Milwaukee Road 113
Milwaukee Road addict...
Cheers Phil!
As nice as the DL-109 might be, I have to agree with you buddy!
Much obliged gentlemen!
Running Bear's Coffee Shoppe LX
- Thread starter santafewillie
- Start date
Cheers Phil!
As nice as the DL-109 might be, I have to agree with you buddy!
Much obliged gentlemen!
PRR Modeler
Well-Known Member
Afternoon All,
The cold I have is kicking my butt today. I tried taking a nap but could not fall asleep. Today on the layout front I made the wood platform for fuel oil trucks, weathered it like the other one, and since the plastruct order came in I attached the ladder and cage on the oil tank and hand rails on top.
Chet- Sorry to hear about your friends family.
Terry in Wisc- Congratulations to your grandson. That derailment looks like an oopsie moment. I have had a bunch of them.
Carey- Sorry to hear you aren't doing better.
Garry- I must of reworked the large continuous curve coming off the bridge 4 times until I watched a video on YouTube where it showed how to "splice" 2 pieces of flex track together to prevent kinking. After that it worked great.
Terry- I really do feel for you. You just can't get a break.
Willie- Very nice looking building.
WJLI26- Like Garry, my most sensitive locos have been BLI steamers.
Karl- Congrats on grandson #4. I am glad everyone is doing well.
I hope everyone has a good night.
The cold I have is kicking my butt today. I tried taking a nap but could not fall asleep. Today on the layout front I made the wood platform for fuel oil trucks, weathered it like the other one, and since the plastruct order came in I attached the ladder and cage on the oil tank and hand rails on top.
Chet- Sorry to hear about your friends family.
Terry in Wisc- Congratulations to your grandson. That derailment looks like an oopsie moment. I have had a bunch of them.
Carey- Sorry to hear you aren't doing better.
Garry- I must of reworked the large continuous curve coming off the bridge 4 times until I watched a video on YouTube where it showed how to "splice" 2 pieces of flex track together to prevent kinking. After that it worked great.
Terry- I really do feel for you. You just can't get a break.
Willie- Very nice looking building.
WJLI26- Like Garry, my most sensitive locos have been BLI steamers.
Karl- Congrats on grandson #4. I am glad everyone is doing well.
I hope everyone has a good night.
Boris
Beach Bum
Congratulations! Mom and baby doing well is fantastic news.
Boris
Beach Bum
Curt & Garry: I have three BLI steamers, the Reading T1, along with a PRR I1 and H10. I also have a NW2 and 2 Original BLI GG1s. All are nice looking engines, the Reading T1 is the best performer of the bunch, the H10, the best puller, The I1 pulls OK on level ground, while the NW2 barely makes it up a 2% grade with three cars and a cabin. With any more, it stalls. The GG1s do not want to stay on the rail.The pony trucks are either warped or off balance. If it wasn't for BLI, we wouldn't have most of the engines Pennsy fanatics crave, (for instance). Yet perhaps because of the price point, and the relative limited availability, I'm reluctant to try and correct the problems I run in to with them.
I really like the BLI E7s in PRR, as well as the BF16s, but I'm really reluctant to try them. Terry has had his share of problems with his, but he is far from alone when it comes to BLI horror stories. Fortunately, my late '60s interest allows me to pass on many of the BLI offerings, however, the single striped shark, a possible passenger shark, will be hard to pass on.
I really like the BLI E7s in PRR, as well as the BF16s, but I'm really reluctant to try them. Terry has had his share of problems with his, but he is far from alone when it comes to BLI horror stories. Fortunately, my late '60s interest allows me to pass on many of the BLI offerings, however, the single striped shark, a possible passenger shark, will be hard to pass on.
GarryCBQ
Well-Known Member
Joe ... My Proto 2000 E-units are not a sensitive to imperfections in the track. All of my Proto 2000 E-units went through this curve without derailing before I just fixed the track for the BLI E7's. ... To operate the E7's on my double track, i had to switch them to the other track. So, my BLI E7's spent part of their time running eastward on the westbound track. ... I still have a couple of other trouble spots in track to fix for the BLI E7's . .. The P2K e-units go everywhere on my layout without derailing.
