Still run your Old rolling stock?

[Tylerf]

Just a point for Chaz, kadees ARE knuckle couplers and I don't see how you don't like them so much unless you are only running short trains. I'd still prefer kadees over plastic couplers any day.

[Jim Banner]

Thanks, J-bar Jeff.  With my spelling, I must have been thinking of the train controls the Aztecs used.

ASTRAC used five different radio frequency signals on the tracks.  These were superimposed  on top of the ac on the tracks in timed bursts.  In each of five locomotives, a tuned circuit detected the bursts at only one of the five frequencies.  If the burst arrived late in the positive half cycles of the track ac, a TRIAC was triggered on for a short time (until the next zero crossing of the ac.)  This would move the motor, and thus the locomotive, forward at low speed.  If the burst arrived earlier in the half cycle, the on time was longer and the speed was faster.  If the bursts occurred in the negative half cycles, the motor and the locomotive would move backward.  This worked well enough if the wheels and tracks were perfectly clean.

Because the motors were powered only ever second half cycle, the track voltage had to be relatively high to get an average of 12 volts on the motors.  I seem to remember it being 20 volts.  These high, narrow pulses tend to heat motors more than straight dc does, and is even worse with the inefficient, open frame motors of the time.  If the tracks or wheels were a little dirty, the arcing that occurred could generate its own radio frequencies.  These could, and did, trigger the TRIACs, in either the correct or wrong half cycle.  These reverse cycles added to the motor heat.  The result was a lot of burned out motors, which made ASTRAC less popular than GE had hoped.

All in all, it was a primitive system.  But I suppose it eventually developed into DCC, the same way that Morse code developed into email.  There were a lot of other systems tried, both before and after AZTRAC, but none of them achieved the wide acceptance that DCC has.

Jim

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Thanks, Jim! That was interesting. Whenever I pull that old book off the shelf, I wonder why ASTRAC didn't catch on.

Seems like the difference between ASTRAC and DCC is like the difference between a black-powder muzzle-loader and an AK-47.

[PaulDeS]

Read your post with interest since I do have some old passenger cars (3) that I still run. I bought them when I was 16 or 17 years old (1957 or 1958). The interesting thing is that when you turn them over you see that they were made by Fleismann in the US Zone of Germany. The steam engine I bought at the same time is now missing parts but I keep it on display near the layout (just to remind me of what it looked like).

The passenger cars don't have a road name but the color seems to match PRR maroon.I did need to change a coupler so that I could pull them with a Bachmann small steamer. Looks good when it pulls into the train station of my 1950's town (complete with a movie theater showing 'The Atomic Kid', yes the Town theater from the Back to the Future movies).

Guess some of us are stuck in our childhood.

Paul

[jward]

ok here's one for all you collectors out there.

way back in the early to mid 1970s i remember a train set that was able to use both hot wheels type track, and standard HO track. the cars had horn hook couplers, and a futuristic design. does anybody know what these were and where i can find out more about them?

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

ok here's one for all you collectors out there.

way back in the early to mid 1970s i remember a train set that was able to use both hot wheels type track, and standard HO track. the cars had horn hook couplers, and a futuristic design. does anybody know what these were and where i can find out more about them?

Was it a Tyco turbo-train? I'm not familiar with what you are asking about, but I think I saw something similar recently during my daily eBay check.

[jward]

no. the tyco turbo trains came much later, around 1990. these were in the 1970s.

[Jim Banner]

I seem to remember someone bringing out a set that had both slot cars and trains.  Each ran on its own style of track, except at a crossing.  I suppose the object was to mow down the autos at the crossing.  My memory puts it in the sixties, a time when slot cars were competing with model railroading.

Video arcades hadn't hit the scene yet, but there were still ways of separating kids from their hard earned quarters.  One of them was to rent space, then set up a large, multi-lane slot car track and charge kids for running their slot cars on it.

This link will take you to an interesting read on the history of H0 slot cars and trains.

http://www.hoslotcarracing.com/History.html

Jim

_{EDIT - add link}

[rallygsc]

Hello Everyone: 

I have a junk box find by tyco / mantua and the darned thing still runs, it is one of those diesel switchers, but this one has a motor similar to the pittman motor and not the pancake crap.

as for collectors, who cares, if you enjoy the hobby and you plan on keeping the cars and such to run and use, modify them as you wish,

I have repowered a lot of the old mantua and tyco steamers,  thanks to Dan at yardbird trains I have kept them running, and I have detailed them.

it's nice to see an engine that is heavy as heck pull a lot of cars without hesitation,

I have weathered and modified some cars, some of those old AHM cars and tyco cars were never produced by other companies,

I still have a soft spot for Train Miniature cars, I love those cars for the steam era, especially the beer cars

I think we all like to keep a part of our past with us, trains for a lot of us had a lot of special memories while growing up.

take care
George

[Terry Toenges]

Jim - The slot car site brings back a lot of memories. I use to have a couple of Aurora sets. I used to go to the slot car tracks, too, with my Ford Cobra and Lasalle hearse converted for slot car use. I think the Cobra was 1/24 and the hearse was 1/32.

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

I seem to remember someone bringing out a set that had both slot cars and trains.  Each ran on its own style of track, except at a crossing.  I suppose the object was to mow down the autos at the crossing.  My memory puts it in the sixties, a time when slot cars were competing with model railroading.

I'm reasonably certain Tyco had a set like that. I have some old catalogues from the late 1960s at home. I'll try to remember to take a look.

[jonathan]

I have retrucked, recoupled and run a few items from my grampa's hobby days.  He started HO in 1947.  One item I won't upgrade or run is a tin and brass box car with "land 'o' lakes" on the side.  It has brass trucks and a coupler system with metal rings and some kind of vertical hook in the middle.  I have three cars like that, and I've never seen anything else like it.  They sit in a display case to remind me of grampa and how he got me started in the hobby when I was 7.

Regards,

[Len]

70's stuff is "old"?

I've still got my Revell SW-7 from Christmas 1957, and several Ambroid kit cars from around the same time period.

Len

[Jim Banner]

It has brass trucks and a coupler system with metal rings and some kind of vertical hook in the middle.

Could be Mantua couplers.  These were the "standard coupler" before Kadee came along.  They worked much better than the X2f (horn-hook) couplers but didn't look very realistic.

Jim
_0:07

[bevernie]

 ;DGREETINGS!! ;)Years ago, I had the old TYCO TRAIN/RACE CAR SET!! I rewired one of the race car lanes, such that the cars would move in opposite directions, as on a highway!  ???Wonder what I ever did with that old set??
        ::)I've thought of doing it again, but I doubt that I will!!
                                                                                                    THANX!!
                                                                                                    Ernie