Reading the instructions from the link you provided... the sierra "backup" battery is correctly identified the first time in the document as 6v.

Later in the document, it is referred as the Sierra backup battery again, but 9 volts.

The chuff circuitry does not need 9 volts, even though it is not referenced, only the Sierra backup. The battery is not indicated as connected to the chuff circuitry.

I'd stick with the 6 volts as sierra calls for and the document calls for correctly the first time.

Tony, try re-reading that document and see if I missed something.

Regards, Greg

The soundtraxx documentation calls for a 6v battery. I think the 9v is a misprint or mistake.

In the Sierra literature, they also show feeding the battery terminals with a voltage regulator. They do not show the output voltage from the LM317 regulator, but the output voltage can be closely approximated from Vout=1.25 * (1+(R2/R1)). Sierra shows the 2 resistors as having vales of 220 and 1,000 ohms. thus about 6.93 volts.

I would use the recommended voltage from Sierra.

Regards, Greg

I burned up a Pittman in my AML K4, the motors do get hot, and have no cooling openings. The fan is needed believe it or not, under heavy loads. TOC was able to draw a lot of current under certain circumstances.

Reversing the fan has been proven to help the smoke output.

I would suggest an Aristo unit, or better yet, a TAS unit (Train America Studio)... and if you are really nuts for huge volumes, then go to an MTH.

Regards, Greg

On small addition to Jerry's excellent post:

I do not recommend steel wool to be used anywhere. The small bits of it will rust, and get everywhere. I use a stainless steel brush in a dremel tool to clean rail ends, works great.

If you must use "wool", use bronze wool, it won't rust. You can get it at most hardware stores, paint stores, and marine supply stores.

Regards, Greg

Squeezing a corroded / oxidized / dirty joiner to get it to work seems like a very short term fix, and not really solving the reason why you had poor conductivity in the first place.

Recommendations:

1. Dump the bad joiners where you find them and use rail clamps, slowly replacing all your joiners with clamps.

2. If you do not want the expense of clamps, and you have brass, solder jumpers.

3. failing this, remove the joiners, clean them, grease them (any grease) and put them back on and make sure they fit the rail closely.

Regards, Greg

I use QSI, I like it, but you should focus on the controller system first, i.e. the power supply, booster, command station and the cabs. That is the decision that is not easily undone.

You will have lots to time to try different decoders in your locos, and you can use any decoder with any DCC control system (except some cheaper, entry level stuff).

Regards, Greg

This is a big topic, and probably this is not the best place to get help.

I would suggest:

1. join a club where DCC is used
2. Make some friends that use DCC
3. read about dcc in large scale
4. read the dcc forums on MLS and LSC
5. keep reading!

There are a lot of options out there.

Regards, Greg

p.s. I run DCC, so there is some stuff on my web site too.

I just asked fixed or floating track.

That should be simple to answer, i.e. is there any mechanical connection between your tie strips or rails to something in the ground. Did you screw the tie strips to anything, or secure the rails to anything except the tie strips?

By the way, rail clamps usually cannot resist all forces from expansion and contraction.

Going back to your original post, the literal answer to your question is no.

Regards, Greg

Well, flex is not the word you want to use with rail clamps.

I can't really answer your question correctly until I know what philosophy are you going to adopt?

(Fixed or floating).

Then I can give you more information I have gleaned over how the clamps interact with the whole picture of expansion and contraction.

(Please don't say both, this could wind up being a book, not a thread!).

Regards, Greg

The owner has another, larger business, and has his daughter running most of SE trains as I understand it from a friend who goes there (physically) pretty often.

My friend is very happy with them, has bought there for years, and reports they are people of their word.

They may be hard to get hold of, so be persistent. Good prices too.

Regards, Greg

I've been studying this for some time, and it depends on the climatic conditions you have.

If you have extreme temperature changes, you need to handle expansion in a more agressive manner.

I find 2 philosophies work:

Free floating track where the track (rail and ties) are allowed to expand and contract. Basically you anchor the track in ballast, like a real railroad.

You can still fix turnouts to something flat and rigid, like a piece of hardibacker, but most track is allowed to "move" a bit. "Corners" are the most important NOT to fix down, since this is normally where the "give" in the system occurs.

If you have a more extreme climate, like lots of rain, free floating track may wash out and need more maintenance (like a real railroad). This can be handled with drainage, culverts, bridges, etc.

But some people will say I don't want this stuff to move at all. They normally start by screwing the ties down. Well, this normally causes problems immediately, the track will normally expand and contract much more than what you screwed it to.

Most people then experience rails kinking, binding, gapping. The natural thing to do is to let the rails float free in the ties. Unfortunately, this now leads to the REQUIREMENT that the rails slide freely. Nature is never that friendly, and you often get big gaps in some places and none or kinking in others. When this happens, usually the only remedy is "expansion track sections" to allow movement of 1/2 to 3/4". Hillman and Split Jaw make these sections. Used in this situation it can work very well.

I personally recommend that people try to free float the track if at all possible. Done correctly, I feel it is a lot less work and expense.

Hope this helps.

Regards, Greg

The main difference is the P5 is newer technology, and is not operable from DC (as I understand), it is DCC only.

The 2k2 was designed to work with DC and DCC.

I would use the P5, but many people set up their locos to run on DCC and DC, thus the 2k2 is often used.

Since you have not indicated any other uses, using it only with AirWire would make the P5 a better choice in my opinion.

Regards, Greg

The 3 truck shay had an optional sound system. It is an oem version of the SoundTraxx Tsunami.

It works on DC and DCC. So if you give it "normal" track power, it will run fine, although using any PWM power (Pulse Width Modulated) might fool the decoder into thinking it is getting DCC.

Aristo has the ability to put out PWM power in several of it's TE products.

Since you did not specify which of the approximately 7 different Aristo TE products you have, I would say just don't feed PWC power (PWC is Aristo's moniker for PWM).

Regards, Greg

The Phoenix 2k2 works just fine with the AirWire... it is DCC also. You don't need any of the DC capability if you are running it with the AirWire, and the P5 is a much newer design.

Regards, Greg

You can plug it into an "adapter" socket. Then you have screw terminals. Hook the motor to the motor screw terminals, the track pickups to the track screw terminals and it will run.

Then you can hook up the lights to the proper terminals.

Very similar to using the QSI PNP board with the accesory screw terminal board.



In fact you can use the QSI screw terminal board (it's the bottom board, unfortunately, the screw terminals are the green plastic block in the back, hard to see)

Regards, Greg