Merry Christmas Bob!

Just ordered a new Dewitt Clinton and Pegasus.......still NO Rocket!   Come On guys (Bachmann) Make us a Rocket!

Update..... set performed flawlessly around the tree this year!  Still going great......smooth and slow is possible.....

Jim

Hmmmm I have the same train and same road number and same radius.....No shorts....Check the wheel gauge also....maybe one spread out and got wide?...

I will look at mine and see if i can help.

Runs great by the way...once you get those tiny wheel wipers adjusted....

Jim

AME7toaster or K4........

DUHHHHHHH

Gimme a K4.......I love my HO version.........

Jim

Just picked up a Sealed Yard Boss set for under 50 bux.....(yea ebay)

This is my little review of the set.

The cars look nice,Metal wheels a big plus,the new couplers work and look much better than Rapidos.

The little loco (new run of 0-6-0)runs great and after a hour or so on the tracks and a slight lube job its amazing how well it will crawl....on 2.5 to 3 volts.Stalls around 2 volts.(analog meter hooked to track as loco was running)

Smooth and quiet engine.

There were/are a few issues with the tender pickup,The wheel wipers were binding the wheels.....so i fiddled with it for a bit and its rolling now.

It may be a issue running slow through turn outs ..if the power is intermittent from the tender.

The tender coupler sits just about half a knuckle too high....though it stays coupled and the tender looks level.

Overall,I am impressed with how far Bachmann has improved their line of train sets and Standard line Locos..

Nice work guys!

The track (EZ) is great for setting up a loop on the table or for the Christmas Tree ect...Great for kids too.

The solid state speed controls are sweet....I like them allot better than the wire wound resistor types....

And i found a trick to help quiet down the track noise...electrical tape run underneath the track sections,stuck to the bottom of the roadbed opposite the track, stick it on after putting the loop together....helps a bit.

I'm very happy with the little set,much nicer than the old F unit rapido coupler set i had years ago...coffee grinder Santa Fe HighBaller.

Now to build that table top micro layout!

I'll save the EZ track for a Tree mounted circuit this Christmas!

Thanks Bachmann!

Jim Hail

More people might like Z scale if someone like Bachmann could do it cheaper.....Its not the space shuttle......modern CNC machines ect should be able to do it cheaper now than when Z started with Miniclub.

The Marklin price tag always stopped me.....even though i only have a small area for a layout i chose HO.

Jim

Hi pitched noise indicates small fast moving metal....

Armature bearings on motor are/were dry....if its not burned up a touch of oil on each end of the motor shaft may fix it....carful on the power end where the brushes are....oil on the brushes will KILL the motor...
Jim

I looked at the parts pages and Laughed.....

Until you can buy parts from the exploded views of ALL the motive power...what good is it?

Can't order a belt or worm shaft bushings(that are made out of the wrong material...they should be oillite bushings!!!) for a Connie,,,,Or Motor for a K4.....Gear for a Speeder (to replace the eccentric/BAD factory part).ect ect......

For the most part you cannot just click and order what your loco needs....

I would rather fix my stuff when it fails then send it in....

Yea parts support would be great....if we could click and order off the blow-up parts numbers....

Jim

After tonight i got this nailed down...

MRC Sounder for Steam #1665 works fine out of the box...program it to a 4 digit
address (5702 2526 3750) and it will work at the new address but no longer
respond to OPS mode programing,and appears LOCKED as it will not respond to ops
cv changes.So your stuck with what you set before the address change.

I re-set them with the NCE recovery program and decoder unlock feature..That
takes it back to address 3..then you must set CV 124 back to 1 or you will loose
the background Idle boiler hiss.

Yea hidden CV's folks......Great fun when one gets changed...I worked through
123 of em to find it.

Then I started over and chose 2 digit addresses and WALLA....Ops mode programing
works again....

I now have all 3 sounders doing what i want them too....and responding to On the
main programming.

I do not know if this is a MRC issue or NCE issue.

I would say this causes allot of returned Sounder decoders as the end user would
think its broken and might not figure out what i did.

I spent 2 evenings on this .

Jim

1 reset/unlock
2 select control of loco 3
3 set cv 124 to 1...decoder should now be restored and on address 3
4 avoid 4 digit addresses

Got one of those....not bad at all for the price......I got the one with a backlit LCD....it has a yellow button on it ...same meter...cost a bit more...

But the light only stays on for a few seconds then auto shutoff.

Made me mad.... I know how to turn a light off........arrrrggrgr

Jim

These decoders have "hidden CV's" that are NOT in the instructions that can get screwed up...

It also seems after setting a address other than default of 003...it locks the sounder and you cannot adjust anything on it...

I have been setting them up without the loco...and then changing the address on the sounder to the cab number (long address) and then install on the already decodered loco.

This works but i can no longer adjust the sounder in OPS mode unless i set just the tender on the track....do a re-set back to defaults and start over on set up of the sounder.

Good thing all my sounders are in harnessed tenders so they can be tweeked without the loco/motor controller getting messed up too.

Any ideas guys?.... I would like to be able to OPS mode to the Sounder...

Jim

FIXED.....CV 124 must be set to a value of 1

NCE must be setting it to 0 on recovery....turning off the steady boiler sound...

Hooray!!!!!!!!!!

If only MRC listed this *$*%$(*&^$  CV on the chart this would have been a easy fix....

I set CV's one at a time (124 of em ) until i found it....

Jim

NCE recovery mode causes this........I just found out ....dont ask....

But why?........what is it doing to the sounder unit?......

Jim

Ok....per title...MRC Sounder 1665 and NCE PowerCab.....

I knew i shouldn't have bought them....

But i did....

First they worked fine but would not ops mode (POM).....any cv's

Then after getting them to ops mode and take cvs.....and running for a few min....2 of them no longer make the idle loco hiss....they still make random effects while idle but in between its dead silence...

When running they make all the correct sounds....

I tried cv 125 reset....no good...
Unlocking mode no good....
I tried recovery mode ....no good...

Instructions list no info..... website and PDF were no help...

I'm afraid my NCE must have hit on a hidden CV and took out the "white/pink" noise?...

Anyone know of a fix?......I'm stumped as everthing else on them works ....

And #3 is working fine but I'm afraid to install it.......

Help please......this is the only time i have ever had a DCC install problem....

Jim

Guess next time i will heed the warnings........Ugh