richhotrain rrebell I like Sheldon!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who doesn't ? Sheldon For Moderator !!! Rich
rrebell I like Sheldon!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I like Sheldon!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Who doesn't ?
Sheldon For Moderator !!!
Rich
Because him and Batman would start comparing (again) lawn tractors, houses, bank account balances, and other unmentionables that no one here really cares about.
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
zstripe Sheldon, Good to hear from You. You're spelling, is just fine for Me. ''Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" Take Care! Frank
Sheldon,
Good to hear from You.
You're spelling, is just fine for Me.
''Merry Christmas and Happy New Year"
Take Care!
Frank
Could not agree more! My spelling isn't the best, either. Correcting someones spelling seems like a cowardly way of acting to me, especially this time of year when we should be wishing the best for everyone. Spelling is importamnt to me and I really try spell the best I can. There are times; however, when we all slip-up.
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
Alton Junction
I like Sheldon!!!!!!!!!!!!! The one trouble with this forum is they lock it if people start to argue their point of veiw, I love to argue things from my standpoint!
You have your ideas and I have mine. Some of them may be similar, some may not. Yours are absolutely right for you and mine are right for me.
I see nothing wrong with making comments about what things cost! You seem to take it as complaining, I don't see it that way. In the end, I either buy; or, I don't, like you do.
You are right about yourself, you take this hobby way too seriously and tend to pound things into tiny smithereens!
However, in the spirit of the season, I wish you and yours the best of Holiday wishes and say enjoy the Grand Kinders, they are who this season is all about!
Mark
Now that we are getting on a first name basis, mines Larry. I started out going to college for interior design and when almost finished with that I said, what do I realy want to do for a living. My landlord at the time said he would sell me some building shells and give me a job renovating houses. This proved to be very lucrative. So I ended up a landlord and a renovation expert (basicly I could build a house).
Mark,
From a career standpoint, I have done a whole bunch of different stuff - worked retail in the hobby business, been a draftsman in an engineering office, project manager/estimater/designer in industrial/commerical construction, electrician - programed/installed some of the very first PLC's used in industry, plumber, HVAC - all both field and management positions, sold MATCO tools, been a service writer and shop foreman in car dealerships, been a home inspector - and currently self employed residential designer/historic restoration consultant/custom carpenter doing specialty residential projects by referal only.
I never hesitated to quit a job to take a new opertunity.
I live in a 1901 Queen Anne home I restored 18 years ago and my model trains are in an 800 sq ft room above the detached garage I designed.
" target=""> I know I am blessed - and I know I have worked hard. I have a good working knowledge of model airplanes, but never really got too deep into that. I have restored/hot rodded several cars over the years, but now days I buy new ones and drive them - not really interested in that anymore. I like to tinker with my GRAVELY tractor, for which I have invented a number improvements. And I like to build model trains - on my terms. And yes I have very rigid ideas about what works and what I want to accomplish - the whims of the hobby press, or technical inovation have had little influence on that carefully defined set of goals. I have taken advantage of the current trends where it suits me, and ignored them where it does not. But having seen the inner working of the model train and hobby business, I do not complain about the product or its cost - I either buy it or I don't. Then I bend it to my wishes with the skills I am blessed with. Sheldon
I know I am blessed - and I know I have worked hard.
I have a good working knowledge of model airplanes, but never really got too deep into that.
I have restored/hot rodded several cars over the years, but now days I buy new ones and drive them - not really interested in that anymore.
I like to tinker with my GRAVELY tractor, for which I have invented a number improvements.
And I like to build model trains - on my terms. And yes I have very rigid ideas about what works and what I want to accomplish - the whims of the hobby press, or technical inovation have had little influence on that carefully defined set of goals.
I have taken advantage of the current trends where it suits me, and ignored them where it does not.
But having seen the inner working of the model train and hobby business, I do not complain about the product or its cost - I either buy it or I don't. Then I bend it to my wishes with the skills I am blessed with.
