Toy train operating and collecting

With permission of Mr. Bob Keller, he is letting me restart the Coffee Pot.  Now as respect to Mr. Keller and his allowing us some freedoms in our posting and subjects, we need to follow his request from #7. 

Not wanting to lose the experience of my new engines, I have copied and pasted my last post on #7.

Morning.  Slept solid.  8nTruck, it is called reclinerizing [sleep in front of TV].  We had some good rain.  Now to settle down and get some coffee and cook some GRITS.  Haven't had a bowl of grits in a week.  No wonder I have been dragging around.  Will pick you up better than Cherrios or Special K.   Got meeings at 10 and 1 at Town Hall.  Play my cards right and I will get to play with my new NS engines.  Speaking of new NS engines: [I promised this story from an earlier post]

Atlas Dash 8, set to program, powered up, loaded last two numbers on the door, horn blew, killed power, set switch to run and away she went.  Did go back into Legacy and load name, type and etc.  Built lashup in Legacy remote and all runs well. [BTW: no battery in the Atlas] 

MTH AC6000, powered up, in remote, add engine, found engine and it ran.

MTH Dash 9, powered up, in remote, add engine, found engine and it ran.

That was easy.  Went ot build lashup with the two MTH engines.  Could not find engines.  Started over.  Found engines and built lashup.  Started up lash up and only one engine would respond.  Could not find one engine.  Well, battery too weak??  AC6000 had charging port so plugged in charger and charged for 7 hours.  Dash 9 did not have charging port.  Fired it up on a siding, killed sound and smoke and let it idle for 7 hours.  Deleted both engines from remote and the original lashup.  Added both engines back.  Ran both engines independently for 10 minutes each.  Then coupled together.  Went into remote and selected Build lashup, selected MTH lashup.  It went back to Build lashup. ????? Would not go any farther.  After 5 tries it finally let me select the engines and build the lashup.  Ran the engines and they did great.  OOPS, what is this beside the tracks.  The AC6000 threw 3 traction tires out of 4. 

Now you understand why I do not buy MTH engines.  The reason I did is Lionel is not making NS modern engines.  The engines are Premier but do not have the fold down walkways from engine to engine like Lionel and Atlas.  I will say, once they get going, they do sound a lot better than their earlier engines.  The horns sound good now but can only give one blast and have to wait for a few seconds for remote to catch up before blowing again.  They do smoke good but too much smoke from a diesel is not right. 

Have a great day.

Good morning (if this is the right one for today)

Sunny and nice, maybe grass cutting after errands.

Chief, I too would like some of MTH engines if they would get rid of that stupid battery. All I have run with BCRs. But this way they have saved me a wheelbarrel full of money by me not  buying them anymore.

Enjoy your day...S.J.

okay now this looks like the correct starter of the coffee pot. ( nothin personal Bob but chief has always started it.)

Well had a little disapointing day yesterday but turned out not as bad as I thought. The Vet I gave the n scale train set to told me somebody must of bump the table ( a hospital tray table with the 2'x3' train table on top of that) and the engine fell and hit the floor( from about 3 1/2') now were talking something you have to treat very delicate as there so small well it ended up in about 20 pieces ( didn't know till then but the shell for  the GP-9 is 3 pieces not one like were use to lol) any way I have it back together but need to test run it ( took using tweasers and small needle nose plyers lol)

as stated in my last post the begining of my up lift yesterday was Lionle sending a part free of charge including shipping to my SD-80 MAC that broke somehow. ( I honestly don't remeber the box or the engine ever hitting the floor or anything like that but as  I told the tech things like that happen and the engine was 3 years old)

well off today and tomorrow as this is my weekend this week lol

hope all doing fine will talk later need to dig up a dc transformer to check this n scale engine out.

sir james I:

Chief, I too would like some of MTH engines if they would get rid of that stupid battery. All I have run with BCRs. But this way they have saved me a wheelbarrel full of money by me not  buying them anymore.

I would concider them also if Lionel and MTH would get together and come up with one opperating system that be compatible with each other completely. other wise I might as well buy a williams at this point as a MTH. I think they have some nice looking engines and sets but the way it is  I don't want to spend the money just to be able to run it in conventional mode

Morning all. Sunny and pleasant today - still wore a coat - I'll probably  not trust the weather - especially on my long day with class tonight - until June .

I sure enjoy this chance to share a cuppa with you - whatever this thread is named.

The parking machine ate $1.50 this morn and just blinked at me. Never had this problem when it was just a slotted box. Then I missed my train trying to pay again. 'least I made it. Hope to go to up to the Museum of Contemporary Art later - they have a neat exhibit on Buckminster Fuller - supposedly featuring drawings of a streamlined train design I've never heard of.

Chief and RT, Lionel, MTH, Williams (and Marx!) engines all seem to run perfectly on my conventionally-powered layout

Kurt, Susie-Q car is still on the interchange track.

Morning all!

Chief:  Just send the shells out and have them pained NS!  You'll break even, and save some precious hair in the process.

Quiet day (I hope) Bride finished work at 4:30am...been keeping all sorts of strange hours...and comes to bed and turns on all the lights...Oh you're up!...then she wants to talk.

Kurt

Good Morning from Blueberryhill....

It is a cloudy 60 degrees. Going up to 72. today, with maybe some sunshine.

