QUOTE: Originally posted by KKEIFE Thanks everybody for your help. Now I just need to finish laying the rest of the track and install 13 tortoise switch machines. I've never installed switch machines before so I think that is my last hurdle to clear as far as completing something I'm not real confident in. Again, thanks for the help. You guys on this forum have been great in answering questions I've had in the past and this time was no exception. Ken
QUOTE: Originally posted by dinwitty DCC is technically AC on the tracks, perhaps a higher frequency than AC, it carries the power as well as using the AC (digital signals) as information to the decoder.
QUOTE: You can really have only ONE non DCC loco on the tracks but the motor is getting ALL the current as if it was running on DC all the time.
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Simon Modelling CB&Q and Wabash See my slowly evolving layout on my picturetrail site http://www.picturetrail.com/simontrains and our videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCrispybake?feature=mhum
Joe Fugate Modeling the 1980s SP Siskiyou Line in southern Oregon
QUOTE: Originally posted by tomikawaTT When I got my first Lionel, I ran it at speeds that wouldn't be described in Mach numbers until a decade later.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=5959
If one could roll back the hands of time... They would be waiting for the next train into the future. A. H. Francey 1921-2007
QUOTE: Originally posted by KKEIFE I have spent the last two years preparing a train room, building the benchwork, developing a track plan, laying the roadbed and finally completing the track work and wiring on the outer mainline loop on my 7.5' x 11' HO scale layout last night. I turned on the Digitrax Zephyr and put my first bought loco (P2K GP7) on it and ran it in analog mode. Things seemsed fine when I heard the whine of the engine but when I turn the throttle knob up the loco ran like it was in slow motion. I had the knob tuned up to full power and the engine slowly moved around about 35 feet of track. It seemed to pick up a liitle speed after a while but even my wife thought it was too slow. I bright boyed the top and inner parts of the rail and it did not help. I have an outer loop that is about 35-40 feet of track that has 7 sets of 22 AWG feeder wires coming off a 14 AWG bus. I bought the loco off E-Bay. It is brand new (the seller had sold a lot of model RR stuff and had almost a 100% postiive feedback rating). I don't expect the speed to improve when I install the decoder tonight (at least thats what the Digitrax manual says). Now it's been probably 40 some years since I was at the controls of a model RR and that was a Lionel O guage train. Are these HO engines really suppose to crawl along pretty slowly. If not, does anyone have any ideas on what I should try to do to increase the speed.