Sheldon
ATLANTIC CENTRAL NP2626 Sheldon, after reading your post in my Christmas thread and seeing at what a young age you were introduced to Model Railroading, it is no wonder you have such concrete opinions on what works and what doesn't! My father and mother were never interested in trains and never took part in any layout my brother; or, I ever built. Nor was I ever a member of any real Model Railroading Club in my youth, although a neighbor kid and I did build a layout together. So, everything I learned about building a model railroad was learned in the "School of hard knocks". I'm not complaining, I've enjoyed every minute of time I've spent in the hobby. Your situation is a tad different than most other people. You should feel fortunate for all the great adult advice you received as a youth! Thank you, yes I was very fortunate, I had lots of great teachers, in model trains and in other areas of technical and mechanical knowledge - I owe them all a lot. I guess I turned out like my father, he could build/fix anything - houses, cars, trains...... At age 10-12 he was teaching me to build Silver Streak rolling stock and Mantua loco kits. By age 16 he was teaching me to build houses and rebuild car engines. Successful experiances and good teachers do tend to make one opinionated about what works and what does not - guilty as charged. Another reason I am not a complainer - I know how good my life has been..... Thank you for the kind words. Sheldon
NP2626 Sheldon, after reading your post in my Christmas thread and seeing at what a young age you were introduced to Model Railroading, it is no wonder you have such concrete opinions on what works and what doesn't! My father and mother were never interested in trains and never took part in any layout my brother; or, I ever built. Nor was I ever a member of any real Model Railroading Club in my youth, although a neighbor kid and I did build a layout together. So, everything I learned about building a model railroad was learned in the "School of hard knocks". I'm not complaining, I've enjoyed every minute of time I've spent in the hobby. Your situation is a tad different than most other people. You should feel fortunate for all the great adult advice you received as a youth!
Sheldon, after reading your post in my Christmas thread and seeing at what a young age you were introduced to Model Railroading, it is no wonder you have such concrete opinions on what works and what doesn't! My father and mother were never interested in trains and never took part in any layout my brother; or, I ever built. Nor was I ever a member of any real Model Railroading Club in my youth, although a neighbor kid and I did build a layout together.
So, everything I learned about building a model railroad was learned in the "School of hard knocks". I'm not complaining, I've enjoyed every minute of time I've spent in the hobby.
Your situation is a tad different than most other people. You should feel fortunate for all the great adult advice you received as a youth!
Thank you, yes I was very fortunate, I had lots of great teachers, in model trains and in other areas of technical and mechanical knowledge - I owe them all a lot.
I guess I turned out like my father, he could build/fix anything - houses, cars, trains......
At age 10-12 he was teaching me to build Silver Streak rolling stock and Mantua loco kits.
By age 16 he was teaching me to build houses and rebuild car engines.
Successful experiances and good teachers do tend to make one opinionated about what works and what does not - guilty as charged.
Another reason I am not a complainer - I know how good my life has been.....
Thank you for the kind words.
I guess if you can take "Concrete Thinking" as a complement, then run with it!
We haven't had that different of up bringing. I have not built a house; but, have built furnature and cabinets. I was building flying balsa models at 7-8 years old and been involved in the machine trades for 30 years and owned my own business for 31 years. I was a Truck & Track mechanic when I was in the U.S. ARMY and determined that working on vehicles is not something I wanted to do; although, I was good at it.
Joe, My name is Mark, however, I go by NP2626 here on the MR Forums. Thanks for the commiseration! My complaint is: with a minimum amount of use, an expensive locomotive should be in the best working condition of its life span, not failing early on. Although these locomotives come with very good detail, I like to farther enhance their looks by weathering and adding parts I feel make the thing look better. I am very hesitant to do any of this anymore with the bad experiences I have had with this stuff!
As far as the Climax is concerned, right now I have allowed it to stay on 003, the address the factory gives all DCC locos. I may even change the address permanently to 003, as that is working for right now. If something further goes wrong with it, I will be faced with sending it back to Bachmann, in which case S.O.P. for manufacturers is replacement, not repair and any detailing; or, weathering I’ve done to it, is lost investment!
My entire carrier was involved in manufacturing. I owned a metal stamping and tool and die company and was a tool & die maker. My customers would not have been happy had I produced products that failed like what I’ve seen!
rrebell
Thanks for your suggestions!
I know that clean track and power to the track is not one of my problems. My track work is all good. I have no problem detecting rolling stock; or, locomotives which give me problems, as they show me by having problems. I do run tests on my equipment, maybe not the way you do; but, feel it get's thoroughly tested.
