Quote from: electrical whiz kid on December 26, 2014, 01:37:03 PM
Doneldon;
What is a Kadee "universal" coupler?  Are you talking about the old #5s? 
Rich (SGT C)

Rich-

Yes, and the #58 couplers which seem to be the whisker equivalent.

                                                                                            -- D

Quote from: ACY on December 25, 2014, 09:50:44 PM
Kadee, EZ-Mate, Accumate, and McHenry are all inter-compatible as long as they are all at the right height.

ACY-

I believe the outcome of Model Railroader's coupler test a few years ago was that most knuckle couplers worked pretty
well with one another but best with others from the same manufacturer. This was especially true when coupling on a curve.

Kadees were marginally the best. To me, MR neglected another Kadee advantage: In addition to their "universal" couplers. Kadee
makes dozens of couplers for special applications or when the universals don't quite make the grade.
                                                                                                                                                      -- D

Martha-

Jamestown looks like a great place to live. Do you know if there are any houses for sale or apartments for rent?

                                                                                                                                                           -- D

jj-

I would probably scrap the Tyco cars unless they are something special.

As for the locos, I'd go directly to Kadee couplers. There's no logical reason to use temporary couplers if you will eventually go to
Kadees. Check the Kadee web site for the couplers you need for your locos. Buy those and install them. They will come with excellent
illustrated instructions.While you're at it, get a Kadee coupler gauge and make sure that all couplers are at the exact same height.
Any deviation will increase the likelihood of unwanted uncouplings.
                                                                                                   -- D

Bill-

I'd just cut the center post out and then use either L-shaped or square styrene to make sills into which I would put screws
to hold the bottom on. By the way, don't forget to physically seal the back of the space behind your speaker. A baffle like that
will significantly improve your sound quality.
                                                                    -- D

Bill-

I agree with the two previous posters that your motor is not isolated from the frame halves. In effect, the two sides of the frame function as the wires from the wheels to the motor and the two wires you see carry the power on to the light. If this is so, your headlight should be on any time your loco is on a track with the power pack turned up about 30% or more.

You must isolate the motor if you want to install DCC. There are a couple of ways to do that. The easiest is to replace the existing motor with a can motor. Can motors all have isolated motors inside so all you must do is correct the decoder's orange and gray wires to it. And you connect the existing headlight wires to the decoder's yellow (front) and yellow (rear), with the other wire for each attached to the decoder's common positive (blue) wire. If you use a can motor, the decoder's black (left rail) and red wires (right rail) can be attached to the respective frame halves or wheel wipers.

In order to use your existing motor you will need to put insulating material (like some thin rubber or plastic) between the frame halves and use nylon screws or plastic fillers anywhere the frame halves are connected by metal. This can get pretty complicated. Also, connect the wires from the decoder the same as if you are using a can motor. Whether you use your existing motor or a can, you may need to mill out some added space for the motor.

Good luck.
                  -- D

bill-

You can loosen the weights in the tender and perhaps reinstall them on the sides. I urge you not to make your tender lighter than
NMRA standards (1 oz. plus .5 oz. per inch of length). You can certainly add power pick-ups to your tender if it has none, install your
decoder in the tender and drill holes through the floor to let the sound out.
                                                                                                                 -- D

RD-

Your only concern should be making sure that all wires connected to your outer rail are connected to the same variable DC output on your power pack, and similarly for the wires connected to the inner rail. You can either bring all three of your feeders to a single wire, solder and insulate the junction, and then screw the single wire to the terminal on the power pack, or use crimp-on connectors and bunch them all under the screws on the power pack.

Good luck with your project.
                                             -- D

Jeff-

The most likely explanation by far is dirty track and/or wheels. You clean them with non-abrasive products. If you have EZTrack, you'll want to make sure that whatever you use won't harm the plastic roadbed. A good choice would be one of the track cleaning "erasers" sold at hobby shops. You can also use Wahl Clipper Oil and a course fabric like terrycloth. Wipe off as much of the Wahl oil as possible but a tiny bit is okay because it will help keep your track clean.

