for when there are nearby plastic parts which can be damaged by the soldering heat.

Any hardware store should have conductive lube for your rail joints. You can also find it at auto parts stores where it is sold for use in spark plug terminals and boots.

You shouldn't need to lubricate your new loco this season unless it is sluggish already which may mean that it sat on a shelf for a while before you bought it. It probably wouldn't hurt to clean and relube annually (before you run your train, not before storage) because the loco will be sitting unused for nearly a year at a time. You can use any plastic-safe oil or grease. You'll find them at hobby stores at an outrageous price or more reasonably priced at most good hardware stores. When you do lubricate, decide on  the barest minimum of lubricant you think will work and then use half of that. Seriously, it only takes a tiny dab to do the job and more will just mess things up.

Yes, you can group all feeder wires of one color together for attachment to your power supply. With just two feeder pairs, I'd run the 16 ga buss to the nearest terminal, use a 22 ga feeder up to the track and then run the buss wire to the more distant feeder and hook it up with another pair of 22 ga wires. Do note that lamp cord (that's what they call extension cords and, well, lamp wires) either has some kind of marking impressed into one of its conductor's insulation or some ridges molded on so it's easier to keep your polarity straight.

Your power supply will work for your train but only if you are very careful and won't have anyone else around who might mess with it. This power pack appears to be for large scale trains as it can put out 17 volts. That will fry any lights it serves and will possibly even burn out your motor unless you make sure that you turn it up no more than about half to two-thirds power. HO trains use about 12 volts or a little more. If I were you, I'd go on eBay to find a power pack which is more suited to your train. There will be lots of them so they shouldn't be very expensive.

Yes, it's a fine idea to consistently use two colors for your wiring. It helps make sure that you don't mix up polarity and wire in a dead short. You might want to consider using two additional colors for the wiring to your lights or other accessories.

It might be a little easier to solder rail joiner/feeders where two pieces of straight track together but not enough to make any real difference. So ... solder there or nearby if there is an obstruction which might make it hard to run your feeders up through the train board to the track.

Yes, EZTrack's roadbed is plastic so take care when soldering. I don't think there's anything to gain by mounting it atop your foam material. In fact, it might be hard to do and result in unstable tracks. You can certainly mount roadbed attached track to sectional cork roadbed if you want to show certain tracks as heavy-duty mainlines but I can't think that you'd need to do that on your layout since you won't have sidings or spur tracks to show a difference. I don't think you can do this at all with foam roadbed, anyway. All of the foam roadbed I've seen is a single length (cork has two strips to make it easier to keep it flat when going around curves) so you'd find that it would raise your track a quarter-inch or so, but it would look awful. The foam, if it can be used would quiet the tracks but I think the point is moot unless your foam material is split so you can line its shoulder up with the edge of the plastic roadbed.

Good luck!
                   -- D

[jbrock27]

Martha, I agree in the video (which I have seen prior to this) the guy uses too much solder.  I also don't agree with what he said about flux.  He may have has a problem in the past bc he did not use the right flux or clean it off the rails.  Funny that even though he said his method was guaranteed to not melt ties, he points out one that is

I agree with Doc that you can use 22-20 gauge wire to bring the power to your rails.  I do not think you need any kind of buss.  I do not think you need to bother w/buying conductive lube.  The EZ track, once snapped together fits very tightly.  As long as the joiners are in good condition and you have them slid into the rails properly, I highly doubt you are going to have any electrical continuity problems.  I would not bother soldering the sections of EZ track together.  You only need to solder where you are feeding your wires to power the track to the side of the rails where you chose to do this.

I agree with what Doc says about lubing the loco.

You are right-good idea to have 2 different colored wires going to the track.  You are correct, when I say North Rail, South Rail, I mean the 2 rails opposite each other on a section of track.  When you put your oval together, you will have one continuous rail that is North (or inner if that's easier) and one that is South (or outer).  I agree with what Doc says about soldering to straight track.  This is what I did, although it is not that much more difficult to solder to curved track if you have to.

I have no idea why Doc is cautioning you about your power pack.  Does it say "HO" on it?  Does it say anything other than "HO" on it?  It's an older Bachmann power pack that is meant to be used with HO trains.  I have one and use it to power accessories and LEDs.

I would not put the EZ track on any kind of other roadbed.

Simple way to use the red wire you have there-disconnect it from the power pack or turn off the power.  Cut that black piece off the end.  Separate the 2 wires a little bit to give yourself some room to work.  Strip some insulation off each of the 2 red wires.  Now here is where you have some options: take your 2 different colored wires that you will at the other end, join to the rails.  Strip some insulation off (see my prior post on this) and twist the wires together of the like colors.  Solder them together with flux and solder.  Tin one red wire end with some flux and solder.  Get some heat shrink tubing wide enough to cover where you are going to join this end to the 2 wires you have already joined together.  Cut a piece of heat shrink long enough to cover where you join all 3.  Slide it on the red wire, push it far away from where you will solder all 3 together.  Then solder the red wire to the 2 of the same colored already joined together.  Slide the tubing over and heat shrink over the soldered area.  You can also wrap with electrical tape instead of using the tubing.  Repeat this for the other colored wires and the remaining red wire.  If you don't want to solder them together, substitute that for using connectors that you crimp. You can crimp them together so none ever move or you can use connectors that allow you to remove wires from the others if you have to.  

Capiche?    

