Thanks Jerry.  All questions answered.  Have a good one. 

Jerry...u da man!  That's the post I was looking for. 

I also looked at the link you posted in your previous post to the previous post were it suggested to alternate 22" and 26".  I see the logic and since i have the track, I'm going to try it to see how it works.  In fact, it wouldn't have to alternate; one could simply place the 4 22" in the middle of the turn and lead one side with 3 sections of 26" and the other with 2 sections of 26".  I'm not looking for perfect concentric turns but to come back to parallel.

Now on to the 2nd part of the original post.  At 3% grade, how long does the track have to be to get the height to cross over itself??  Is there a formula that can be used to determine the length of track needed to achieve a set height using a given grade?

Quote from: Jerrys HO on April 21, 2012, 02:57:30 AM
The figure 8 is an over/under with a 2-3% grade.

Jerry

@ Jerry.  With the 3% grade in your figure figure 8, how many cars can a single loco pull up the grade?

Thanks guys.

@ Doneldon.  You are on "track" with what I'm looking for...but more specifically, I'm looking for the post where poster gave specific info on which radius and curve track length combinations result in 90 degree turns.  It was very informative...I just can't find it now that I need it.

Someone here once posted information on combining different Bachmann turn radius track to make a curve that enters and exists gradually.  I did a search but couldn't find it.

I currently have 2 lines one uses 22"  curve radius the other uses 26".  To me, it doesn't seem realistic to have the trains running straight then into constant radius turn.  I would also like to explore making the curves a bigger overall radius by utilizing the 22" and 26" radius track I already have (to reduce cost).

Lastly, I'm interested in finding track design ideas that will help me understand how to take one line and double its length (more or less) by inclining the track and crossing over itself then back down again.  I'm using the bay of a single car garage; all its width and just a little more than half its length.

Thanks.

JIm

Just got one, it is DCC ready.  Is the decoder #44915 the appropriate decoder for this loco?  I've installed several already in other that were plug and play, so to speak.  Is this the plug in type?  I haven't taken the tender apart yet.  Thanks.

Yeah, me too.

READ THIS

If you have followed this thread, you will have seen that the DCC turnout issue was thought to have been resolved.  Then I learned that it wasn't.  Now I submit to all that it has now been resolved.  Here is what I have concluded:

The loco with the problem was assigned to short address '9' on the NCE Powercab.  As it turns out, anytime I give throttle to any loco assigned to address '9' the problem occurs.  To resolve this, I no longer use address 9 for any loco.

I believe that this issue may have something to do with Bachmann using address 9 on the EZ Command to trigger the switching mechanism on these DCC turnouts.

Jim

Ok Jim, good point.  Now for the news:

I'm right back where I started; I thought it was the decoder but appears to be something else.  This is what happened the night I ran the test with no other locos on.  I switched the decoder from the problematic Athearn (let's call this loco 1) with a decoder from an Athearn that had no problems (let's call this loco 2).  After the switch, loco 1 worked fine and loco 2 now had the same problem.  hence my conclusion that the problem was the decoder. 

However, the next day loco 1 had the problem again and loco 2 was fine AND no, there is no such thing as gremlins.  they are not responsible and they did not swithc back the decoders.  Everyone following this???

Then, I took a closer look at loco 1 and discovered that one of the wires that attaches to the circuit board sitting on top of the motor had a fraid wire with one strand magnetically stuck to the motor.  The wire had was supposed to go through a hole in the circuit board then held in place with a little black press-on retainer.  well most strands were through the hole except for one.  I fixed that and still have the problem.

As i write this, I am wondering if i should re-switch the decoders to see if that makes a difference.  Anyhow, this is really frustrating as loco 1 is an amtrak that my son loves to run and loosing DCC switching is a big bummer.

Any other comments???  Thanks.

Jim

Ok, problem solved.  It was the decoder.  Maybe next time I'll run tests before posting???  Thanks for your help.

Jim

In respect to the 2 responses above, firstly-thanks.  Last night i ran a test and it is as follows:

I powered up the system; tested turnouts-all were fine; I placed the athearn on a section of straight track; tested turnouts-all were fine; powered up the athearn to throttle position 1 of 126; throttled back to zero (the loco had barely moved); turnouts now didn't work.  This was all done while two sound locos were idling.  I'll try it again tonight without any locos powered up, however, i suspect it will not make a difference.

It makes no difference whether the loco crosses a turnout, the problem begins the moment power/signal is given to the loco.  On the layout are 2 #6 crossovers and 7 regular turnouts, all DCC and all Bachmann.

I will try tonight the decoder in a different loco to see if the problem follows the decoder or whether it is limited to this loco.

Jim

I use Bachmann DCC turnouts throughout (the #6 crossover is the bomb!).  NCE Powercab is the controller.  I have 9 locos.  Every time I run the Athearn DCC Ready which has a Digitrax decoder installed, all of the DCC turnouts stop receiving signal and will not switch from the controller.  This occurs only with this one loco mentioned above runs on the track.  unplugging and replugging power to the controller resets and all is fine again.

I've noticed this exact turnout problem once before with another loco when I was running it DC on address 10 with an EZ Command.  I posed the question here, someone suggested to stop runninng the DC loco.  That fixed the problem.  However, my current problem is when running this DCC loco.

I've peeked inside the loco thinking that maybe there was a wire loose causing some kind of short.  I found nothing.  The loco runs flawlessly and I am stumped.  Any suggestions?

Jim

DCC turnouts?

If they are DCC snap switches, this might work:  Pull off the bottom cover carefully located under the moving part of the track.  take notice of how the mechanism is assembled so that if a part comes off you'll know how to reassemble.  There is a gear that moves an arm.  I found the thin part of the arm that actually engages the slider connected to the track was slightly bent, therefore, the 'throw' was biased to one side.  I gently bent this arm to give it a tiny bit more throw to the weaker side.  You might even play with the positinoning of the gear against the arm as the two don't necessaryily allign in the neautral position, at least mine didn't.

Finally, the snap switch needs to be filed at the pick points as well as the bottom of the pick point as it is flanged at the bottom and can hang up when it moves over to the rail; you'll see it lift up a bit when it hits the rail. 

If it is not DCC snap switch, then disregard the above.

Quote from: Chris350 on May 12, 2009, 10:52:24 PM
One last thing to check, would be whether the wheels are out of gauge.  That might lead to binding on your track work or added friction in the trucks.

I never thought about wheel guage being the problem and will check that out.  I do notice that the surging seems to happen at the same places throughout the layout.

Mr. Banner, I will also check out your suggestions and will focus first on looking at the lights to determine if pickup is a problem.  I will also check to see if I can switch out the decoder.

Thanks.

me too.  I'll try it out.