The BLI California Zephyr cars are also sensitive to imperfections in the track.
I have no BLI steam locomotives.
There's a prototype for everything
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'course, if you want a proper job done of it, you'll have to go down Rodney's way
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[YOUTUBE]skfalqhzpkU[/YOUTUBE]
Trussrod
Well-Known Member
Evening all,
Speaking of problems, last night I was running one of my Old time Climaxes through a switch it ran through many times before only to have it short out when it gets to the points and it never did that before??
Ok, NG, thanks, I just often wondered.
Say, I think I'm also attracted to the simpler life and think I ought to check out the tracks more often to see who might be walking bye?
Juistin Glad offer the suggestions. If you do add some pieces below your existing table top to extend outward, they should extend under the table edge bye about 3"s at least and be about 4"s wide so you can put two screws toward the table edge but in at least 1/2 inch and at least a third screw if not two others in toward the back of the shelf plate and leave at least 2"s to extend beyond the table edge to screw your shelf to. This shelf if made much wider could also act as a
drop off area to give a bit of variation in height with a edge guard added. Shorter boards rather than one long strip as I basically implied before you can allow you to work around table legs etc.
Say Joe: When derailments happen like you mentioned, I imagine it also holds up other trains too that were scheduled
to use those tracks as well?
Karl, Congrats on your forth grandson!
Garry: I was just wondering if it couldn't possibly be something to do with wheel flanges not being rounded over enough?
While I have BLI Loco's available to me I glad I didn't supply anybody with them if most of you are having all these problems.
Say Willie: Your DPM building looks very good. As far as the image not being centered, it's actually a method of calling more attention to it and one way pro photographers often photograph subjects to get away from so many centered images!
Eric: That's the reason I stay with my XP Pro system, fortunately my neighbor tech knows how to work with it.
Speaking of problems, last night I was running one of my Old time Climaxes through a switch it ran through many times before only to have it short out when it gets to the points and it never did that before??
Ok, NG, thanks, I just often wondered.
Say, I think I'm also attracted to the simpler life and think I ought to check out the tracks more often to see who might be walking bye?
Juistin Glad offer the suggestions. If you do add some pieces below your existing table top to extend outward, they should extend under the table edge bye about 3"s at least and be about 4"s wide so you can put two screws toward the table edge but in at least 1/2 inch and at least a third screw if not two others in toward the back of the shelf plate and leave at least 2"s to extend beyond the table edge to screw your shelf to. This shelf if made much wider could also act as a
drop off area to give a bit of variation in height with a edge guard added. Shorter boards rather than one long strip as I basically implied before you can allow you to work around table legs etc.
Say Joe: When derailments happen like you mentioned, I imagine it also holds up other trains too that were scheduled
to use those tracks as well?
Karl, Congrats on your forth grandson!
Garry: I was just wondering if it couldn't possibly be something to do with wheel flanges not being rounded over enough?
While I have BLI Loco's available to me I glad I didn't supply anybody with them if most of you are having all these problems.
Say Willie: Your DPM building looks very good. As far as the image not being centered, it's actually a method of calling more attention to it and one way pro photographers often photograph subjects to get away from so many centered images!
Eric: That's the reason I stay with my XP Pro system, fortunately my neighbor tech knows how to work with it.
Milwaukee Road 113
Milwaukee Road addict...
A hearty congratulations Karl!!
These just arrived....#01882 and #01898!
These just arrived....#01882 and #01898!
Milwaukee Road 113
Milwaukee Road addict...
....one for you Louis!
santafewillie
Same Ol' Buzzard
Good Morning All. It's only 33 degrees here this morning but today is going to be warmer than yesterday. NW winds of 25-30 mph made for a brisk day until sunset. I spent most of the day in the train shed doing odds and ends. Additional installation of ground cover, some weathering of the DPM building that I showed yesterday, installed metal wheels on a few more freight cars and painted a few Preiser people. Out of curiosity after reading numerous posts by new guy and others, I coupled some cars together to see how many I could pull with a single engine. This is something I never thought of doing. LOL I stopped because I had to go into the house to fix supper, but not before pulling 53 with a single Athearn Genesis F45. Startup was iffy, but once everything got rolling, it appeared effortless. Probably will never do it again after I get everything back to staging.
After reading about everyone's troubles with smoking decoders and CV setting troubles etc., like Phil, Chet and some others, I'm somewhat happy I have stuck with DC. I don't dislike DCC, but as a lone operator, I just have no need for it. I can only successfully control one train at a time! Besides the cost of converting 80+ locos is prohibitive.
Along the same lines, give me Athearn, Atlas, P2K or Kato engines any day. Easy to troubleshoot and repair.
Thanks to everyone who commented on my picture.
Karl - Congrats to mother and grandson.
Chet - Yeah those windows are tough. I usually get 6-8 done then I put up the paints and do something else until the following day. I've seen your buildings in your video's and recognize most of them. I use a lot of them and the ones from Smalltown as well. I have many duplicates which I paint differently and on some I display the backs so the duplicity is not noticed.
MR113 - Do they have a "Railaholics Anonymous" in Glasgow? 44 books!
Curt - Get well soon.
Toot - I thought we had some serious track issues here in the states. Looks like you folks down-under are worse. Must be because you're on the bottom of the globe.
Sherrel - Thanks.
Skipping the grocery store trip this week, as I purchased enough beer last week to get through another week or two. Freezer is also full of food. So off to the train shed I go until I see when the temps go up enough to make being outside pleasant.
Willie
After reading about everyone's troubles with smoking decoders and CV setting troubles etc., like Phil, Chet and some others, I'm somewhat happy I have stuck with DC. I don't dislike DCC, but as a lone operator, I just have no need for it. I can only successfully control one train at a time! Besides the cost of converting 80+ locos is prohibitive.
Along the same lines, give me Athearn, Atlas, P2K or Kato engines any day. Easy to troubleshoot and repair.
Thanks to everyone who commented on my picture.
Karl - Congrats to mother and grandson.
Chet - Yeah those windows are tough. I usually get 6-8 done then I put up the paints and do something else until the following day. I've seen your buildings in your video's and recognize most of them. I use a lot of them and the ones from Smalltown as well. I have many duplicates which I paint differently and on some I display the backs so the duplicity is not noticed.
MR113 - Do they have a "Railaholics Anonymous" in Glasgow? 44 books!
Curt - Get well soon.
Toot - I thought we had some serious track issues here in the states. Looks like you folks down-under are worse. Must be because you're on the bottom of the globe.
Sherrel - Thanks.
Skipping the grocery store trip this week, as I purchased enough beer last week to get through another week or two. Freezer is also full of food. So off to the train shed I go until I see when the temps go up enough to make being outside pleasant.
Willie
Boris
Beach Bum
Good morning. 31°, overcast, with a forecast of snow.
David, most derailments were yard derailments resulting from either bad track or human error.Generally, they were relatively easy to work around. Others, on customer sidings were generally track condition, because the customer generally didn't want to spend any money on track either. Main line derailments were less frequent and very disrupting. In 1973, the combination of deferred maintenance, plus high traffic volume, and needing bankruptcy court approval for all major expenditures, created the perfect storm.
Garry: Back around the time the Genesis SD70s and the BLI GG1s first came out I was well into building what I thought was the perfect layout. Everything was running quite nicely. The SD 70s were very derailment prone, as were the GG1s. All in different spots. I tried fixes and reconstructed curves, never thinking that perhaps this "expensive" new locomotive(s) were to blame. The layout was taken down, and everything was packed away in storage. Then several years later, I learned of the warped truck problem with early Genesis 6 axle locomotives. New springs seemed to help the GG1s. Common sense, dictates, that when one is using broad curves, and #6 or greater switches, and everything else runs OK, that it may be the new locomotive??? However, who want's to believe common sense, when one just plunked $350+ on the locomotive of one's dreams, just to find it doesn't work as well as the "old" stuff
.
David, most derailments were yard derailments resulting from either bad track or human error.Generally, they were relatively easy to work around. Others, on customer sidings were generally track condition, because the customer generally didn't want to spend any money on track either. Main line derailments were less frequent and very disrupting. In 1973, the combination of deferred maintenance, plus high traffic volume, and needing bankruptcy court approval for all major expenditures, created the perfect storm.
Garry: Back around the time the Genesis SD70s and the BLI GG1s first came out I was well into building what I thought was the perfect layout. Everything was running quite nicely. The SD 70s were very derailment prone, as were the GG1s. All in different spots. I tried fixes and reconstructed curves, never thinking that perhaps this "expensive" new locomotive(s) were to blame. The layout was taken down, and everything was packed away in storage. Then several years later, I learned of the warped truck problem with early Genesis 6 axle locomotives. New springs seemed to help the GG1s. Common sense, dictates, that when one is using broad curves, and #6 or greater switches, and everything else runs OK, that it may be the new locomotive??? However, who want's to believe common sense, when one just plunked $350+ on the locomotive of one's dreams, just to find it doesn't work as well as the "old" stuff
.
Boris
Beach Bum
Guys
This random thought just struck me, FWIW. If one is converting an old Athearn BB grinder to DCC, specific steps are taken to "isolate" the motor from the frame to prevent "smoking" the new decoder. Most of us have heard of the situation with the supposedly DCC ready Lifelike S1, which under certain circumstance the installed decoder can be "smoked" because the motor is not isolated properly, in spite of having an 8 point DCC adapter plug. What's to say that there isn't a similar issue with some of the BLI (or other, decoder "smokers" we have been discussing? We are all familiar with the "Quality" issues BLI has with their L1 and other Paragon 3 system products. Problem could be in design or assembly.
This random thought just struck me, FWIW. If one is converting an old Athearn BB grinder to DCC, specific steps are taken to "isolate" the motor from the frame to prevent "smoking" the new decoder. Most of us have heard of the situation with the supposedly DCC ready Lifelike S1, which under certain circumstance the installed decoder can be "smoked" because the motor is not isolated properly, in spite of having an 8 point DCC adapter plug. What's to say that there isn't a similar issue with some of the BLI (or other, decoder "smokers" we have been discussing? We are all familiar with the "Quality" issues BLI has with their L1 and other Paragon 3 system products. Problem could be in design or assembly.
new guy
Active Member
LOL! I woke up and looked outside into a Currier and Ives landscape!
Grandaddy yousta say "No stick-stickum, stickum-no stick" concerning snow and if it will be there tomorrow.
If the snow will not stick to the ground, the ground is cold and the snow will not melt when it stops blowing along, if it sticks the ground is 'warm' and the snow will not last.
This stuff might be gone by later today.
I am pleased to see my corrupting influence on 'santafewillie'! Rilly? You guys don't 'test' your loco's to see who is 'the champ' and can pull the 'mostest'? LOL! It's the first thing I started messing with is to see how 'strong' each one is, my problem was getting enough rollers in shape to be good test pullers. I'm only up to about 50 and one of my best rollers 'blew up' when my shirt caught it and pulled it right off the layout onto the floor! The trucks blasted right off it! WAAAA, cry, cry!
Planning is moving apace, going with a 2% grade instead of 6%, yes , I'm insane and was actually going to try it! One of 4% may find itself on there but it will be off the beaten path and not for everyone. The 'mains' will be the 'traditional' 24" min with 2% grades.
Ugh! I don't think I've had a cold this bad in twenty years "spewing and mewing" like a babe in true Shakespearian style! BLEA!
