11-29-2010, 01:14 PM
Progress has been slow (as usual). Have been doing a little switching, but haven't felt up to working on the layout lately - been too dang tired at the end of the day and on weekends.
Hopefully things will slow down a bit at work and with housing coop business soon, with the full onset of winter, so I will get home earlier and be less tired in the evenings.
Weighing down the front of the Consolidation tender did help fix the derailing issues. Still need to do something about power pickup on the rear tender wheels. Or possibly get off my butt and do the ground throws and powering the frogs properly - in retrospect, I probably should have gone for the insulfrog turnouts. A lesson learned for a later layout some day.
My old MRC Prodigy (not advance - just the plain old Prodigy) DCC command station seems to be acting up - pressing the "forward" button doesn't always result in the engine(s - have tried three different ones) picking up that a forward command has been given. Works sometime, but not always. Doesn't seem like a consistent error. If I reset power on the DCC command station, it tends to start up again with engines going forward. Have opened up the throttle to look for dirt, loose wires or poor connectivity, but can't see anything obvious - could be inside the little push button, I guess.
Probably about time to retire the old command station anyways - it has always had an annoying tendency to not catch it when I switch to another engine on the selector, so the wrong engine takes off as I turn the throttle knob. Probably time to invest in an NCE Power Cab or something like that - looks like a sensible user interface. Have hinted strongly to the wife about what I would like for Xmas :-)
Also broke down and took the next step down the slippery slope - ordered a sound equipped engine - a BLI Paragon2 NW2, found one painted in Great Northern colors at MB Klein at a somewhat acceptable price. Should be here in about two weeks time or so - might make a nice Xmas present - I know my youngest kid (and I) will go slightly ape over a sound equipped engine :-)
Managed to resist the temptation of ordering another dozen boxcars. I still have a couple of kits I should build first.
Hopefully I will be able to report before Christmastime that I am moving again on the layout.
Smile,
Stein
Hopefully things will slow down a bit at work and with housing coop business soon, with the full onset of winter, so I will get home earlier and be less tired in the evenings.
Weighing down the front of the Consolidation tender did help fix the derailing issues. Still need to do something about power pickup on the rear tender wheels. Or possibly get off my butt and do the ground throws and powering the frogs properly - in retrospect, I probably should have gone for the insulfrog turnouts. A lesson learned for a later layout some day.
My old MRC Prodigy (not advance - just the plain old Prodigy) DCC command station seems to be acting up - pressing the "forward" button doesn't always result in the engine(s - have tried three different ones) picking up that a forward command has been given. Works sometime, but not always. Doesn't seem like a consistent error. If I reset power on the DCC command station, it tends to start up again with engines going forward. Have opened up the throttle to look for dirt, loose wires or poor connectivity, but can't see anything obvious - could be inside the little push button, I guess.
Probably about time to retire the old command station anyways - it has always had an annoying tendency to not catch it when I switch to another engine on the selector, so the wrong engine takes off as I turn the throttle knob. Probably time to invest in an NCE Power Cab or something like that - looks like a sensible user interface. Have hinted strongly to the wife about what I would like for Xmas :-)
Also broke down and took the next step down the slippery slope - ordered a sound equipped engine - a BLI Paragon2 NW2, found one painted in Great Northern colors at MB Klein at a somewhat acceptable price. Should be here in about two weeks time or so - might make a nice Xmas present - I know my youngest kid (and I) will go slightly ape over a sound equipped engine :-)
Managed to resist the temptation of ordering another dozen boxcars. I still have a couple of kits I should build first.
Hopefully I will be able to report before Christmastime that I am moving again on the layout.
Smile,
Stein