Stringfingerling

My Heljan O Gauge mogul has a Loksound V5 decoder in it which, I think, has just expired. I fitted the decoder myself and I've had numerous adventures with the loco, getting it to run nicely, and the other day, I thought I had finally got everything going really well, no pickup problems, smooth running etc - but this morning, the running was stuttery and lumpy, before the loco refused to start again. It now emits a buzzing sound (from the decoder in the tender) as soon as the track is powered up - before any instructions are sent to the loco. The controller and track are fine - other locos work without problems. 1) Is this terminal for the decoder? 2) Has this happened to anyone else? 3) Should I replace it with the same model of decoder, bearing in mind that the model has been designed around that decoder? 4) I would be happy to pay an expert (I live in Kent) to fix this. Any recommendations?

In a modest GW country station, where the goods yard and facilities are accessed through the same road entrance as the station buildings, were there any rules or guidelines about keeping members of the public away from goods facilities with fences, either for their safety, or for security of goods in transit? Looking at a lot of photos, it's hard to see evidence of a standard rule about this. If there was a set of rules, were they followed in practice? Also, where there is a cattle dock/pen in the goods yard, would there have been any rules about how animals would be brought into the yard, to avoid either animals being injured by trains, or leaving droppings on the ground where passengers would be obliged to walk?

Thanks very much! Me too! Abermynach was unforgettable to me. In spite of being built with RTR stock, and off the shelf (though adapted) model buildings, it captured something particular about the Welsh landscape. I would be very interested to hear more of Jurgen Mehnhert who built it. (I think that's the spelling )

Thank you very much!

Thank you very much!

Glad to hear you've got one that works now Mine has definitely improved with use. I smoothed out the running surfaces of the slide bars as they seemed a bit rough and made sure the backs of the crosshead had no jaggy edges, as, to begin with, I was getting the occasional clash with the front crankpins. I haven't even opened mine up to look at the gears, though I know what they look like from your and other people's photos. Some of my problems were not really Heljan related but to do with decoder settings for the Loksound V5L. I've got it much closer to the way I want now, though it's never going to be perfect. Mine will run smoothly in both directions but there's something about the running when it is pulling a train that is not quite as silky smooth and consistent as I would like, but it's good enough. The rolling road is a good idea I'm sure.

Thanks Nigel, an interesting idea. I'll get in touch with the person who I believe did the sound project.

Hi Richard, I know that works as a way of reducing the speed range, but I also want to make use of the much quieter and gentler chuffs that are available in shunt mode.

F17 allows me to enter shunting mode on my Loksound V5L. It works fine - as long as I have already run the loco - however briefly in normal mode. I would like to be able to start "from cold" in shunting mode, as the nature of my layout means I do not normally want to use the "normal mode". Is there a way around this please?

I ran it static, with the wheels suspended above the track in each direction for an hour when I got it. I haven't added any extra lubrication.

I've had my mogul since the end of December and it hasn't been plain sailing; I had a few issues with the DCC, but that is now fine. I'm still not content with the slow running. You could live with it if the loco was mainly used on trains that maintain a steady speed, but my layout is all about arrivals, shunting/running around the train and slow departures. It doesn't stall and there is no interruption to the sound but it does have a noticeable random jerkiness which detracts from the sense of it being a heavy locomotive. There is a stay alive in the Loksound decoder. A number of people have suggested extra pickups, and I may well pursue this route. One contributor who had fitted one axle's worth of pickups to the loco still found some judder. Jon Fitness suggested enquiring whether spare parts designed for the Heljan prairie would do the job, as the chassis ought to be pretty similar. It occurred to me that I could divert the wiring for the under-chassis loudspeaker for use with pickups on the loco itself, as I'm not using the chassis cavity for a speaker. (My speaker is in the tender). The point of this would be to avoid extra fiddly wiring and connectors between loco and tender. I noticed though, that occasionally the centre tender wheels are not rotating, as they are not dropping into slight dips in apparently level track. The tender has no flex in its suspension so it must be riding (and picking up power) from just the outer four wheels. Given that it is of a rigid design, I wonder if it's sometimes even reduced to three wheels firmly in contact with the track? Adding extra loco pickups would certainly be easier than modifying the tender suspension to include some kind of compensation or springing. I'm guessing that what happens when the loco jerks is that there is a momentary lack of power which slows/stops the motor and the gear driven by the motor shaft worm continues to turn. When the motor restarts or picks up speed it then re-engages the worm causing a judder, because of the slop in the mesh between the worm and the gear. I assume other people must have the same issue. I'd be very interested to hear of successful strategies for improving this.

I am very pleased with VSDC which I've used a lot. The free version is ok to start with but the paid version (about £20-30) per year is really good. It's not perfect; you have to get used to a few quirks in the interface, but it's very good at opening all sorts of video formats and has loads of options for exporting the finished product. It has a multitude of editing features. With a little patience while getting started I'd say it's not hard to learn and there are many tutorial videos on YouTube. As with all video software, a reasonably powerful computer helps, but there are quite a few built in features which assist with improving preview performance etc. Not available for macs though - PC only.

If the issue is the gears then there are probably quite a lot of people who would welcome a solution such as a replacement set of metal gears though I have no idea how difficult it would be to fit them . Reading through various posts on here and on tbe o gauge Facebook group I'm coming to the conclusion that improved pick up arrangements and large stay alive capacitors still may not address the issue. I'm no kind of engineer but it seems quite plausible that a bit of excess slop in the gear train would allow the jerking movement to happen. It's the kind of thing that I can live with but it would be nice to get a proper fix.

