Below a first impression/review of my first use of a TCS WOWsound decoder.

I recently completed a Lifelike SD9, in which I installed a Wowsound diesel decoder (bought mine from Coastal DCC in the UK), my version had keep alive attached, as a longer loco like this has more space.
The irony is that small locos benefit the most of it, but they haven't got the space, but that's life..

Back to the Wowsound. After installation, I did my usual thing, set the loco on a programming track and fired up Decoder pro, to do some of the set up. It turns out that is not the best thing to do, as the decoder definitions available are not yet completely bug free, and struggle a bit with all the indexed CV's that this (and other) decoders use.
I ended up messing the decoder up a bit and it didn't respond as I wanted it to, so I performed a factory reset. I then used my DCC system (Lenz) in programming track mode and programmed the basic settings in the loco, such as it's address.

I then proceeded to try and set up the rest using the audio assist function. I have to say, listen carefully and it all makes sense. It is very, very easy to do and very powerful.
Using this, I was able to assign the desired combination of function button, output wire, lighting effect , and conditions (fwd, rev, both directions active) etc.
I then followed the instructions to calibrate the locomotive for prototype operations. This is an easy two step process too.

The powerful thing is that you can toggle the function buttons to perform different tasks, they are divided in light mode and sound mode.
Lets say the decoder is in light mode, pressing F2 would activate a roof beacon if that's what you have programmed it to do. A double press on F8 will toggle it to sound mode, and then F2 will operate the bell for example. (The toggling does default give you audible feedback on which mode you select, but turns out this can be disabled, and I prefer that. Leaving this on initially, is probably good until you get used to the way it works).
This is useful for throttles that have a limited amount of function buttons available, and/or saves you trying to scroll down to higher number functions.


In prototype mode, the loco behaves more like the real thing. Leaving the controls in light mode therefore will mean that when you increase the throttle , nothing happens..
Why not? That's because you haven't released the brakes, and they are tied in with a sound effect, which in turn is in sound mode..

So switch to sound mode, press F6, hear the brake release hiss and presto the engine revs up and smoothly departs to the speed you have set. The Engine Notches will respond to the load, so a light engine, will not rev up as high and as long as when it is trying to move a long heavy train. Very nice!

The sound files in the decoder are of very good quality, and at least on a par with the newest loksound files. Very clear, very realistic.

Is there something negative to report? Depends.

I am not a fan of 'directional lighting'. I want independent control of my lights. (when switching in the yard, I want both lights to be able to turn on, no matter which direction I travel). With the exception of the white and yellow output wires , all is free programmable, but these are default set for front and rear lights, which are activated by pressing F0.
However there is a work around. I connected my headlight to the white wire , activated by F0, but was able to set that effect for 'BOTH directions'. I then did not use the yellow output (as it would have worked at the same time as far as I can figure out at this time), so I used the next (GREEN) wire for the rear light. I gave that the constant bright light effect too, for both directions, and assigned to F1, with F2 assigned to purple for my roof beacon.
It means that I've lost one output wire, but with the decoder having 8 function output wires, I don't miss it, I still have spare capacity.


What remains to be seen is how well I would be able to speed match this loco through it's speed range with other decoders, but that would also mean switching it to 'traditional' throttle mode, which makes the decoder respond like any other decoder, turn up the throttle, the loco moves, turn it down it stops.
In prototype mode, as mentioned above, it works like the real thing, with throttle (engine notches depending on load) doing the speed, but only when the brakes are released. Switching the throttle to 0 means the loco keeps on going, very slowly losing speed, but it doesn't really begin to decellerate until you apply brakes, and how much brake force you apply. One press is 20% braking, and subsequent presses increases it by 20% until it comes to a hold.
Dynamic brakes (if the loco has these set up, on by default) also work, the engine can be heard reving up, as is the dynamic brake fan, and the engine slows down too. But be careful. Releasing it without turning the throttle down means the engine will speed up again.

