Quote from: jbrock27 on June 04, 2015, 12:23:10 PM
Brick how'd ya do this quarter?  Make Dean's List?

If only if only, in truth, I vastly misjudged the difficulty of a degree in Mechanical engineering and ended up doing poorly (even got a few F's), I've only finished 15/138 credits in my first year. So I'm trying to gather the money for fall then I can take spring off to save up and catch up in summer semesters. It is hard work but I've learned my lesson about how much effort I need to put it, it is leagues ahead of high school (I was one of the no-study people). I just keep telling myself that it will all work out in the end and that I'll make it through. And that once I'm an Engineer Ima get myself a nice new steam Locomotive to celebrate, after all, it was steam locomotives that got me into being an engineer in the first place!

Quote from: electrical whiz kid on June 03, 2015, 07:20:59 PM

Our layout is a good bit more than dirt on a board.  The region is the flat Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Trainman;
I realize where you are at.  Honest; I was just seizing upon the scene to be funny.  (I thought I was)...

SGT C.   

I chuckled

I have:

2 of the standard version 2-8-0
1 of the Spectrum 2-8-2
1 of the Spectrum 4-4-0
1 of the 2-8-4
1 Spectrum Sound (my only sound one) 2-10-0
and a Spectrum f40 that I got because it was NJ transit, even though I almost never use it

As a side note, I also have an IHC 4-6-2 that I've gotten running well

I love the 2-10-0, got it for about 180. That said, it has it's fair share of issues. It is VERY sensitive to dirty track, the running gear binds up rarely, and the pony truck took fiddling with to get it to stop coming off the rails. it also has trouble crawling in reverse for some reason. Even with all that though, I love it.

I had another one non-sound and it was problematic from the get go, I did a few repairs to get it running but eventually it broke down again and I sent it in, it was replaced with that 4-4-0. It is my understanding that the early runs were touch and go, either it worked or it didn't.

My favorite locomotive of them all is the SY, the 2-8-2. Those are hard to track down but they are very nice. I'd love to make it my second sound locomotive but I cannot afford the decoder and speaker. College really puts a strain on the funds. I'd love to track down a 4-6-0 as well, and maybe a 2-6-0 though I'm not sure, it is a little small for me (the 4-4-0, beautiful as it is, rarely gets run as it just doesn't fit).

What I really need is to make a display shelf in my room to put some of my locos on. the yard is really congested considering i have 8 locomotives on a 4*8 layout!

I do not have one myself (college has pretty much drained the coffers) but looking at it, the thing that bugs me is that the pilot does not have a deck above it and, the headlight seems... off in size.

Quote from: Trainman203 on May 24, 2015, 09:55:39 AM
Like any machine, it will last forever with proper cleaning, maintenance, and replacement of broken comments.

Getting replacement parts is another story.

Ahh, but can we really say we're extending the life of a locomotive by using spare parts? If taken to the endpoint, the Theseus' Ship Paradox comes into play.

For those who do not know the paradox goes something like this: say you build two identical ships. One gets kept in the warehouse by the docks, the other sails nonstop between ports. As parts of Ship A, the one that sails, wear down, they are swapped with parts from the second ship and left in the warehouse. Eventually, when all the parts have been switched, where is Ship A, at sea where it had always been, or in the warehouse which now held the original parts. And it follows that where is Ship B.

To this end, if you buy enough parts to replace them all, you are basically just buying two locomotives and using one for parts (fun fact, the UP has two FEF-3 Locomotivces, 844 that is used, and another (I think it is 838) that they use for parts.

what do you mean connecting pins? Do you mean one of the wires? or the pin that slides into the draw bar on the tender.What is your question. More detail might help

Unfortunatly, it is not viable to keep an unlimited supply of spare parts for out of production Locos. I had one of my two 2-10-0's swapped for a 4-4-0 (which as we speak is in the Service departments hands as the wires fell out of the plug) and a 2-8-2 of mine was swapped for a 2-8-4.

Also, I know this is in no way relevant to the topic nor trains but I had to ask, I noticed a picture in the more from user when I looked at he photo you posted of (I assume) you in front of the Norwegian Sun. Did you sail on it and, if so, did you enjoy it? I've said on the Norwegian pearl and spirit and loved em, hear the dawn is amazing so I want to go on it someday.

It is a standard (non sound) decoder. Either way, it is working now. Thanks though. I would not have thought LED backwards since it did turn on, did not occur to me that the motor lead could be making contact.

not a bad guess. I wonder.. If I wired the LED backwards, that could explain it. Due to the resistor and LED taking up space it is very possible the LED is comign into contact with a motor lead.

Hello, so, I clearly misunderstand how headlights work in DCC.

I finally got around to replacing the burned out headlight in my 2-8-0, put in an LED. Thing is, rather than being on constantly as all other DCC locos do, it goes off adn on brighter according to speed as if running on DC. the headlight function does disable/enable it but it has that scaling. Why would this happen? and yes, I've tried a decoder reset as I usually do when a decoder issue happens.

I do like my f40, though it doesn't see much action as it is way out of place alongside my steamers. Only gripe is that the NJ transit version, which I had, was wrong. it had a rear deck while the NJ transit extended the bodies of their f40's all the way to the back of the frame.

Since Pictures can help, here are three.

First, the 2-8-4 on 18 inch and the 2-8-0 on 22 inch Notice how silly the 2-8-4 looks


second, I switched em. Notices that the 2-8-4 suffers a lot more from that reduction to 18.


Finally side by side, I will say that I prefer the valve gear on the 2-8-4 however both are very nice looking.

I was referring to the current 2-8-0 which, further looking says was 1998 so ~17 years. I had forgotten the old reading one to be honest, I've seen some cool stuff done with them, changing them from junk to quite nice locomotives though this took a lot of work I'd bet.

I can't speak for Bachmann but it has been one of their most popular steam locomotives for a long time (seriously, it has been around for what, 20+ years?) so I would not predict it going away any time soon. But hey, for all I know it could be gone tommorow.

The 2-8-0 will run easily on 18 inch, the 2-8-4 should get 22 however it CAN be used on 18, just expect it to jump the track sometimes. I personally have a 2-8-4 and it is a nice locomotive, however on a small layout it does take up more space than you might want it to, that said, I have a 4*8 with a double tracked main (18 inner, 22 outer) and I use both. the 2-8-4 usually runs the outer but it can be brought to the inner, even if I only do so to bring it into the yard.

You may have noticed a lot of arguments for very large radii. It is absolutely true that these models look better on large curves, and the 2-8-4 looks kind of silly on 18, but that does not mean you NEED large radii. Not everyone can fit 28,34, 40, ect.

What you should use is what you like. the 2-8-0 is a very nice looking engine, as is the 2-8-4. I'd probably recommend the 2-8-0 because it has more uses and looks nicer on curves however I do love the 2-8-4. Biggest issue I take with the 2-8-0 is that i lacks a backup light which it should have if used in yard service (plus I like em)