DCC'ing

I have four Digitrax decoders.

I put one into a Minitrix K4. It doesn't work. I open it up and find the black wire has somehow gotten cut and is touching the gray wire. D'oh!!!

I have three Digitrax decoders.

I install one in a Minitrix K4. It doesn't work. I open it up and can find nothing wrong. I remove it and the locomotive still doesn't work. I clean the motor brushes and now it works. I give up on this Minitrix K4.

I may have three Digitrax decoders.

I install the suspect one into a Bachmann Spectrum N&W J class. It works. I am happy.

I have two Digitrax decoders and a locomotive with DCC.

I install one into a different Minitrix K4. It works. I am happy. I also now have four Pennsylvania Railroad locomotives with DCC; two Bachmann GP7's with factory decoders, one Model Power Mikado that I got the bugs worked out of last weekend, and the K4.

I have one Digitrax decoder...

T-TRAK: The Adventure Begins

I don't remember if I mentioned that I have recently joined the North Raleigh Model Railroad Club. Just this past weekend I attended the Great Train Show at the Raleigh fairgrounds with the club and had an opportunity to debug and run the Model Power Mikado that I had put the DCC decoder in.

Apparently somewhere along the line I had reversed a wheelset, but since the Model Power inexplicably uses axle wipers for pickup power instead of the 4 wheel pickups that are found in the Bachmann Spectrums and Kato Mikados the connectivity was so horrendous that I didn't notice it. This made the loco stall in various spots around the layout and when I cleaned the wheelsets and axle wipers it caused a dead short on the track.

Some quick investigation with a multimeter and the offending wheelset was found and reversed, and the Mikado happily pulled a coal drag around the mountain track all day Saturday. I was hoping to get a decoder put into one of the K4 Pacifics but alas it was not to be, I don't know what is going on with that loco but it is pretty annoying...kind of like the SD7.

At any rate, running on the club layout really gives the locos a chance to stretch out and show their stuff, something they really can't do on the cramped setup I have at home. Unfortunately I really don't have the room here to build N-TRAK modules, but thankfully there is an alternative...T-TRAK!

My plans are to build some T-TRAK modules for show and also maybe for use at home since they are small enough to sit on a table when they are in use and don't take up much storage space when they are not. But of course, me being the glutton for punishment I am, I insist on putting Nn3 on my modules, which as far as I can tell has not been done before.

My intentions are to use Rokuhan Z scale roadbed track 220mm curves at 38mm (1.5 inches) elevation. This puts my Nn3 trackage a little over an inch and a half from the standard gauge and high enough that I can run a spur of standard gauge underneath the narrow gauge if I want to, as long as I don't use tall cars on the spur.

Rokuhan does not have sectional track in the proper lengths to make multiples of 310mm, but fortunately they do have flextrack. This comes in 330mm lengths, so a single piece of flextrack will suffice for each module. I'm planning on soldering the feeders to the track so connections shouldn't be an issue either.

I'm not a big fan of the toylike looks of the Rokuhan turnouts but I'm not planning on having any on these first six modules anyway, and when I do there is always FastTracks. I have several of those to use so I won't have to build any more right away, either. I'm also not a fan of their method of putting power to the track, so I'll be soldering feeders to the rail joiners on the corner modules.

So far I have all the track I need, both the Kato Unitrack and Rokuhan, and I have just ordered all the connectors that will be required. Next is to get the lumber and foam and start building.

Maybe I'll even be able to get this project done.

Sigh

I tried to put a decoder in a K4 last night.

I failed miserably.

One of these days I'll be able to do this without all this bother...I hope.

Pilot Program

One of the biggest visual eyesores of the Minitrix K4, in my opinion, is the pilot.

I like the looks of the pre-war pilot, that's not it. It's just the way that it is attached to the front of the locomotive shell instead of being free floating. To attach it there is a fair amount of structure that was not present on the prototype.

I took a look at it to see what I could do about it, and I came up with two different ways to reduce this visual aberration. The first way is to detach the pilot from the shell and attach it to the frame, unfortunately this is not easy to do. The second way is to carve away as much of the offending structure as possible while still leaving the pilot attached to the shell.

The pilot that was left attached got all of the plastic between the steps trimmed out, as well as all of the structure around the sides. A piece of plastic was then added to the bottom of the smokebox to prevent light from the headlight leaking out and illuminating the pilot truck. I need to paint the frame that is now exposed but I think it looks a lot better.

The second method was to cut the pilot from the shell and then attach it to the frame. To do this I sanded off all of the top step and then put new top steps on, attaching the backs of the steps to the frame. It's not the best looking way to do it, the pilot is farther forward than the other locomotive, but it does look better than the way it came from the factory.

The biggest problem with the second method is now I can't swap another shell onto the chassis unless I detach the pilot again. Another problem is the cylinders are not the right size or style because the chassis is of European design and was used for the K4 because it was close enough.

I wish I was good at 3D design, I'd come up with a better solution and make it in Shapeways. Both ways look better than the original at any rate. It should do until I can afford the Bachmann locomotives I guess.