Black5

 Thiose four extracts tell the story.

 

Intermittent wiring fault caused intermittent running.

 

On dismantling it, wiring fault was made permanent.

 

The fault is a short circuit somewhere between the decoder plug and the pick ups

 

The motor is fine, so it is just a matter of correcting the wiring fault causing the short. As above a test meter will be helpful.

Thankyou for your reply. You`ve helped me before. As I said to The Johnster, I`ve found a wire that maybe should have some insulation on it passing up through the chassis to the motor. On reassembling my checks it could be that this wire is touching the chassis and causing the problem. It`s my next point to look at. Thanks once again.

You should be able to check for a short using a multimeter, and even a really cheap one will do fine for this job.

 

Your fault is a mystery to me as well from your description, sorry, but if you can prove that no short circuit is taking place, it may be worth your while looking for a mechanical reason for the loco's reluctance to move.  We know that the motor is working, and with the multimeter we can prove connection from the track to the motor via wheels, pickups, circuit board, and connecting wires.  Once that is done, and it is established that there is no electrical problem (if you find one, then the fault finding diagnosis has been completed, of course) then remove the motor and push the rolling chassis gently along with your finger.  You will quickly establish that it is running freely, and where it is sticking if it isn't running freely.  

 

You may have a gear meshing problem, or motion jamming, or any number of fouling issues, but it clearly won't be something obvious as you'd have already spotted it.  If you still haven't found the problem, put the motor back and turn the armature by hand until a full revolution of the driving wheels has been accomplished without jamming or fouling anywhere.

Many thanks for your reply.

I should have said that I`d removed the motor and gear drive to eliminate any sticky movement and that is fine. One thing I`ve noticed is a wire coming up through a hole in the chassis which I think is an earth to the motor. Some of this wire is bare and I`m wondering if some insulation  has moved and the wire is touching the chassis causing a short. Of course it may have no bearing on the problem at all but I`m going to sleeve it and see what happens. Thanks once again.

A good hours entertainment last night.

I`m sure anybody whose watched it so far out of curiosity must be quite surprised at the number of different skills this hobby of ours can teach you.

I enjoy it for what it is, three teams having a good go at a competition and coming up with some skilful results.

Have to agree with other posts in the lack of advertising during the breaks that could connect with the series. Expensive I expect.

Maybe next time.

Evening all,

I have a Hornby 2-6-4 tank loco that has recently had a spell of intermittent running on dcc. After removing the bottom plate and checking everything was clean and pickups were making contact it went back on the track but there was no movement.

I removed the decoder ( thinking I may have blown it ) and checked the running on my test track,using it in dc. Still no movement.

On checking various things I`ve found the following,

All wiring and pickups appear to be in place but there isn't any power to the motor when picking up from the track.

With a blanking plug in place, the motor doesn`t run even when power is applied to the motor terminals direct.

Remove the blanking plug and again with power to motor terminals the motor turns.

Could it be that on dismantling for the clean up, I `ve lost some sort of insulation which is now creating a short circuit.

The loco drive axles have what look like thin nylon spacers between the back of the wheels and the chassis and these are all in place.

 I`ve come to a grinding halt now as I`ve looked at everything I can think of and wondered if anyone recognises my fault from my description.

I`m sure the answer is simple but I`m darned if I can see it at the moment.

Many thanks,

Jim.

Thankyou very much for all your suggestions.

At the moment most locos are Hornby chipped, with one having a gauge master decoder and I have a couple of Zimo MX 600 decoders  waiting to be put into something.

My original feeling was that a better quality controller would give me more adjustment but as I only run slowly and don`t have lights or sound, was it worth the extra expense for what I might achieve,

Thanks once again,

The question this raises for me is 'are you entirely satisfied with the running of all your locos at present?'. If so, then no need for change.

