Turns out the mechanic who just did work on my car is also a model railroader. You might think 'collector' when you walk in his palce, he has shelves on all 4 whalls of one room plus 3 walls of another plus a table stacked with stuff still int he boxes - mostly Tycvo, FLyer HO, Penn Line, Bowser, etc. But the only reason it's all ont eh shelves is because he has no room for a layout that can handle it all, so it rotates ona nd off the layout - he runs it all. If it doesn;t run when he gets it, he fixes it.
Powering his basic 4 loop layout, are 4 salvaged Variacs. I say ultimate DC supply because unlike a rheostat which wastes excess voltage as heat, a Variac gives fill current at any voltage, so startups get full current at low voltagem not low voltage AND low current. Plus thes ones he has are computer controlled - although he hasn;t gotten that far yet. SO he can automate the layout. SHould eb neat to see. But I've never seen so many original Penn Line locos in one place before. And they all run smooth as silk.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Congrats, Randy, looks like you found a source for your model railroading tuneups as well as your car repairs.
Has this fella given any consideration to DCC?
Rich
Alton Junction
Yeah - too many old locos that draw too much current or would require rebuilding to be able to put a decoder in. He pretty much only buys stuff from before Tyco was owned by Consolidated Foods, and some newer Model Power. The few ConFood era Tyco he has, he's remotoring, more liek repalcing the entire chassis, with Model Power since they have a can motor and 8 wheel pickup. His Steam loco collection is old Mantua, Penn Line, Bowser, and American Flyer. All metal. He has a couple Rivarossis and hates them because they won't pull worth a darn, while even his smaller Bowser and Penn Lines will pull more cars than he can fit around his layout.
He doesn;t have much newer stuff, but he certainly has the skills to fix anything if I can't do it.In the meantime he can keep workign on my car, it feels brand new now. This is my weekend/fun car, not my daily work car. Even with what it cost to make it all right, I still got a steal. so while train purchases are off for a while, I'm still happy.