Track and electrical/DCC
DCC for Vintage Steam
I have a Westside Southern Pacific MT 5 steam locomotive that has been upgraded to a can motor and constant lighting using a diode bridge across the motor leads. This powers a 1.5v bulb mounted in the headlight with an MV lens. It looks and works great.
I would like to add a DCC controller with sound, specifically a Tsunami heavy steam 1 amp unit. There is plenty of room in the tender for the decoder and a speaker. I would like to reduce the number of wires between the engine and tender.
Isolation gap on curves
Part of a wye situation. What's the better way to do an isolation gap on a curve- plastic rail joiners on pre-bent rail or pre-bend and use a couple of pc ties for support, then cut the gaps with a jewelers' saw (my plan since I'd have to order plastic joiners)?
No rail is laid down yet, so I can do whatever.
Extending Blue Point Switch Reach Through 3" of Sub Roadbed
Hello folks,
I have been slowly making progress on my On30 layout, but I am stuck trying to install a Blue Point switch machine for my turnout. It will be mounted below a 3/4" piece of plywood, and a 2" piece of foam. Currently, the included switch wire does not reach through all of that. How can I extend this to meet up with the PCB tie at the switch ? I heard about using brass tubing, or piano wire , but I'm not sure how the brass tubing fits into all this, or if a long piece of piano wire will do. Thanks for any info you guys have!
Feeding Feeders
I'm setting up a small N guage layout (merely a circle with a spur) to test a few things as I move from my HO layout and start my new N guage one.
I'm using Fleischmann Profi track (pre ballasted). I've drilled small 1.5mm holes through the fake ballast and soldered feeder (droppers) wires to the track.
Question: how do I line up where to drill the holes through the plywood under the track to feed the droppers/feeder wires through the plywood. I would like to hide the wires as far as possible.
Kato Turnouts and DPDT switches
I'm attempting to use momentary DPDT switches to control Kato turnouts. The circuitry is so simple I don't know what's going wrong. I've verified the wiring via multiple instructions including from Mike Fifer (http://www.fiferhobby.com/html/how_to_make_kato_turnout_contr.html).
When activating the switch, sometimes it switches properly, sometimes it switches backwards, and sometimes it centers the points. No telling what's going to happen. Have the switches changed so that only the Kato controllers work nowadays? Are these instructions no longer adequate?
Thanks,
Walt
Modifying Atlas Turnouts
Has anyone ever tried modifying Atlas turnouts to deepen the frog so wheels don't bounce as much and cars don't roll as much going through them? Wondering how much can be cut away at the bottom of the frog without causing electrical issues.
Suggestions on wire size and brass tube size
I'll be connecting my turnout motors to my turnouts remotely and want to do so using music / piano wire that will be sheathed inside brass tubing. I used to have both the wire and brass tubing; however it's still packed away from our move to Florida and possibly will never be seen again. Can you guys please give me suggestions on wire size that will work and the proper brass tube size to contain it? Thanks!
Cell phone speakers - better or just smaller?
I've read recently of people using cell phone speakers with sound decoders and getting excellent results. What I'd like to know is, are they better than other common speakers that are sold, for example by Soundtraxx? Or are they just smaller, and thus better for some tight applications? I have room for a high bass speaker, so I'm wondering if there is any audible reason to try to find some cell phone speakers instead.
>> Posts index
Navigation
Journals/Blogs
Recent Blog posts: