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Keep/Stay Alive in Early BLI Hudson and Mikado

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  • Member since
    August 2006
  • From: Upstate NY
  • 229 posts
Keep/Stay Alive in Early BLI Hudson and Mikado
Posted by MikeFF on Tuesday, August 11, 2015 8:25 AM

I have one of each and they are good runners.  Still, there is the occasional issue at a turnout or bit of track I have trouble reaching to clean. Has anyone done this install and can you describe?

Mike

 

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: Southeast Texas
  • 5,449 posts
Posted by mobilman44 on Tuesday, August 11, 2015 8:30 AM

Hi, I assume you are running DCC..........

I have a number of BLI locos and other brands, and found early on that (with DCC) they can have difficulty with "shorting" at turnouts.   In my case, it was older Atlas turnouts where the loco wheels touched both rails at the point of the frog.  There was minimal space between them, and DC operation would ignore the situation, but DCC would not.

Later Atlas turnouts have a bigger separation, hence no problem.  Yes, the solution was to replace the turnouts.

You could have other problems, but what I had is a likely situation.

ENJOY  !

 

Mobilman44

 

Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central 

  • Member since
    October 2006
  • From: Western, MA
  • 8,571 posts
Posted by richg1998 on Tuesday, August 11, 2015 2:56 PM

Yes, assuming DCC. Just find the full wave bridge rectifier. Connect the two Stay Alive wires to the output of the rectifier. Instructions come with the module.. Note, there is no ground in a decoder. Just plus and minus connections. There will be four diodes connected to each other. Some decoders have a fifth diode nearby. That can easily be seen and the four can also be determined by an ohm meter.

Rich

If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.

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