Again, thanks for your suggestions!
OK, how do I keep things running? First I have a lot of drop feeds for power. Next, all trackwork is dead on (I have alot of 18" radius curves too). Next when I accually clean the track I run two diesels connected to two atlas trackcleaning cars, after a few loops I run a CMX clean machine, yes I know I am going overboard but I do this on the main as I am setting up what I want to run. I run DC but could hook up DCC in one min. due to the way I ran my buss line. The way I test engines to run on my layout is I run them full out on the main in both directions a number of times, then very slow the same way. If an engine dosn't make it it is investigated and I have gotten rid of many that I could have fixed but did not want to do that. As for rolling stock I run them a little faster than normal forward a few laps and then backwards but not as fast. The thing that has surprised me the most is a problem I had with an Atlas Platinum caboose that kept derailing, replaced the wheel sets and fixed that, who would have thought that?
ATLANTIC CENTRAL NP2626, Your reply above prompts me to share more "details" about my experiances with "modern high detail plactic/die cast steam locos". NEARLY every steam loco I have, including those I listed above, has required some sort of small tweaking to run its very best - the need for those "tweaks" generally presented itself very early on and thereby I do not consider them "maintenence", nor do I consider them "defects", but rather initial adjustents, that then result in trouble free operation long term.
NP2626,
Your reply above prompts me to share more "details" about my experiances with "modern high detail plactic/die cast steam locos".
NEARLY every steam loco I have, including those I listed above, has required some sort of small tweaking to run its very best - the need for those "tweaks" generally presented itself very early on and thereby I do not consider them "maintenence", nor do I consider them "defects", but rather initial adjustents, that then result in trouble free operation long term.
You can call it what ever you want, in my mind which tends to simplify things, it is still maintenance, maintenance on an expensive item that I feel should have been performed by the manufacturer before bringing the item to market!
ATLANTIC CENTRALI mean no disrespect to the OP or to anyone else with this next comment, but personally, knowing what I know about engineering, I would not run much more than a trolley car around 22" radius, let alone most model steam locos. I consider that an invitation to frustration. 35 years ago, at a young age in this hobby, I quicly learned the value of broad curves, both in appearance and performance. Sheldon
35 years ago, at a young age in this hobby, I quicly learned the value of broad curves, both in appearance and performance.
I can't disagree with you. Were I to start over on a new HO layout, I would design my layout differently on many fronts. 50+ years ago when I first started in the hobby 18 inch curves where the norm. When I got back to the hobby again, in 1988, I brought the old ideas along and I figured 22 inch radius would work well. I have found that my 22 inch curves may not work very well for the BLI Hudson I have and so am interested in selling this one loco. Otherwise my 22 inch radius have been just fine for all my other locomotives. However, larger radius would look far better.
The truth is we must take on a project when we are first beginning, which is likely beyond what we are really capable of doing and that is designing a layout. I was lucky enough to have purchased and read Armstrong's "Track Planing for Realistic Operations" which had lots of great advice. It may even have suggested going with larger curves; however, we are also very limited by not understanding how to best use the space we have available and also very interested in packing as much railroad as we can into the space we have; so, a smaller radius allows this and also becomes very appealing! There were no Internet Model Railroading Forums in 1988, so access to information was much more limited and basically gleaned from the model railroading press.
bogp40Is this a routine maintainance schedule or like described w/ the Climax and Broadway the more complex troubles? Most of my equipment is diesel and aside from periodic lubrication or repairs to broken detail parts they tend to just keep running flawlessly. I guess the same can't be said for most steam as you experience. I run a limited amount of steam power and they see little use.
I'm wondering how many steam loco owners actually have a preventative maintenance schedule that they follow.
Looking at the instructions that come with the Blackstone 2-8-2's, they recommend that all the valve gear linkage get lubricated initially and then after every 25 hours of operation. In addition, they recommend that the gears and motor bearings be checked and relubricated every 50 hours of operation.
The gear/motor bearing check requires removal of the boiler, and loosening the motor from its mounting. While probably not that difficult to do, the boiler removal has its own risks where external detail parts are concerned.
Maybe 25 hours sounds like a lot of operation, but time adds up quickly when a loco is run 8 hours per weekend during open house season.
