Quote from: trainstrainstrains on October 24, 2014, 08:33:43 PM
I use a spell check,  I'm honestly blaming it for doing something only Kevin Strong could do , turning a gondola into a lagonda, and while on the subject of gondolas before I started with model trains a gondola for me was only the beautifill and pohivitivly expensive, extreamly romantic Venetian canal gondolier driven canoo that my wife and I did not ride, instead we saw Venece from the  Vaporetto, the venetian canal public transport , also romantic very cheap , sounds like a chu chu train and you dont feel like you are throwing your money straight into the canal, like the few turists that go for the gondola. Why a log carring train car has the same name is beyond me.   Although I suppose there is a remote resemblance.

Just to show the connection between 'vaporetto' and the 'chuff-chuff' noise you noticed - 'the word 'vaporetto' is Itlaian for 'steamer' as in a steam-propelled boat.  Hence the connection.  Coomon useage in English English uses the word 'steamer' to describe an old-fashioned merchant vessel that carries passengers - as in 'The Cork Steam Packet and Navigation Co.'

A log-carrying train car is not called a gondola, but either a log flat car - if it IS a flatcar - usually with stake sides 'note spelling of 'stake', not 'steak', or a skeleton car, on account that it is simply a pair of trucks connected by a stout wooden beam on whch the trucks are mounted.  A single-truck, connected to another truck by a substantial wooden beam, is called a 'disconnect', on account of the fact that it is not directly connected to another truck, except by the loose-fitting rooster bar.  They all have log bolsters, or bunks, in logging terms, on which the log rest in transit.

A gondola car is like an open-topped box, BTW, high medium or low-sided, and pretty useless for carrying anything wooden unless it's in chip-form.

I get the impression that English is not necessarily your first language, so I hope that you'll forgive me for taking what may seem to be excessive liberties by explaining like this.  I had to learn it, too.

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

Quote from: trainstrainstrains on October 24, 2014, 07:26:58 AM
The confusing part is that many power supplies don't specify Amps, or PWR or DC or DCC, or linear voltage. Frankly it looks that I must improve my  knowledge of electricity before trying to buy a power supply, at the moment I do not understand the terminology. 5 amps however from what I have been able to understand from your valuable advice,  seems sufficient for me at the moment, since I will not be running more than one train on one setup with one locomotive at a time, probably max one lighted passenger car with 5  lagondas, sound yes, no slopes and the biggest locomotive I have is my   Spectrum  36 ton Shay. My present power supply is a 1 amp LGB.

Power units per se are required by international law to show the working voltage and amperage right there 'on the box'.  I have two Aristocraft units that have dual voltage/amperage selectivity, depending on the required power for your type of train - 22v and 13A or 13.8V 20A - plenty juice enuff for most application you are ever going to need.  You will, of course, also need some knd of throttle unit with a matching amperage capacity.

No power unit has DCC built in, as maven Kevin Strong tells you, there are many kinds of DCC brands and types available for use in the larger-scale stuff that we run - most of it is excellent, all the trash has been done out of business by now.

Many older units were selectable with regard to linear or PWR output, but these days, with the proliferation of ready-to-fit r/c units, most. if not all of which use pulsed power, you'll be hard-pressed to find such a unit.  Your LGB power unit, however, is one such unit - LGB motors were designed to use linear power.  Their proprietary version of DCC, called MTS, is alone in its electronic configuration.

In any case LGB 1A unit is a paperweight, Sir, suitable only for the smallest of locomotives on the smallest of tracks.

I'm also assuming that you mean 'gondolas' - a lagonda is a trade-name of a style of automobile built by the Aston-Martin Car Company of Newport Pagnall, UK.  Your Shay, with a lit passenger car and five gons is going to struggle to move at all and will probably stall when the safety overload switch inside the powere unit goes futz.

tac
OVGRS 

Sounds like you need the Bachmann shuttle unit that has a 'soft-start and stop' facility, but AFAIK it doesn't have a 'dwell-time' as long as the one that you are looking for.  A regular household light-timer is going to be the easiet way to get around it, else you are talking custom timers and DCC and all kinds of fancy/costy electronics.

We've been using a couple of the Bachmann shuttle units for years with total reliability, providing that you keep all  the contacts clean.

The only real problem I can see is having the timing that feeds to the track to coincide with the train actually being in the right place when the power feed to the transformer/controller actually stops...

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

MOST modern r/c units use PWR - using them on a motor designed for linear voltage will cause loads of problems - overheating, a heavy buzzing/humming noise, and eventual destruction.  Remember too that our bigger locos use a LOT more power, volts AND amps, than anything you'd EVER find on H0 scale, and that really does matter.

A big AccuCraft K27 with ten cars behind it it is easily using 18-20V and four or five amps - more it you have lighted passenger cars off track power.  By way of contrast, most of my straight DC H0 locos will run on 3-5V and 250 MA...

tac

Quote from: RRRookie on October 23, 2014, 12:32:20 PM
One more question on the bar code sticker of the Aristocraft track it had European on it. Dave/RRRookie

Quote from: veetwelve on October 22, 2014, 12:28:37 AM

I'm testing the BBC tag suggestion for this outgoing message, which I'm assuming tac used on his October 15 post.  While this appears to work for outgoing posts, the default for incoming posts on my system still appears to be center-justified.

Jay

In order for me to get left-justified text, I now have to actually click on it.  Or else it's ALL displayed centered, like this is.

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

Quote from: Kevin Strong on October 21, 2014, 01:06:54 AMTac, alas, there are no Shays on the EBT. (Historically, there were two that operated on a logging line that connected to the EBT at Rockhill, but that's about as close as it gets for them.) There's one running now on the Georgetown Loop, though. One of the engineers occasionally posts here, as he's a large scale guy. K

Shux, THAT's what I meant to write.  x 10

Apologies to all the EBT fans out there  I'll do penance by riding the Prineville Shay next time we are in OR.

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

Remember too that the Shay sound IS unique - there are NO current three-cylinder steam locos running in North America today that share that high-speed THREE-cylinder shuffle.  Getting a cheap sound system will always stick in your craw whenever you watch a movie of the Cass, EBT or Mt Rainier Scenic Railroad...

tac, Shay-lover since childhood.

Quote from: Ted Yarbrough on October 17, 2014, 02:29:10 PM
Mr. Bachmann,
How about a baggage, RPO, and Parlor Car that MATCHES (size, color, & road names) the AMS 1:20.3 cars, then we could all buy them and complete our narrow gauge Colorado trains! Something to think about. They are not produced by anyone else, and sells would be there.
Happy Rails To You,
Ted

I'm with you there, Ted.  The alternative, that of paying out another $500 to have 'stick-on sides' for a car that has already cost me $400.00 here in yUK is totally out of the question.

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

Same here.  When I write it, it's all left-justified.  But when I read it back later, it's all centred.

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

I write on forty-seven internet sites, and this is the only one that does this rather odd thing.

I type it and it looks fine - I go back to it immediately, and it's all centre-justified.

tac

Dear Bach Man - can you tell me why all recent posts seems to be centered in the page, even though, in my case, they look just fine when I type them out?

Your puzzled friend.

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

Kevin is right.  The power truck for the drive-line is the one under the cab - the other two are just along for the ride, so to speak.

There is a pretty detailed régime of lubrication for this very complex locomotive, using LaBelle lubricants, that really needs to be paid close attention to to reduce long-term wear on all the many wiggly bits.  The DVD that comes in the packaging is THE handbook here.

tac