 

But if one or more of your locos isn't performing enirely as you would like, having used all the adjustments that can be accessed by your present system, then you may want to look at a change in order to access more decoder CV settings. There's a need to be realistic in appreciating that a more capable DCC system is not a wonder cure. If either or both of mechanisms or decoders are poor performers, you may already be near to or at the limit of the running quality available.

 

One of the joys for me of the DCC system's capability is to set up locos to perform uniformly. Speed step 1 is a dead slow creep into and out of motion on all locos, and by groups the speed curves and maximum speed are matched. In a MPD layout setting I would think to set all locos for a maximum speed of the depot limit, with very closely matched curves. I don't know if the Select enables this, but a full system with well specified decoders certainly will.

Many thanks for your answers .I know it must have looked like I was answering my own question but other people have far more experience in dcc than I do.

What you`ve said about setting speed limits is something I don`t think would happen on the present  set up.

There is a model railway exhibition locally in a couple of weeks so I`ll be asking some questions there as well and maybe get shown the possibilities.

You`ve certainly given me food for thought.

Thankyou.

Good morning,

At the moment my layout is controlled by a Select controller. The layout is a M P D so locos only crawl around at walking pace.

What I`d like to know is, the Select has acceleration and deceleration functions that I use. More expensive controllers have the ability to fine tune the CV settings on the decoder.

What actually happens when you do that fine tuning? Would it make slow running better than the Select can give? or are they simply the same function?

I`m at the point where I`m not sure I would gain that much in buying a more expensive controller but it would be good to know what the differences are.

Many Thanks,

Jim.

Many thanks to Spitfire and Steve, I `ve now solved my problem. I thought the problem was my wiring of the points but turned out to be a dead short across a piece of copper clad that I`d missed when checking.As I said, the problem was staring me in the face.

Many thanks once again,

Jim.

A layout diagram marked with the electrical feeds might help the sparkies in our midst...

 

steve

Hi Steve, thanks for that suggestion. I must admit, I thought just switching frog polarity would do the job. I have a holiday coming up so will have to leave a diagram till later.

Many thanks.

Did you perhaps swap the frog feeds?

Hello Spitfire,

Thanks for your suggestion. If I feed the power in at the toe end of the RH turn out the same as the rest of the layout I get a total power loss.As I said before, something is staring me in the face  but nothing has clicked yet.

Hello,

I`ve had a slight change in my track layout and have installed two new points on two of the boards but have created a problem I`m struggling to solve.

The points are situated back to back at a board join ( not across it )

One is a RH turnout with the through track meeting the  turnout of a LH point ( if that makes sense ) therefore having the switched frogs meeting at the board join.

The LH point works fine with the loco passing through the point and turning out when required after switching frog polarity ( all live frog )

The RH point works only when I`ve reversed the track feed at the feed in position and then dead shorts when it crosses to the other board.

My system uses micro switches to change LED  lights to give point setup and a toggle switch for frog polarity change.

The whole layout has 20 points and two diamond crossings on it which have all worked fine.

I`m sure the answer is staring me in the face but I`ve tried every combination of swapping connections I can think of with no joy and to date cannot get a loco to pass through these two sets of  points.

They are handbuilt points on copperclad sleepers and I`ve done all the checks for things that might cause a short.

The annoying thing is, two other bits of track on the layout are similar to the problem pair of points and they work fine.

I followed the wiring on those but to no avail.

Hopefully my description of the problem makes sense to someone and they can tell me which mistake I`ve made.

Many thanks ,

Jim.

Nice work again and great pictures. It might seem unusual but I find all  the pictures enhanced by the ballasted piece of track you use for the photos. It seems to add to the general work worn look of the locos.

Thanks for posting them.

Jim.

Sorry for not replying before now. Other jobs have been getting in the way.

Many thanks for all the replies, a number of products to look out for.

Thanks once again.

Jim.

I have to agree with others on here, this is top of the class on how to make a convincing job of weathering a loco.

 The only thing missing is a few whisps of steam and water dripping from pipes and could be the real thing!