Yes I did do the Auto-Tune. I assume that means the procedure where you you set CV54 to 0 and light the blue touch paper while the Loco runs off and then stops.

I did change the chuff settings earlier and they seem reasonably good now but since adjusting the speed curve I haven't really checked them. My main aims were to get earlier acceleration and deceleration along with preserving the ability to coast. I can't remember off hand cv53 does?

Hi Peter - Here are the values. It may be worth noting that I've changed my speed curve by altering CV's 68 to 93 for earlier acceleration. CV 2 = 5 9 = 40 51=31 52=7 53=91 54=43 55=30 56=255 116=50 117=150 118=15 119=20

After various struggles with decoder settings and the realisation that I should never use the momentum button on my NCE Powercab as it over-writes decoder settings, my new Mogul is running pretty well now, though I'm still trying to get to the bottom of the occasional jerky movement, some of which you might see in this video. When it first arrived with me there was a loose buffer, an under-gauge front pony truck (both easily sorted) and a definite clash in the crosshead and crankpin area, which I think I've stopped with a little gentle outward pressure on the slide bars on one side, so that they are parallel with the loco. One or two jerks have been due to less than perfect pickup, but a good track cleaning session seems to have solved that. It's a shame there are no pickups on the loco, although, as others have said, the wheelbase of the tender is at least as long as a lot of tank engines. It's all ok, but I would like it to be as good as possible - the loco looks great and it would be nice to have that same feeling about the running qualities. I might be a bit spoiled by some of my other locos.

If anyone is interested, I have now got the Mogul running much more as I would wish! Fiddling with CV's 68-93, I have been able to raise the profile of the speed curve so that the loco initially accelerates a bit more briskly and has less dramatic acceleration further up the speed range. Happy to post some CV values if anyone wants.

Thanks very much Mike!

I agree, some of the manual is in weakly translated English, and, yes, I think unless you're a serious programmer you can't do anything with CV 6, but it strikes me that you could use the facility to set each of 28 steps on the speed curve individually , if you can spend the time; Between speed step 1 and the maximum speed, LokSound 5 decoders will superimpose the speed using a speed curve. The speed curve hast 28 values (Cv 67 to 94). The CVs 67 and 94 are permanently set to the values of 1 respectively 255 in this decoder. The intermediate values can be distributed at will. The speed curve can not be switched off. CV 2 and CV 5 define a scale factor around which the points of the speed curve are scaled. Have a look at the speed curve in Fig. 26. The last entry (CV 94) is 255. This represents full speed. If you wish to reduce the maximum speed you only have to reduce the value of CV 5. The decoder computes (squeezes) the speed curve in such a way that the shape of the speed curve remains despite the lower maximum speed. The same is true for the first entry. The speed curve will be raised and scaled subject to the value in CV 2. Setting each CV from 67 to 94, you should be able to define any speed curve you like, in spite of not being able to set a mid-point. I seem to have reached quite an acceptable set of values for everything now; I can drive the engine more or less as I would like to, even though that means using much higher numbers from the 128 speed steps than I am used to for other locos. If I find the time, I might look at redefining the speed curve by setting the steps from 68 - 93 one at a time. It would take a long time though because of all the trial and error along the way. If it's of any interest, I've experimented with a graphite 6B pencil at the places where the loco was jerking, and I think it's much better! I took note of the warning elsewhere on RMWeb to use only a minimal film of graphite (" if you can see it, you've used too much") but the Mogul is now running consistently smoothly through my pointwork. I'll post a video sometime in the next few days.

Thank you very much Andrew!

Thank you very much!

I spent an hour or two tweaking CV's on my Mogul yesterday (Loksound V5L). Most of the changes were to do with acceleration and deceleration within the practical constraints of my layout. I needed the loco to be capable of reaching a plausible running speed by the time it exits the tunnel mouth at the entrance to the storage table, and to be able to slow down in time for a stop at the platform. I think I've achieved those goals now, though it meant resetting the wheel/chuff synchronisation. I fiddled around quite a bit with CV54 (Back EMF - I think) but ended up doing the procedure that lets it set itself; set CV54 to zero, press Function 1 and let the loco shoot off and then stop. It ended up on a value of 43 this time. I notice your rolling road not supporting the centre drivers: when I was running my loco in, I was a bit concerned that the centre drivers would be able to oscillate a bit because they have a degree of springing. I don't have a rolling road, and ended up with the loco propped up a bit at each end and ran it in at a very gentle speed to avoid the centre drivers jumping up and down too violently. The only slight fly in the ointment now is, as I 've said in my earlier posts, I think the loco is susceptible to dirty track. It doesn't stall but it will jerk forwards a bit occasionally on pointwork that causes no problems for other locos. My layout is in a shed and I think the very damp air in the evenings, before the shed has had a chance to warm up may be part of the problem. I've been very interested to read of people using graphite sticks to give a very slight film on their track and achieve very reliable running, but I am a bit wary about potential damage to the vulnerable nylon gears on this loco.

Thank you very much Mikkel! I have tried to approach the layout in a bit of a "broad brush strokes first" way - meaning that there is a lot of detail work to do, even on parts that appear finished. The shed is now complete with roof etc, but that whole area of the layout is still very much a work in progress. Future projects on the layout include a small amount of narrow gauge of rolling stock and a derelict carriage shed behind the engine shed, Development of the derelict cottage scene at the top of the Southern (tunnel) end of the layout, one or two road vehicles amongst others. I'll be occupied with the layout for a long time yet!

Thank you very much Terry! I have Volume 2, and it is very well thumbed