Marmight

Now in the UK that would be called a Big Dipper..roller coaster in US and modern English terms. in the UK, we would have built a tunnel at the far end of the picture and had level track and huge cuttings on the trackwork coming toward you. US operation is far more interesting...

Well you learn something new everyday...lol patience please Dave, American terms take some getting used to...

Empire Midland and Lake Shore’s very own F9 #47 on switching duties at Lake Shore Harbor plays with a loaded Gondola this morning... its usage inspired by posts in this Forum. ...and I’m getting used to the lingo, lol.

Dave, maybe it’s lost in translation, here in the UK I think it would be called a switchback, undulating trackwork. Cheers Martin, trying to get a handle on American phraseology

That picture at Taylor in Texas is fantastic...talk about switchbacks and in the middle of nowhere...

What does everyone think is the best sounding horn that were used on the F series? And...was one of the front headlights static and the other one a flashing type? It seems strange to have two headlights that do the same thing. The Atlas one I have has two headlights, one above the other, Cheers Martin

Brilliant picture, thanks very much. Cheers Martin

MTH make an acceptable Jordan Spreader, used both as a plow and for Maintenance of Way Work (MoW). Unfortunately finding one in the UK is like looking for unicorns. I was lucky enough to find two for the price of one from the US, so even with postage and VAT the price was reasonable. https://conrailphotos.thecrhs.org/photos/cr-64619-jordan-spreader Just google it and you will find plenty of prototype photos. Many have been rebuilt and modernised, for which the model is an ideal starting point. Thanks Mike, that is one strange looking beastie... Cheers Martin

What a fabulous picture, thanks for posting F-UnitMad.

That has just given me an excuse to run and keep my F9...thanks guys. Now does anyone have an O gauge 2 Rail snowplough I can buy??? Cheers Martin

It wouldn’t surprise me, us Brits never could get sealing things right...you only have to look at our cars from earlier times...if there wasn’t an oil leak coming from it, it didn’t have any oil left...

A fantastic response to my question. Absolutely brilliant and the photos are a fascinating journey in history. Now when I show a pic of my F9 coupled to my GP15-1, any who says it never happened I can show pics to prove it might have done. Tremendous! Cheers Martin

Thanks for the reply John, I don’t think my short line could afford or handle an SD 80 lol. I love hearing all these little anecdotes of what happened and the nicknames that were used. Prior to Nationalization in the UK (note the use of the ‘z’), the big four railways companies had similar nicknames. London Midland and Scottish was known as the hell of a mess. London North Eastern was the Late and never early, Great Western was God’s wonderful railway, and the Southern...well it was a play on its overall size and the first letter...the Cinderella line. It seems it happens wherever you are. Cheers Martin

The article in Model Railroading was a review on this particular engine. I have no way of testing for the actual amps, but they did publish this chart which shows their findings. There is no arguments, I really appreciate everyone’s comments. Cheers Martin

Wow, That’s a great reply and just what I needed to know. Great pics as well! Thanks Martin

Hi Hey, I’m just copying what the NRMA directive states... as for banging heads against a wall...join my club, you’d be very welcome lol. Anyway, we got there in the end and thanks to all your help. Cheers Martin

That’s a great reply and just what I needed to know. Thanks Martin

A quick question about US railroad in real life. Are US locos able to couple up to all other types of US loco? I mean, can a F9 couple up to a GP32 for example? Here in the UK, compatibility between locomotive types was virtually non existent, many engines having a symbol on their front and rear end to distinguish what other engines they could couple up to and work with. I think over here it was something to do with vacuum and air brakes and steam heating (yes in a diesel) fittings. I’m just wondering if American locos faced the same problems. I don’t want to take a pic of my F9 coupled to my GP 38-2 and get berated as they couldn’t run together. Cheers Martin

A post script to this... From Model Railroader for March 2007 “The Trainman GP15 isn't available in a DCC-equipped version, but a decoder can be installed. The model includes a removable secondary printed-circuit (PC) board, two plugs with color-coded wires that follow NMRA Recommended Practice 9.1.1, and a separate instruction sheet describing how to connect those plugs to the main PC board and a heavy-duty (6 amp) decoder.” Recommended Practice Section 1.1 S-9.1.1.1 Six and eight pin Interface S-9.1.1.2 JST 9 Interface S-9.1.1.3 21MTC Interface S-9.1.1.4 PluX Interface S-9.1.1.5 Next18 Interface Recommended practice 9.1.1 states... Table 3.1 Interface Wire Color Codes COLOR FUNCTION RED right-hand rail power pick-up (center rail, outside third rail, traction/overhead wire) to motor or interface ORANGE interface to motor (+)1 BLACK left-hand rail power pick-up to motor or interface GRAY interface to motor (-)2 WHITE output 1 front headlight(s) YELLOW output 2 rear headlight(s) BROWN or VIOLET3 speaker + and - GREEN output 3 (Aux 1) BROWN or VIOLET3 output 4 (Aux 2) output 5 (Aux 3) output 6 (Aux 4) output 7 (Aux 5) output 8 (Aux 6) BLUE common (+) headlight(s)/output(s) power source BLACK/WHITE STRIPE5 common (-) power sink or decoder ground. I think my choice of a decoder that can handle 6 Amps and upwards was fully justified. I also think that the wiring and plug set up in the loco is compliant with NMRA DCC practices. A huge thank you to everyone who helped in this matter. Cheers Martin