All in all, it brings a new dimension to operating your loco, and one I wholeheartedly recommend you try out for at least one of your locomotives.

Koos

Hello,

as some of you may have read in my other thread, I am planning to build an N scale switching layout.
Theme is the modern BNSF in an Illinois located industrial district.
But the layout should be usable as a part of a branch- or maybe mainline, too.
Especially the left and the upper leg.
The lower left to lower right area will be staging only.
I would like to build it some kinda prototypical and I am now asking myself, if there have to be RR signals.
I´m not very experienced with signals and I´d like to know which signals should be placed where on the layout.
Attached, you find a sketch of the track plan and I´m looking forward to any advice you guys can give.

Regards

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As most of you know by now, last weekend we had a major blowup of our forum software and Packey, our webmaster, had to reload the software and the database. He had a lot of problems getting things to work after that, but with perseverance and long hours, he managed to restore everything but our archive of photos. So, just so you all know, here is where we are right now. There are some 23,000 photos that have been posted here since we opened in Dec 2008, we've always encouraged people to post photos, what good is a model train forum if we can't see what everyone is doing, or get some exciting prototype shots to look at? Those photos still exist in our database, but for some reason, the phpBB forum software that we use just doesn't want to access them. All these photos are in a directory on our server. New photos go in the same directory. We can see no difference between the old and new ones, yet the new ones show, but the old ones don't and we are not sure why. We have reinstalled this photo database with one we know had worked in the past, it is a bit outdated, but better than nothing, but it won't work either.

The bottom line is that we have not lost all these photos, they are in our database, we just can't access them for now. We're not sure if we will ever be able to, but we will not stop trying to find a way. There may be some hidden key or piece of code we need to add, and all will be well again. In the meantime, new photo uploads do appear as normal, so do not hesitate to attach new photos to your posts. Also, any links to off-site photo storage like Photobuckets are still alive. We are implementing a different method of automatically doing our backups so that we don't have to rely on uploading a new version of the software along with a database that had been downloaded at some point in time. Storage will also go to the cloud in the event that our server goes awry as well. In the even that something gets corrupt, we will be able to restore it with much later data.

The basic cause of all this was with a recent updated version of our software not working right and taking us down, and it's hard to protect our data against things like that. We stand a better chance of a full recovery when things are stored off site and in the cloud. We are all upset about this, but it is what it is and we will do our best to get back what we can. No guarantees, but we will try our best.

The MRR Club I belonged to started about 2000 and was modular in style . When I got there in about '03 , the 2' X 4' modules featured 3 main line tracks which didn't offer much room for scenery and was , frankly , pretty boring . There was talk about going to Free-Mo style but the head honchos ended up with plans for a permanent layout . The area we rented was the large furnace room of an industrial building ( first pharmaceuticals and then it was a market ). Rent was cheap because there was much cleanup to be done as well as painting the walls . It became livable .

A large permanent layout design was made ...about 500 running feet , single main line with several branches . Committees were established , basic construction , track laying , scenery and structures etc. The first two tasks were done over about 2 years , hand laid track , hand made turnouts etc......all nicely done . I was out of town with work at this point but came back in time for the scenery and structures part of it . Little had been done about that so I dove into it with the help of about 4 or 5 others and away we went . Within about 18 months we had much of it looking good . I had to leave again for a couple of years and nobody carried on with the rest of the scenery but that's how it can go in a club ...32 guys and maybe 10 do any of the necessary work .

I was just notified the other day that the building has been sold and the new owner wants the furnace room cleared out by Dec 31 . So I went down to snap a few pics for memories . The clean out will be huge and all scenery will be destroyed because nothing was designed to come apart . I guess the head honchos of the club thought it would be there forever . Pretty sad !








Looks like I'll have to reduce the size of all the pics I wanted to post ...may take a while !

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I have written already that I would like to create a small Xtra-train for pulling my "Thick and large pressure tank" - see here this thread.
And so looks my idea using my little Norfolk & Western G1 consolidation as motive power for this train.