I'm obviously not a steam guy. I think that all that linkage whirlygigging about is just a problem waiting to eventually happen. (That and the fact that all those wheels have a mind of their own, which doesn't happen to include getting re-railed easily.) Give me a disease-el any day.
Some time back, I posted a thread about many of these adjustments which greatly improve the performance on a number of the Spectrum locos - more weight in tenders, minor drawbar design adjustements, more total weight in some cases, etc.
And the other brands are not exempt - my BLI Reading T-1's needed weight added to the smoke box for better balance and mods to the tender frame for close coupling.
I mean no disrespect to the OP or to anyone else with this next comment, but personally, knowing what I know about engineering, I would not run much more than a trolley car around 22" radius, let alone most model steam locos. I consider that an invitation to frustration.
Sharp curves put lots of stresses on rigid wheel base steam locos that likely have a dramatic increase on wear and reliable operation.
I know most of you on here think I'm nuts, but I don't even like running 80' passenger cars on my 36" curves - they are too sharp.
And I restrict my steam loco purchases to locos with rigid wheel bases of not more than about 20 scale feet for the same reasons.
So no 4-8-4's with 80" drivers, or C&O 2-10-4's, or other extra long rigid wheel base locos.
Wheel base wise the biggest locos I have are the USRA Light 2-10-2 with their small 56" drivers at 21 scale feet and my Reading T-1 4-8-4's at 19.25 scale feet.
These are the biggest rigid locos I consider suitable for 36" radius.
Most of my steam fleet has rigid wheel bases more in the 15 to 18 scale feet range or less. We like articulated steam on the ATLANTIC CENTRAL, and even most of them are nimble stuff like 2-6-6-2's, 2-6-6-6's, 2-6-6-4's - they look better and run better on my "sharp" curves :)
Again, I know you will all tell me how your 2-12-4 runs just fine on your 18" radius - good for you.
I will be one of the first to agree that all this new product is delicate and complex, not rock solid simple like an old Mantua Pacific, but once tuned and tweaked, I'm not having any trouble at all.
And again, a cranky decoder is a cranky decoder, that can happen to any of these locos today, steam or diesel - one reason why I don't have any decoders.
I will admit that my luck with the new highly detailed and expensive steam locomotives is not good. How it is that some of you have not had problems with these locomotives is interesting!
What I do with my rolling stock is the same thing that almost everyone here does and I believe my rolling stock is no more; or, no less prone to maintenance problems than yours is.
I think the fact that this is a public forum, viewed by hundreds of people from around the world keeps you from admitting how much maintenance you need to do, to keep everything running. That's alright, I know the truth as there is absolutely no reason that your maintenance would be any less than mine. Maybe a big difference for me is the fact I used 22 inch radius curves; however, I also used easements to help transition into these curves. I also use small steamers, the largest being a Rivarossi Mike.
Happy Holidays and best wishes for a great new year!
Geared Steam NP2626 I don't remember reprograming the the address to 003, I think I simply gave that address a try and it worked. I am confident it is the Climax and not my Zephyr as I can program, change addresses and do other stuff to my other locos and everything works just fine! If the Climax has sound, it is a Tsnunami decoder, meaning you need to use blast mode programing as we described to you over in the DCC forum. http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/744/t/240304.aspx
NP2626 I don't remember reprograming the the address to 003, I think I simply gave that address a try and it worked. I am confident it is the Climax and not my Zephyr as I can program, change addresses and do other stuff to my other locos and everything works just fine!
I don't remember reprograming the the address to 003, I think I simply gave that address a try and it worked.
I am confident it is the Climax and not my Zephyr as I can program, change addresses and do other stuff to my other locos and everything works just fine!
If the Climax has sound, it is a Tsnunami decoder, meaning you need to use blast mode programing as we described to you over in the DCC forum.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/744/t/240304.aspx
It does not have a sound decoder. It is Bachmann's Spectrum 70 Ton 3 truck Climax that is only DCC equipped.
If I may share my simple thoughts on maintenance.
I use a "as needed" maintenance program and it seems to be working quite well..
The only "maintenance" I've done on the cars I used at the club in the past 7 years was to switch out plastic wheels for metal wheels and give the cars a quick look over before placing them on the layout.Locomotives is inspected,wheels cleaned and oil/lube if needed.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
My situation sounds very much like Bob H's and he makes some very valid points.
