One song not listed yet, suprising considering who sings it, is Neil Young's "Southern Pacific". For those who don't know, Neil Young (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; Crazy Horse) is as well known model and real railroad fan. At one stage he bailed Lionel out of a hole becoming a part-owner, and took a semi with a layout in it to his gigs.

Oddly enough, cant think of a specific train song from Rod Stewart.

Steve Magee
Who, even more oddly, is a classical music lover - but finds good in all sorts of music

I posted the message, but not the link to Indian Pacific. I shall claim seniors moment ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJRCYWhAvxY

Steve Magee

If you like your train songs a little later (ie, diesel and not steam :-) ) here's another one on You Tube. "Indian Pacific", by one of Australias greatest songsmiths, Slim Dusty.

If anybody wants any Aussie-isms translated, feel free to ask.

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

Yampa

If you want to keep the trusty EZC unit but still want to program CV.s, have you heard of SPROG? Details are at:

http://www.sprog-dcc.co.uk/

It sits between your PC and a spare length of track, and will program even the most notorious decoders. Don't use it myself as my NCE is happily connected to Decoder Pro via an old desktop, but I have seen it in use on a friends layout, and he swears by it - note, not AT it. :-)

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

Another often overlooked factor in a locos ability to pull is balance, both on the prototype and the model. For instance, how many times have you heard of a leading or trailing truck spring being removed - or added in some cases - to improve the balance of the locomotive.

There are probably several ways of balancing your steam loco, but the one that is easiest uses two postal scales. With the leading and trailing trucks removed, place the leading set of drivers on one scale and the rear on the other. If the weight on both is about the same it is balanced. If they are dissimilar, either add weight to the end of the loco that is on the lower value, or remove weight - milling etc - from the heavier end. Though I would normally recommend the addition of weight.

I have seen notoriously light pullers dramatically improved when properly balanced. A certain 2-10-2 springs to mind ....

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

You mean HO like this?

http://eurekamodels.com.au/Garratt.html

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

I would definitely find room on my layout for a model of the G class Garrett. I live in Aust, but model US Pacific NW logging. I am SURE my prototype used a Garrett. 

Steve Magee

John, did you try the railbus on pure DC? Dual mode decoders can run on either DC or DCC so it could be a way of checking things out - although I would preferably use a by-pass plug in the socket instead of the decoder, to take the decoder right out of the picture. Then it would only be - if still jerky - mechanical or electrical pickup. One question though - what are the lights doing while the jerkiness is going on? Flickering lights are a sign of pickup problems - either in the pickup path, or on the track itself.

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

The speaker that I used was the one that came wth the older LC decoder install. It comes with a sticky gasket (both sides) that seals it from underneath, and the speaker rim then sticks to the gasket. With this install, fitting the speaker under the B'mann circuit board was an easy task.

If doing this from scratch (and giving up on trying to use a QSI Hi-Bass speaker :-) ) I would get the thinnest 28mm speaker I could get, and secure it with a silicon sealant. I cant get the specs, but the Soundtraxx 810054 might be the one, see if you can track down anybody who may have the overall dimensions, particularly the depth. Anything around 1/8" in depth would do, I think.

And with the Tsnami Micro you dont have to fit the speaker capacitor the LC required, and there is room in the bunker for the stay alive capacitor.

Regards

Steve Magee

Yes I installed the Micro-Tsunami light logger into the shay usng the speaker that came with the older LC Soundtraxx install. Even included the stay alive capacitor. A marked improvement over the older LC decoder - it now only cuts out once per op session, rather than every 5 minutes :-). And the control through the back EMF circuitry is much superior.

No pics, unelss you desparately want 'em and then I will go see what I can do, but it is so easy I dont think you need them. Only thing I did was cut the leads going into the decoder to about 2" length and soldered them to a standard 8-pin plus which then plugged directly into the Bachmann board.

Trust me, its an easy install.

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Australia

Can you put a valance/pelmet/insert local idiom here above the layout, level with the front edge of the benchwork? Then you can run wires behind it, mount the lights on it, and the lights dont shine in your eyes when running the layout.

The front of the fascia can be used for anything from family or train pictures up to a a schematic of the whole layout, with signal repeaters, occupancy lights, the whole deal. On mine I have an 8' x 4' pull down screen mounted on it and a ceiling mounted projector, and keep all my train DVD's there ....

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Australia

Now, if only someone, preferably Bachmann, would release a DM&IR Yellowstone to pull 'em

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

I think we need both the Heisler and the K-27 - immediately after the Baldwin 2-6-2 tank loco and a Garratt. 

Steve

I have a Micro in my 4-4-0. The advantage of the Micro is that it gives sufficient space in the tender to install a High Bass 1.22" speaker - mmmmm  But if you want a description of how it was done I shall have to wait until my friend who did the install for me returns from interstate.

Regards

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

Hi Geoff

Just follow the instructions on this post from Guildford Guy:

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,5700.0.html

Regards

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Australia