The only thing what I must do was to digitalize this loco and doing some small repairs and additions, of course.
The loco was modified by a pre-owner some years ago and he replaced the motor and changed also the gear by adding a second tooth-wheel for reaching an enlarged gear-ratio and so a well reduced speed. In result the models runs with an excellent slow speed and very, very smooth.
The biggest problem was the method of fixing all the changed and removed parts, motor, shaft for worm wheel and also axle bearings - they all are fixed now by an epoxy resin and they are not removable!


You can see the fixed axle bearings here in picture and so I had a problem, a big problem.
First run attempts with full 8-wheel power pickup on tender was not a really good success, so that I must add power feeders to insulated wheel rims on locomotive (like also the mass-side of wheels about frame). Because I do not prefer to mount long pickup wire feeders under the loco frame which are looking as spider legs, so I would add feeders inside of frame with a slight contact on insulated wheel rims on all four drivers. And that all with non-dismounted drivers!
Here is my solution:



I did set thick brass sheets on axle bearings between frame and wheels and so I could mill holes and cutouts with a high-speed cutter from a dental laboratory into side walls of frame without problems.





Above the feeder bolts (only one is inserted) and how the insulated plastic blocks are mounted in frame.
And last the complete mounted frame ...



... without spider legs!
Next picture shows a welcome spillover effect -



The brass loco runs without its tender because it has a complete own power pickup from all eight driver wheels. I think that that will be a good solution in case of repairs or services for engine.
Now the loco has made their first test runs and it runs very well, digitalized. See the opening picture above.
What I will do yet, maybe, is to add a cam wheel and contact wiper for better chuff synchronisation to exact position of crankpins. However the answer will give me the next runs of this model on a larger layout in three weeks, where I will like to shoot a few more pictures and I hope to make a short video clip also. And then I will like to post them here again. But what I must do is to re-letter and re-number the loco and the fat tank as the car must get paint and lettering. And I'm sure that I can get the support of my friend who has painted already a lot of my medels.

For viewing my complete picture gallery especially with a lot of prototype photos including a large drawing of this engine please open here the gallery of this project on my website - with picture texts in English. A gallery with texts in German does also exist - click here, please.

Maybe that I could give you an idea for mounting power feeders under a bit more complicated requirements? I would be pleased if it will help you for your own projects.

in many posts I don't see any pictures nor links to pics. All I see is an unclickable filename:

PictureName.jpg
PictureName.jpg (16.02 KiB) Viewed 177 times

Am I missing something?

I uploaded a picture this morning but it does not appear in the post. (I use the upload attachment option) I am guessing it is a left over glitch from yesterday. I am glad Blue is back hanks to all that made it possible.
Charlie

For those of you that tried to log on here the past 20 or so hours and couldn't, we apologize. :oops: We had a rather large hiccup and Packey wound up rebuilding the forum and the database. He could not update the software, so things are just as they were last night about this time. We are sorry, and even more so since Packey had worked the night through and most of the day. It seems as if we have an extraordinarily large database, and uploading it takes a bit more time than we'd like, especially when you get errors and have to start over again.

Anyway, we're back up and we haven't lost any data. We still plan on shutting down for a short time next Friday night when we plan on adding the Chat Room and Taptalk, but that should go a lot smoother than this. Our thanks and admiration goes the Packey for sticking with this as long as he did. I might also mention that in the process, he also lost his Flatt Bear cartoon site since it is on the same server as Big Blue, and had to rebuild that as well.

All is well now, and thank you Packey for a job well done getting us out of this mess as unscathed as you did....

While waiting for my subway train to take me to work, what do I find but an elusive South Brooklyn Railway GE 47 ton locomotive (number N1) pulling what appears to be a blower on a flat car.

   

   

   

   

So I'm planning a trip to Denver in June and am looking for railroady places to visit near the city. The Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden is already on the itinerary, and Caboose Hobbies seems like an easy stop with the light rail nearby. Any other recommendations from Gaugers?