[Martha]

Good morning! Just checked and my EZ track is out for delivery  . Best thing about ordering from OmniModels they distribute from Reno. Which means after work I get to work on the track. My gut instincts is telling me this will be the ticket. No more problems. Well at least not in the track department! If I need to add more feeder wires I am confident that I can do that. I did notice that guys video we are referencing didn't do such a good job on the joint, even I noticed that and wondered is that right? I thought the wire he used looked a bit over kill. See why I ask for your help/advice! I do have feeder wire joiner coming with the track, it was three bucks or so, they are all the same right? Atlas, Bachmann, etc, the joiners will fit all of those tracks? If it needs more power I will either buy another one or solder my own.

I will not use the foam track bed.

I am familiar with the polarity wire, (like extension cords, speaker wire has it also) usually white dash or some thing as you said to avoid shorting things out. The power supply box came with the track and cars I bought, actually I ended up with 2 of them. I will be the only one operating this as I don't want Prairie flying off the track and smashing. Last year I fiddled around a little using the AC side for lights, fried a little strand of lights I had, that made me decide to stick with what I know. Over half of my lighting is run off of adapters that reduces the amps or volts or whatever it might be called. They aren't meant to be connected with several strands at once but I have and so far so good. 75% of the small lights are Lemax designed for Christmas village or miniature dollhouse, etc. Each set of lights comes with a little box to be used with batteries or plug/lead in the adapter to it. Four leads to one adapter. This is the box the power supply comes in.



I am also familiar with shrink tubing, did all my light connections using it. Great little invention.

I will leave lubing alone for now. I watched this video about care and maint. of the loco, should I oil the outside moving parts? at 4:16 or so he is oiling the wheels and other moving parts. I have noticed the little bit I have run the loco it sometimes made for the lack of a better word screeching sounds? I think it was the wheels on the brass track, made me think that sounds like something needs oil. If so what kind of oil? Here is that video.

http://youtu.be/OtW8Gx_WxL4

One last question for this post. What is the difference between prototypical and model. I noticed prototypical was mentioned a lot in a old posts.

[Martha]

I'm a proud momma! My little Prairie got her brand new EZ track, rail terminal joiner a little clean up of the wheels and track and she has been pulling 4 cars behind her so quite a while. No derailng no stop and go, no odd noises, just her doing her thing. I don't quite remember when I was so excited about a simple thing like this! She has more than enough power with the single joiner. I never was planning on running her fast, She's just going slow through town, that's her job.

I did find something interesting, I took a chance, hooked up a string of "running lights" I have that go around the outside of the track for ambient light to the AC side of the power supply, it worked but made the box hum more than it normally does but the interesting part is it affected the DC side and Prairie would only move at a very low speed even on full power so...... The ac side of this won't be used for anything. I never expected to use it so no big deal.

Boy oh Boy, can't wait to get off work and start getting this layout going. I am going to paint the cars Christmas decor or "wrap" them in Christmas paper like I had them, so not to ruin the actual paint on the cars but now these babies are mine and they are going Christmas! 


Still would like to know about prototypical and model

[jbrock27]

All is well that ends well ! 

[Doneldon]

Still would like to know about prototypical and model

Martha-

"Prototypical" and "prototype" refer to the real, twelve-inches-to-the-foot trains that we reduce in size in order to have models because 90-foot long steam engines don't fit into very many basements, especially with all of the other trains we want to have down there.

"Models" are the reduced size replicas of the prototypes. The more accurately a model replicates its real, full-size big brother, the more prototypical it is. Generally speaking, more accurate models cost more than less accurate models because the extra detailing is expensive to do, whether it's a simple shake-the-box reefer kit or a brass locomotive from Japan, Korea or China.
                                                                                                         -- D

[Doneldon]

I have no idea why Doc is cautioning you about your power pack.  Does it say "HO" on it?  Does it say anything other than "HO" on it?  It's an older Bachmann power pack that is meant to be used with HO trains.  I have one and use it to power accessories and LEDs.

Jim-

If you look at Martha's power pack you'll see that it puts out 17 volts. That's too much for HO models.

                                                                                                                                             -- D

[Martha]

Since I don't know the answer, if I run the power on a slow speed is that okay or is 17 volts always putting out whether it goes fast or slow. These (I have two of the same) power supplies came with two different sets of Bachmann trains, both with brass rails. does that have anything to do with it, brass rails?. they are "vintage" now if you see them on EBay. They are older styles and did that have anything to do with it?

If I need a new one, any suggestion on a model? Doc said look for 12 volt ones right?

I am already eye balling changes I need to make to the platform for this new track but nothing that will be labor intensive. As I take off all of the houses, landscaping, lights etc, I am always working with a blank canvas more or less. I am glad it is Friday, my mind is going a mile a minute of what should I do next? I think working on the cars I will be using. Just wait til you see Jamestown this year!

[jbrock27]

Sorry Doc, but with all due respect, you are being unecessarily ridiculous and just helping to create further confusion and concern for Martha where none is warranted.  It's an HO power pack that was produced by our hosts over many years (the black ones with the red knob are the same) and is of the same design sold by several other companies, for the purpose of running HO trains.  Perhaps you did not look at the box it came in?  Let me ask you this Doc.  Do you really think that thing's DC output is 17 Volts, even at full throttle?  Give me a break.

Martha, if and only if, that thing gives up the ghost as well as the other you have, then I suggest you buy a MRC made power pack as replacement.  And keep in mind that while one side of the power packs you have now may stop working, the other side still may function for some other use.  In other words, if the DC dies, the AC may still be useful.  I would not go looking for a "12Volt power pack".   News Flash: MRC power packs are rated for above 12 Volts as well, and are in many's opinion, not just mine, to be the best DC packs in the business.  

And PS: There is no relation between the power pack and the fact that it came with brass railed track.  These power packs also came with steel track sets.  It can be used with any HO set up.