When I tackle an attempt at weathering I shall be re-reading the methods you`ve described on here.

Jim.

Afternoon all.

I`ve recently found an M T K, 50FT Full Brake kit that I`d forgotten I had when having a sort out.

A couple of questions I`d like to ask.please.

The kit is a pressing with sides and roof all in one, with window openings all in place.Having never built an Aluminium kit like this before, would an ordinary car primer work or is there something else I should use when getting to the painting stage?

The other question is, the kit came with plastic coach wheels and I will replace them with metal ones. Using brass bearing cups, would Hornby coach wheels work? Not sure if they are pinpoint or not.

Many thanks,

Cheers just now,

Jim.

Afternoon all.

Would anyone know if it is possible to locate a drawing for the coaling tower at Camden MPD.

I started my layout before I joined the RM Web and built my tower from the only drawing and pictures I could find at the time, it being a No 2 tower. It`s niggled me for some time now and since seeing what it should look like I ought to try again if I can locate drawings.

Cheers just now,

Jim.

I don`t think I`ve seen better rust effect than that. As jonny777 says, it`s hard to tell from a photograph.

Hope we see some more sometime.

What a great railway room that`s turned out to be.

You`re going to have a lot of fun filling it when you get started again. At least with the buildings you`ve already constructed, your going to give yourself a bit of a head start. I would imagine that`s a bit of a way off yet though.

Cheers just now,

Jim.

Not sure what happened then, but as I was saying, the garage is fine in the summer but with the door shut, can be uncomfortable in the winter.

I usually a few things on but don`t cover it because of potential damage.

Cheers just now,

Jim.

Have to say my situation is much the same as njee20, my layout is in an unheated integral garage with the usual up and over door which when opened lets all weathers in. Very nice in the summer when it`s warm and

Hi, for what it`s worth, on other jobs, iv`e found soaking the `o` ring in hot water softens them up enough to sometimes  overcome the problem.

Jim.

Hi,

Back in late November I asked a question regarding a loco that suddenly had lost it`s drive between motor and gears.

I had several people kindly giving me suggestions as to what the problem might be.

 To cut a long story short, after a phone call to Hornby, I sent the loco back to them to look at.

I received the loco back at the weekend and it is now running again.

Bearing in mind I`d had this loco for some time, therefore, way out of any guarantee, I found that Hornby had put a new chassis in, provided me with a new decoder and rebuilt a bit of damage that happened during transit to them.

To be honest, I thought I`d get a reply saying a repair would be not worth it, but to have all that done and not be charged! was a big surprise and a great way to start the modelling year.

So, thank you Hornby, it`s nice to be able to say something positive about a firm rather than a lot of negative things as happens most of the time these days.

Happy New Year to one and all.

Jim.

Hi,

I have a Peco turntable on my layout , and like you, wanted to motorize it.

I tried all sorts of different methods and finally came across a firm called Locomotech who supply motorizing kits for turntables.

I think the price was in the mid thirty pounds and I believe they do an indexing kit as well.

Very easy to fit and a quiet runner.

I`ve been using mine for a year now and i`m very happy with it.

Hope you find what you`re looking for,

Jim.

Hi 34,

I`m afraid I seem to spend more time trying to build things than running sessions at the moment. My layout is an end to end mpd so running is pretty light anyway. At the moment i`m trying to find a decoder suitable for a Jamieson kit that is quite heavy and uses a Romford Bulldog motor. All this is going on while I wait for a reply from Hornby regarding my Patriots problems.

Hi Terry, thanks for your suggestions.

I have a Bachman split chassis parallel boilered Scot which I think must have been ex Mainline and after fitting a decoder and making tender pickups is one of my better runners. Mostly I think due to the weight and a certain amount of play in the running gear giving good wheel to rail contact. I certainly would have a go at another one.Rather than bypass the older models, with a bit of work you can have a pretty reasonable model.

Cheers just now,

Jim.