Quote from: Seasaltchap on April 11, 2007, 01:01:22 PM
Both Testors Liquid Cement and Weldon #3 are for styrene, where the solvent is Methyl-Ethyl-Ketone (MEK), for vulcanizing, rather than gluing of joints.

I doubt if pulling apart would work for a vulcanized joint.

Sheldon, I suspect you meant "solvent welding," not "vulcanizing."  The latter is heating rubber together with sulphur.

Secondly, Weldon #3 is actually a liquid cement for acrylic that happens to also work with styrene and a few other plastics.  It contains no Methyl Ethyl Keytone (MEK).  It has a Methylene Dichloride base, which is quite a different animal.  (Testors does include MEK along with Ethyl Acetate and Methyl Ether.)

Thirdly, I agree that pulling apart would not work for a vulcanized joint.  I suspect you would know how well Weldon #3 and Testor's liquid can unweld a solvent welded joint if you had ever tried it.  I believe Paul M. was looking for facts, not guesses and maybes.

I have had reasonably good results using Testor's liquid cement for plastics and Weldon #3.  Wetting the joint with either of these will help soften the glue or cement used to hold the plastic together, allowing you to pry the pieces apart.  Just don't keep the joint wet for too long or the plastic may start to soften along with the joint.  Weldon #3 works a little faster but is harder to find.  Using either in the quantities required for disassembly should be done outside or in a ventilated spray booth.

If you are running your trains by yourself, one power district is usually enough.  A typical 5 amp booster can run 3 powered locomotives with sound, each consisted with a second powered locomotive, all at one time.  Or about 10 non-sound locomotives.  Or many other combinations, most of which are difficulat for one person to keep track of and still enjoy the layout.

If you are running trains with a group, then multiple power districts can be desireable for two different reasons.  One is to provide enough power to run all the locomotives, lighted cars, and DCC controlled animation that the group wants to run at one time.  The second is to isolate operation in various parts of the layout from what is happening in other parts of the layout.  The most obvious is preventing shorts in one part of the layout from shutting down the whole layout.  More power means either more boosters or larger boosters.  More districts for better isolation can often be done more cheaply with proper power management, using hardware such as Digitrax power managers or Tony's power shields.

An alternative would be to install a different decoder in your 3502, one that supports a speed table or at least CV's 2, 5 and 6 to set up a 3 point speed table.  There are a number of decoders available with these features for less than $20.  Of course, this presupposes that you have access to a DCC system capable of programming the necessary CV's.

Adding another locomotive deffinitely adds more tractive effort.  This can be pulling power, as you are wanting to use, or pushing power, using a pusher to help heavy trains up a grade.  You can even combine the two and put an extra locomotive or two in the middle of a train.  It helps if all locomotives run at the same speed, or at least close to the same speed, otherwise the locomotive that wants to run faster ends up with more of the load.  And for pushers or mid-train power, it helps if all the cars are up to full weight (1/2 ounce per inch plus 1 extra ounce.)

Are these couplers like the traditional B'mann large scale couplers? 
If so, this link might help.

http://members.shaw.ca/sask.rail/construction/lsbuild/coupler.html

Paul, you might consider going to Radio Shack and buying a soldering iron.  Soldering is a skill that can be learned and once learned, is invaluable to a model railroader.  Read some primers on soldering, like the one below, then practise on bits of wire and track until you are good at it.  Pretty soon, people will be bringing things to you to get soldered.

http://members.shaw.ca/sask.rail/model-book/soldering/soldering.html

Kelly, I suspect your E-Z Track is 18" radius.  I use 18" radius curves in many places on my layout but I restrict them to 40 and 50 foot freight cars.  Long cars can cause problems on these tight curves.

The solution is to either use larger radius curves or to carve away a bit of the centre sill where the wheels touch it.

By "flexible wire," I mean fine, multistrand wire with a soft insulation.  This is the sort of wire used by decoder manufacturers, and in fact, left over wire from decoders can be used for wiring from locomotive to tender.  "Decoder wire" is also sold by some of the decoder suppliers, typically in 10 foot lengths.  Another source of fine, flexible wire is to strip it out of mouse cords.

