Locos and rolling stock
Does double heading two DC locos damage gears and motor? How best to do this?
To have two locos pulling the consist I try to put two similar engines together (i.e. same manufacturer and type) and hope for the best. No two locos ever seem to run at the same speed even if same manufacturer. This is a DC layout and therefore doesn't have the ease of DCC control for matching the locos speeds. How much damage can be done to the gears and motor of the engines in doing this? Is there a better way? If using same manufacturer's locos it seems to work reasonably well but at least one engine must be getting extra force from dragging or pulling the other?
Concor Pierce-Arrow Goose
To anyone who has one of these. I got side stepped in my decoder tester build when I wanted to run mine.
Beware the rear light. It is incandescent and generates enought heat to damage the freight car body. Mine was damaged. Concor is sending a replacement. in the mean time I replaced the incandescent with a warm white LED. The Pierce-Arrow car body has a, confirmed, warm white LED so no damage in view.
atlas rivarossi
I have had the PRR passenger cars a combine car and an observation car for a while now that are the old N scale Atlas by Rivarossi. Yesterday at a train show I actually found an FC2 loco of the same brand. I know it is nowhere close to being new but this one is in very good condition and even has the case with it still. I was told by several guys that they are best to be just left on the shelf for display because of poor running quality.
Has Anyone used Bullfrog Plastic "SNOT" (i.e. Traction Tires)
It's hard to test whether my steam locomotives (especially the BLI Mike's) will handle a 30" helix without any helpers (since the helix will be hidden though accessable) without actually building it (and if things don't work well, that will be a tremendous amount of time and material wasted), so to ease my concerns, I was thinking of using a product I have seen online called Bullfrog "SNOT". Has anyone used this product. Does it work well? How difficult is it to use it. Is there any downside?
Details, details!
I need some direction - for fine-scale printing.
OK, to elaborate a bit... I'd like to produce (on a small scale) signage that is similar to Blair Line quality... black or simple colors on white plastic (I presume mylar) sheet stock. Stiff enoght to stand upright.
What I'd need is recommended printers, inks, substrates. Sources would also be welcome!
Improving performance of Bachman 4/45 Tonners
Now that I've finally gotten some track laid I've been running my DCC equipped Bachman 44/45 tonners (new versions) as well as a Proto 2K H10-44. I realize the Bachmans are cheaper but I'm not very happy with the slow speed performance compared with the H10-44. The Bachmans are also very noisy at low speeds (and they dont have DCC sound :-).
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do to improve their performance ? Is there a suggested breakin method for these little guys ? Better decoders ?
Thanks,
John
How much weight?
George Booth's question about weighting rolling stock raises an issue I've been thinking about lately: What is the right program for weighting freight cars?
Do you take a different approach for a large, hilly club-size mega-layout than you would for a round-the-walls switching outfit? Does it make a difference if trains will be long or short? What do you do about running empty flats or stack cars?
Cost effective car weights?
In the past I have not been very diligent concerning the proper weight of rolling stock. I would like to correct this for my new layout. I am in the process of replacing plastic wheels with metal wheels and I want to get the weight correct at the same time.
>> Posts index
Navigation
Journals/Blogs
Recent Blog posts: