Mind keeping the snow up there instead of shipping it down I-5 to Seattle ? PLEASE ?   

Quote from: SteamGene on December 24, 2008, 09:48:14 AM
If you are the original owner, returning it to Bachmman with the $25 repair few will get you a new Spectrum 2-8-0.
Gene

What and lose all the charming weathering that has taken so long to produce ?

take a close look at the wheels in each truck of the tender. The insulating collar ( black ) should be on one side of the truck in front and opposite on the rear truck. Before applying power, use an ohmeter and measure resistance between the two rails with the locomotive on the track. You should read something in the order of 32 ohms or so. Zero ohms indicates a short. Infinite resistance indicates the trucks are on the same side and you need to rotate one 180 degrees. Good luck

Quote from: Santa Fe buff on December 13, 2008, 03:05:17 PM
r0bert,
Can you fit a smoke generator in the 0-6-0?

Josh

I can make anything fit anything with a DREMEL and a Blue Flame Wrench 

-An ohmeter ( to check for shorts between rails  prior to powering up )
-notebook to keep track of addresses/locomotives
-money
-box of KADEE couplers
-booster transformer ( the one you got is never big enough)
-more money
-track gauge
=I have an MRC Prodigy Advance 2 works well for my use ( intermittent play time )

while you are in the Christmas spirit, get me one too. 

Using an ohmeter, put the car in question on a track section, separate from the layout and measure the resistancebetween the two rails.. If it is zero, or very near zero, you have a electrical path to ground ( short )  in the car and do not use it.

Make the cars heavier. I had that problem with the passenger car sets, in my case the Rock Island set of four passenger cars..

If i am reading this correctly he is running the QJ on DC power, which makes the headlight very dim at normal running speed. I swapped the filament bulbs with a LED and a 150 ohm resistor on some of my machines running on DC and I get a decent light level on DC power. Of course Murphy's law always prevails and you must have the LED installed in the right direction for the LED diode to function. I haven't discovered yet what happens to the life expectancy of this " gitup " in DCC power.

You can get decoders for sound for diesel locomotives. Smoke is a more challenging thiung and reserved for metal body machines, although i recently saw an ad for a SEUTHE smoke machine that is designed for use with plastic. i don't know you get black smoke for a diesel but who knows, some enterprising company might be reading this....have fun with your set and buy more track.......

ta152ho,

Are you saying your friends at the club dictate what code rail you use on your own layout?  They wouldn't let me be a member, I use ugly code 100, "Rule Number One".

No, they just said if I ran my heavy mountain on code 83 rail, the front trucks would not fall off. they are only dictatorial when it comes to what you put on their layout. Some rolling stock has wheels that are not compatible with code 83 rail, so they say.I have a 4-8-4 Niagara from a long time ago that has the flanges too big.

In my opinion, turning the truck around 180 degrees does nothing more than put the pickups on the same side and nothing will work, unless the locomotive is grounded somewhere and you will get smoke if both pickups are on the hot side. However, if the axles are turned on the same truck, then you have a real problem. that is why, elsewhere on the forum, it was noted to use an ohmeter on the track with the locomotive in palce prior to powering up.

Well, blow me down, that turned out to be a quick fix . My Heavy mtn does not like 18 inch curves, at least the front truck doesn't. Maybe it is a rail problem. My friends at the club tell me i have to use code 83 rail,

This sounds like it has to do with programming strt voltage, accel, decell and ending voltage. take a close look at the limits and the locomotive address. Put the locomotive on the programming track and set everything to zero and the top voltage to 32. If you are not happy, set the computer to factory settings by calling CV 125 to "1". That will restore the beast  to factory settings and run the locomotive on address 3 until it breaks in. takes a while to synchronise the styeam chuff to the actual running of the locomotive and at first, had a guy at the club help me out.

I would be interested. perhaps I can interest my CFO.............
luftwaffe1@aol.com