What to watch for?  The most important is to make sure the wires go where they are supposed to go.  This is easy if you replace the wires one at a time, starting with the broken one.  I prefer to replace the whole wire, right from printed circuit board or decoder in the tender to their final destination in the locomotive.  You can join wires if you have to, but avoid joints between the locomotive and tender.  Insulate joints with shrink tubing - tape will come back to haunt you.   Route the wires the same way the originals were routed and you are not likely to have any problems with the wires derailling the tender.  If you are adding wires for tender pickup or rear light, etc. and you have no existing routing to follow, drill a hole in one side of the rear of the locomotive and in the other side of the front of the tender.  Then route the wires across the drawbar.  Alternately, use an oversize hole in the tender and leave some extra wire in the tender to allow the wires to move when the train goes around a curve.  The place where you removed a socket from the tender qualifies as an oversize hole.

If you tried to use an auto reverser with dc, it would still trip assuming your power pack put out enough current.  But tripping would reverse the polarity of the track, causing the train to reverse directions.  With DCC, forward direction does not depend on the polarity on the track.  So reversing it does NOT cause the train to reverse directions.

I agree with Virginian that leaving the plug in the socket will extend the life of the connection.  But it still will not last forever.  Our group runs 2-8-0's in a public display and we never unplug the tenders and rarely take the locomotives off the rails.  Yet the wires still break eventually, right where they enter the plugs.  It is all that bend-straighten-bend-straighten as the locomotives alternate between curves and tangent track.  The curves are not all that tight (30" minimum radius) so there is not a whole lot of bending, just a lot of repeats.  Our solution is to bypass the plugs/sockets with flexible wire.

One solution is to bypass the troublesome plugs with wires.  This requires some careful soldering and unless you are already good at soldering, you should probably do some practicing first.  It also requires a little different technique in handling the locomotives.  Basically, you pick up the locomotive with one hand and the tender with the other.  Then you set them approximately on the track.  Finally, you put the wheels properly on the rails, first for the locomotive and then for the tender (this is just like rerailling after a derailment.)

The Lorraine Valley & James River Railway - my H0 layout.
Single deck, except over hidden yards.
Deck rises from 36" to 60"
Depth mostly 2' but varies from 6" to 4'.
The LV&JRR uses 3 helices and an around the wall for elevation changes.
Staging is in two hidden yards and a barge operation.
Mainline is single track with four passing sidings 9' or longer.
The LV&JRR is a free lanced bridging line between the CNR and the CPR, set somewhere in the Rocky Mountains of Western Canada.
The layout is set in 1961 but there are some anachronisms.
The layout is point to point for operation, continuous for show.
Floor space is just over 400 square feet spread through two rooms.
The present control system is DCC, 8 amp booster plus power manager.  Before that, the layout used automatic (computer assisted) block control.  The present layout was started in 1984 but has parts going back to 1957.  The layout started off with all electric remote control turnouts operated from a central panel but now has mostly mechanical remote control turnouts with the controls distributed around the layout.

Below is a panorama of the larger of the two layout rooms.  For an enlarged view, click on the link below the photo.



http://members.shaw.ca/the.trainman/Pan-shot/Pan-shot.html

What a beautiful background to show it off against.  Your movie and your modelling are A-one.  I hope when you find a new home for your movie that you will add to it and show us more of your wonderful railroad.

How did these locomotives run on dc?  If they had higher than normal starting voltages and liked to jump start on dc, they will do the same with normal DCC decoders.  Back emf control often helps but requires a decoder with BEMF built in.

Before replacing your trucks, check the wheel gauge with an NMRA wheel and track gauge.  If they are out of gauge and you cannot fix them, consider changing just the wheels and axles.  If the axles are falling out, then squeeze the ends of the truck together a bit before putting the axles back in.  Sometimes plastic warps after it leaves the factory, particularly if it has been stored for too long in an overly warm place.

As for couplers, sorry to say that you might have got some of the older style couplers with the plastic springs.  These are also sensitive to heat.  If that is what you have, may I suggest replacing them with Kadee couplers.  Nobody has yet matched Kadee in performance and reliability.