Since your train only makes it part of the way around your layout and it is a seasonal one which is assembled and disassembled, you may also have conductance problems through your rail joiners. I'm unaware of a safe and reliable way to tighten them  but you can workaround the issue by running a couple of extra feeders from your power pack to different places on the layout. Just solder the wires to your rails (on the outside) or rail joiners.

The Chattanooga is of typical train set quality. That means it was built more for economy than long-term service. Accordingly, you probably have plastic wheels. These are notorious for making track dirty and for spreading the dirt around. You can reduce your need for future cleaning if you replace the plastic wheels with metal ones. However, I'm not so sure it would be worth the time, effort and expense on a temporary, seasonal layout.

The loco in the Chattanooga set can benefit from added weight if you can squeeze some in. This will both improve the loco's contact with the rails for electrical conductivity and give it some more pulling power.

Good luck with your holiday train!
                                                       -- D

Rich-

Mine, too, had wires and a flip top. It also had leather, A/C and a stick which made it the best to drive. However, my wife was afraid
I'd yell at her if she made noise with the tranny (yeah, so?) so she would never drive it. I also had an XJ-6 for a while. It's impossible
to even try to compare it to the E-type but it was the best road car I ever owned. It was as smooth as silk going down the highway at
80, with no bumps, no wind, no road noise -- nothing but the sweet hum from the huge six. And it got better mileage than my
Camry! Sadly, I had no where to keep the saloon and I had to sell the E-type when we downsized. Now I'm in a hybrid Sonata -- lots
of car for the money, but nothing like a jag.
                                                                  -- D

FX-

If you know the railroads which operated in the area which interests you,
do a search for them. Virtually all major railroads and most regional lines
have historical societies which are wonderful resources.
                                                                                    -- D

Hey, Martha, it's good to hear from you again-

Steam engines used whistles and bells. The bells were used when the loco, with or without a train, was moving at slow speeds or was in a place where safety concerns dictated an active warning system, like a station, a yard or street running.

Have a wonderful holiday and enjoy Jamestown.
                                                                         -- D

wol-

You will do much better in the long run if you run your trains within NMRA standards. That means careful attention to track and wheel gauge, rolling stock clearances, transition curves, moderate grades, electrical integrity, precise coupler adjustments and adherence to correct weight for your rolling stock. I believe that you can get more light cars up grades than you can weighted cars but I'm guessing you have to be very careful with your speed to do so. You can run your trains a little faster, maybe closer to prototype speeds, if you double head your locos or make the excessive four percent a little more shallow.
                                                                       -- D

Jim-

I have absolutely no doubt that the 240Z series was more reliable then my old Jag, although mine was a sweetie in that regard. It never failed to start even in the dead of winter when I would start and run it for a while to get the juices flowing, dry out the innards and what not.

You may have noticed that I wrote in the past tense. That's because I had to sell the car when we downsized two years ago. For a variety of medical reasons I hadn't started it for over two years and it started right up. All it took was a rap on the fuel pump with a screwdriver handle.

The man who bought the car lives in England. He hired an agent to check out the car, verify that it had a valid title, drive it from Minneapolis to Philadelphia, crate it and put it on a ship to England. Then the buyer had to have it converted it to right-hand drive and get it adjusted for English driving and fuel. He paid me quite a bit more than I paid for it plus all those other costs. The car was an excellent driver or a 10-footer but the broker said it could win concours events in merry ol' since their standards are much lower there.

And the punch line is he still has a Lucas electrical system (although I had put in high-energy  electronic ignition.
                                                                                                                                                                        -- D

Steamie-

Not a good comparison, though I admire your spirit. The cost of producing a small plastic body, when many of the parts already exist
and the drive train and chassis are already done, is much, much less than tooling up a whole new quality model locomotive, including
the carbody, chassis, drive system and pantographs. I still think your best option is a scratch build.
                                                                                                                                                  -- D