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A bit more

petertg

Entry posted by petertg

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In spite of what I said in my last contribution, I have spent more time and money, albeit only about ?5, on the layout. I bought some cork 3 mm thick and balsa wood 1 mm thick to equal the core thickness of the foam underlay (because I could not find cork 4 mm thick and didn't want to go traipsing round the whole area) and re-laid three turnouts. Since I than had problems to settle a long straight in the grooves of the foam underlay, I finally removed about one yard of foam and replaced it with cork. In the end though, of the three turnouts one has a surface mounted motor and I had to insert a piece of plywood to get the thing to work. Now I have the extra work of covering the cork underlay with ballast. As mentioned in somebody else's blog, I rinsed the ballast and the idea seems to work when I apply the adhesive with a dropper since it does not float out of place.

I have also spent a long time trying to digitize a Wrenn City class live chassis locomotive (without adequate tools) without success. I had the notion that the decoder chip had been damaged but, without a PT I was unable to verify this fact and, since I had already sent another chip up in a puff of smoke, I was reluctant to try the only one I had left. However, after buying a voltmeter and multiple tests with a 9V battery, I found that the motor armature was not sufficiently tight. I tightened it up and then, without the chip, I applied the 9V to the motor and it worked. So, to-day I decided to run the risk and use my last chip and it worked.

I had recently tested my UK rolling stock and it seemed to work reasonably well and one of my continental items also works well so I decided to test the set that came with my DCC starter kit. The locomotive runs well alone but, with its three coaches, problems right from the start. The coaches derailed in two places and came loose in a third. I haven't discovered the cause for derailment in the first place because it did not happen to-day and on inspecting the second place I discovered a screw holding the track down projected slightly from the surface (but not sufficiently to affect other rolling stock). It was duly corrected and the derailing did not occur. A similar thing caused the unhooking of the coaches.

I then discovered something which does not cause derailments but might be the cause of faulty dcc signal transmission. At the entry to the bridge the track is loose and one sleeper rests on the head of a screw holding the bridge to its column and I am wondering whether this might cause some slight irregular movement when certain locomotives pass over it, thereby disrupting the signal.

In view of the conical shape of the head of the screws I use to hold the track down, I am considering countersinking them in the sleepers.

It seems that I still have a lot of work to do before we can just get down to playing with trains without too many hitches. In this respect I must say that I have been devouring many other entries relating to DCC, tight curves and other items and it seems that to get a perfect layout is virtually impossible One loco jibs in one place, another in another place, yet another works o.k in one direction and not in the other, etc.

Since I started late, I have not been able to get all the period vehicles I would have liked but last Saturday on a visit to a local Christmas Fowl Fair, on one of the many other stands I found a late 40s early 50s double deck back loader in Bradford Corporation livery (an EFE model) but to my surprise It does not have any registration numbers like all the others I have.

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devondynosoar118

Might I suggest a few minor changes?

Ditch the foam underlay, it will cause more trouble than its worth. Track is best glued down IMO, to a good FLAT base, cork or I lay mine straight onto the board. Use a contact adhesive to glue it down, not too much in case you have to lift it in future but a good bead on the back of the track and on the board will hold it, put a few books on top to hold it in place.

Ensure every section of track has a separate power feed to the DCC bus. This can be done with droppers or wired fishplates.

How old is the track? Recycling has its limits if you want good running, old flexi track can be more bent than it looks and points over 20 years old, especially insulafrog types are crude by comparison to modern ones, and will perform accordingly.

Screws are only suitable for carpentry, they have no place on track, for the reasons you have outlined!

Well done on the split chassis conversion, hope the remaining chips stay un fried! Maybe a forum posts in "modelling questions" with pictures of all the problem areas of track will yield more knowledgeable help than mine.

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petertg

Thanks for the comments. I can't face the task of uprooting 20 odd metres of foam underlay. A substantial part (Hornby) of the track was bought new in 2007, including all the points. The older material (Peco flexitrack and Lima straights) wasn't really recycled, since it had practically never been used. As for power feeds, I have 12 for 24 metres of track. Adding more could be complicated at this stage, but I will look into it.

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devondynosoar118

By every piece of track I mean every bit! You can solder small sections together at the fishplates. I also have separate power feeds for each set of points, fed from droppers at the toe end. I realise taking up large sections of track is a pain, also I have a second radius minimum for points, with the longest Peco ones for main lines. Hornby ones look quite sharp to my eye, I have not used their newer track however.

Hope you get the running sorted as it is particularly annoying when trains won't run reliably, as I have had similiar problems I can sympathise.

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petertg

Please forgive my ignorance but what do you mean exactly by "droppers" and "toe end"? Also, would it work if I took a long length of wire, bared small portions to correspond to the various track sections and soldered the bare points to the outside of the rails, to avoid having individual wires for each section? If not, how is it done? Finally, with so many feeds, are the shorting clips necessary for the insulfrog points? Shall be grateful for all comments.

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