Hurrah! Thank you Pete M for steering me in the right direction, which is not the way the engine faces... So, I connected one white wire to F0f and one yellow wire to F0r...lights came on and off as I changed directions but not the way it’s supposed to. So, connected the two white wires to F0f and the two yellow wires to F0r...Hurrah, directional lights, but... Set the engine to go forward and the long rear end, is that called the hood end? goes the wrong way for the lights, vice versa with the opposite direction. I E, the red lights at the cab end are off and the main light at the same end is on...no lights at the other end, which is the way the engine is heading. Scratch head for at least 5 seconds...connect the Yellow wires to F0f and the white wires to F0r...lights on and in the direction of travel, and they change when the direction is reversed. The only problem is the red lights at the long end don’t work...but I can live with that! The only wires that do anything are the blue and both yellow and white wires. The rest are superfluous and are tucked out of the way. I suspect the are for different lights, such as ditch lights, strobe, mars or flashing lights. The mapping of the decoder shows F3 = bell, F4 = Shunt or half power mode, F7 = Horn (which I love to bits) and finally F8, which is engine start. There is not a lot, but I really consider other sounds on decoders to be a waste of time. As it stands, it has everything I want. Now there is a Weaver GP38-2 to be converted...I’ll be back (in my best Arnie voice)

Wow, many many thanks PeteM, just the information I was looking for. i will try this out in a couple of days and report back on the forum. Incidentally, I’ve found out that NEC produced a decoder ref: D408SR which uses the same twin plug configuration for DCC , 4 pin for pickup and motors and 9 pin for lighting and other ancillaries as is fitted to this locomotive. Unfortunately the wiring for the 9 pin plug doesn’t correspond with the wiring in my loco, although the four pin wiring is the same and DCC compliant.

Thanks for the reply. I think we are at cross purposes here, I’ve never said the wiring confirmed to normal practice and it has been pointed out before in this thread that early American so called ‘DCC ready’ locos used a similar set up. The four pin plug containing grey, orange, red and black wires are to the same format as DCC. It’s a totally different plug but the wires do the same job as on any other DCC setup, ie pickups and motor. That side of if is working wonderfully well. The JST plug and 8 wires is the one I’m enquiring about. Here we have two yellow, two white, one green, one blue and one orange wire. Now according to every DCC wiring diagram I’ve seen, blue is the +common feed, yellow and white are head and tail lights using F0 and F1. So up to now, apart from the plugs and sockets they fit into, everything has the same designation and colour code as any other normal DCC wiring setup. As you say regarding the red lights, they are not used any more, then I can happily live with the current set up and disregard the excess wiring, which might be on the plug for different attributes that my engine doesn’t have. I didn’t get the information from any other group, but from someone in the UK who has a few older Atlas engines. I have also spoken to a personal friend who works for the importer of Zimo decoders for the UK and he has told me the same. I also seem to recall, although I can’t find the page now, that Atlas themselves rate the stall settings of this engine as being a lot higher than modern day counterpart motors. That reinforced my decision to use a heavy duty decoder, and it’s one that I regard as being a safe decision, irrespective of how many cars it will pull. As I have previously stated, the American side of things is new to me, but I’m learning fast.

Sunday update... Going from the 9 pin 8 wire JST plug and socket Well, everything I’ve seen and trued to find out points to the blue wire being the + in wire, and the yellow and white wires are the headlights/tail lights. so, connect to blue wire to the correct terminal, it says + input... connect the yellow wire to the correct terminal...it says headlight front, and the white wire to the next terminal, which says headlight rear. Power up and the cab end lights come on when forward is selected on the controller. Change the direction and the cab end lights go out and the red tail lights come on...which is exactly what I expect. Now the wires that are left are, green, another yellow and white wires, a black wire and an orange wire. Connecting the second yellow wire to the terminal marked F1 and pressing F1 on the controller brings the rear headlights on permanently as long as the F1 button remains pressed. Pressing F1 again turns the light off. It doesn’t matter which direction the loco is operated in, F1 light remains on and does not go off nor the red lights at the rear come on. So, I would have thought that connecting the other two white and yellow wires to the opposite terminals where the first wires are connected. I E terminal front headlight has a yellow and white wire, while terminal 2 rear headlights also has a white and yellow wire if you get my drift. Trying all sorts of configurations make no difference.So at present, if I set the direction to forward and have F0 switched on, the cab headlights turn on. Switching direction to reverse, the cab headlights go out and the red tail lights come one, which is expected. Unless F1 is pressed, at no time do the lights at the opposite end to the cab lights work. I’m going wrong somewhere and it’s probably very simple...any ideas? btw, the engine runs super smooth at very low and prototypical speeds.

Saturday morning update... Ok, with some trepidation, I pulled off the blanking plate inside the engine. You have no need to take the body off this one as the middle section of the roof clips on and is easy to remove in a Dapol 08 fashion. Looking at the motherboard and after moving the birds nest of wiring for both motors, the two sockets we are concerned with are both marked DCC. So, taking the 4 pin plug, I connected the wires in true DCC fashion to the decoder...red, black,grey and orange and plugged the plug into its socket on the mother board. I also connected the large bass speaker to the appropriate places on the decoder. Placing the engine on the rails, I powered up the controller, so far so good. Punched in 3 for the address, no visible signs of a burn out, pressed 1 and the bell rang...pressed 8 and the engine started...pressed another number that I can’t remember and the horn sounded...phew! Turned the throttle on the engine started moving slowly, gradually picking up speed until it ran out of my 1 yard of test track.... Major Whoopee! Well the colour codes for the wiring are to DCC standards, and both motors turn equally. The big question now is where do the eight wires from the other jst plug go to on the decoder? Can someone please tell me which colour relates to what terminal on the decoder. TIA and for everyone’s input into this topic. Cheers Martin

It’s only what I’ve been told. I’d much rather put a heavy duty decoder in than watch the little puff of white smoke and black holes appearing on components where black holes shouldn’t be...