Today is a busy day. I have a bunch of errands to run and some chores around the house. Gas prices have stayed at $2.00 a gallon. Why ? I don't know. The food prices in this area have continued to rise. We need more coupons.

Dining car was here for the usual breakfast.

Y'all have a great Tuesday.

Chuck

Doug M.--

There is some talk about a high speed Amtrak route from DM to Chicago, that would FANTASTIC   The President has it in the plans and our Governor comitted a whole $3 million to it, that might go a mile, maybe?  High speed rail from DM to Chicago or MPLS would be a dream come true for me, but I doubt that I'll see it in my lifetime.  To be honest I just don't think we have the population base to make it work.  Funny though, in my Dad's lifetime (born in 1907) there was passenger train service all over the state and it worked, all we have now is Amtrak in southern IA that goes from Chicago to CA once a day and that's it.  Comes through Osceola at 8:07 AM on it's way to Chicago and goes to CA at 8:00 PM at night, that mainline is also a HUGE freight line.

 Sure fun to think about it 

 Good Morning,

Welcome to the new pot.  The coffee is better, did someone put some cinamon in it?  Started this one little 20 minute project that has kinda gotten out of control.

Started simply cleaning a flower bed, trimmed a Bird of Paradise back a little.  Kay suggested cutting some more, the OH, Let's just take it out.  OK, done, (know this is the begining).  Took that one out, then "Might as well get rid of the other one".  The ground cover looks strange with those two holes in it. Remove that too!  Then I thought I had her, "Can't remove that, I don't have any room in the trash, the Green can is full, and they won't take more than what it will hold."  Thought I won, NOPE !  "Oh, didn't I tell you, I called them and mentioned we might have more than the Green can can hold, and they said we could leave up to 8 bags and they will take it.  So out came all the ground cover.

 Now, its lets make the bed smaller, all we need todo is remove all the used brick, dig out a little dirt, eliminate the mow edge, then replace the brick, paint the wall behind the bed, redo the wrought iron stuff, and paint that.  And then plant a couple of shrubs.  (Now I KNOW this isn't going to end there, I see a new yard on the horizon.

Chief,  Sorry to hear about all the issues, batteries are definetly a curse, but easily resolved.  And you may still have problems with them, you might have to replace them.  (Miss Edna should have them for about $7).  Not knowing how old the engine is and how often they were charged can make a difference.  Regarding the tires, use fishing lline to aid in the replacement, makes it a LOT easier.  Also, waiting to hear about the Bullfrog Snot, as a replacement for tires.  Thought it might have been at York.  Waiting to hear of some results.

Hope everyone has a great day!!!

 Cnw1995 ... my bro-in-law also only runs all conventional and never has all the hair pulling ... he keeps telling me I'll never keep up with all the electronics and advancements in control systems/sounds .  After reading Chief's nightmares ... I'd probably have to pop blood pressure pills like M&M's ... LOL . I'm seriously debateing going towards all detailing and kitbashing with collecting engines and cars ... maybe brass as he does .... and put the fun back without the frustration .   Got lucky to be accepted on one of the premiere sites this morning as a member ... man it was harder than one thinks ! I'm an old man but I feel like a kindergarten kid compared to these guys .... .... man do I have a lot to learn ... but can't wait .... and they are eager to teach me .

 Don ... bullfrog snot ? Is that for real ... or did you get me good ??????

Jon, I think we'll see a further upgrade to the Chicago - St Louis route first.
Don, I think of you every time the media talk about Amtrak running to Rockford again - then on to Iowa... it's allegedly in plans but unfunded - using the old RI or C&NW line. Wow, you really have a Bird of Paradise flower growing in the ground - have never seen them outside a conservatory.
RT, don't get me wrong, I love the idea of 'command control' - I'll probably wait for RC-battery-controlled trains

ole timer its a green substance that the n and ho guys use for traction. see there web site http://www.bullfrogsnot.com/pages/How_to.html

Mornin' all!

Sorry to see we had to start a new pot, but c'est la vie.  Perhaps if we stick to foreign languages.....

Well, Tyler got his last Polar Express car this weekend (late birthday present from my parents - late because I couldn't find it online), the Disappearing Hobo Car, and we hooked it all together last night and spent some time running the trains.  We also had to put on the two new cars that he and Corey got at the train store this weekend.  Fortunately, I was able to rearrange the platforms for my viaduct so that I can actually run a second train on them without the bridges. (And, yes, I purposely built them so that I could do just that.  There is a method to my madness!) I'll have to snap a picture of the setup to show you guys.

cnw1995:

RT, don't get me wrong, I love the idea of 'command control' - I'll probably wait for RC-battery-controlled trains

Doug I'm not sure I want to stay with command controll I've had my problems ( ie the powermaster that you use for conventional control I have lost 2 of them so far because a engine jumped the track.) I have one transformer that the breaker won't trip and not sure which as there identical being there both 135w bricks. well as stated earlier time to go look for the dc transformer so can try out this n scale engine to see if it works.

Old Timer, command is not that bad.  If those engines were new and straight from manufacturer, no battery problems.  With a little patience and very few "Sunday School" words, it will work out.  Once I got those engines working right, lots of fun.  Things that are not worth a little effort are not worth having at all.