Cars accepted for interchange on the big railroads can not have any defects wether safety appliances, unsafe loads or operational problems. I adopt the same policy that no car arrives on the layout unless it has metal, true running wheels and Kadee couplers WITH proper trip pin heights, although I have bent the rule here a bit as the newer Walthers "proto-max" metal coupler is also acceptable, for now.
I have some Atheran BB cars that date from 1971 and even though I have weeded some out over the years there's still about 50 running on the layout.
I don't have an accurate count of my rolling stock roster but freight cars number around 300 and passenger cars total 144. I can't think of any problems other than some of the Broadway Ltd. C-Z cars had some poorly formed wheelsets that BLI sent replacements for.
My locomotive roster is presently at 225. My total maintenance on all of these (save the usual coupler conversions and the L-L cracked gears which is a 15 minute repair) I can recall only 2 cooked Buhler motors on Stewart F units and two bad reed switches on BLI Hudsons (chuff sensors) that took me all of 20 minutes to repair.
I must have good luck with Broadway Engines. I have 45 of them and other than the reed switch I've never had a problem. I did do the QSI upgrade chip on about a dozen engines back a few years ago but that's about it. My original GG1 the first engine BLI ever made has to have hundreds of hours on it. I mean it just runs, and runs, I must have a "thing" for those GG1s, I have ten of 'em
Anyway, steam- diesel- electric, brass- plastic- die cast I must either be choosy or lucky. I had a Bachmann Shay and it ran just fine but it didn't fit my eastern, industrialized layout so I sold it. My only Bachmann stuff is a pair of B&O EM-1s and an Alco S-2 but they both run great.
So, the only real "issues" I've had were the 2 motors from the Stewart F-7s. Stewart/Bowser wanted $35 each for the motors so I found a deal on bare chassis for just a little more on EBay and that's the route I went.
I know all this doesn't help your situation NP but I'm just sayin' there are exceptions to some of the maintenance issues you mention. Just like an automobile, if it gets parked for any length of time, the gremlins creep in!
Good Luck, Ed
NP2626I spent about an hour with the Climax on the programing track. I can get it to run on address 003, the factory setting.
As I understand it you had originally given the Climax an address of 4. Now you have it running on address 3. So somehow you managed to re-program it. I am not expert on such things, but it sounds to me that the issue is somewhere other than with the engine.
I spent about an hour with the Climax on the programing track. I can get it to run on address 003, the factory setting. If I try to program it for any other address, I get d nd in the LED screen on my Digitrax Zephyr, meaning and open circuit on the programing track. I could change the address permanently to 003 and forget it, as I have no other locos on this address and change new locos to another address as soon as I get them. I'm going to outline this problem to both Bachmann and Digitrax and see what they suggest.
NP2626 At this point in time I have 20 locomotives from 12 different manufacturers, most have been converted; or, came from the manufacturer with DCC decoders. I have 137 pieces of rolling stock from probably 30 different manufacturers. I am finding the maintenance of all this equipment to be a daunting task. Those of you with even more locos and rolling stock have to have even more headaches than I do!
At this point in time I have 20 locomotives from 12 different manufacturers, most have been converted; or, came from the manufacturer with DCC decoders. I have 137 pieces of rolling stock from probably 30 different manufacturers.
I am finding the maintenance of all this equipment to be a daunting task. Those of you with even more locos and rolling stock have to have even more headaches than I do!
My solution is to gradually and continually sell off "excess" locos and rolling stock.
It is my impression that most of us have way too much in the way of locos and rolling stock.
NP2626
My basement isn't much better - although I have a large dehudmidifier I have to run in the summer (as I am in Western PA) and I have to hold the humidity level at 70% as that is the level I build the layout in.
When I tried to pull down the humidity to a much lower value - the layout began shrinking and the track developed sun kinks due to the benchwork shrinking.
Rather then relay all 4000 feet of track - I found that just keep the humidity level at 70% and all was well.
While some will have a problem with this - I don't as I know how to work with the conditions I have.
Trying to keep a 2500 sq ft area even in humidity and not spending gobs of money on going to full house climate control works - as it is only a few days out of the year I run into problems.
The biggest thing that helps keep the dust down was the drop ceiling.
BOB H - Clarion, PA