The Brute Gets Her Voice Back

 This time the ESU sound decoder installation went perfectly. Instead of sending the old one back in right away, John opted to buy a brand new one and have the sound profile loaded into it. I bought a new speaker just to be on the safe side, and when the decoder went in it worked perfectly and sounded great.

Reducing the flanges did make for some problems on my tight radius layout while trying to program it, though. When the loco goes into a curve it tends to derail the idler (un-powered inner) wheel set on the rear truck, and in a left hand curve the wheel touches the truck frame and shorts out. The wheels derail in a right hand curve, too, but they don't short out. This was not a problem with the plastic wheels, of course.

I didn't notice this problem on the large radius NTRAK layout at NRV, but when I tried to run it on Kato Unitrack 348 radius curves when programming the speed it jumped and shorted at speeds greater than about 45 smph. That means it will probably do the same on the 315mm radius T-TRAK curves. I really hope we won't have to reinstall the plastic wheels because the metal ones just look so much better. I may end up having to reduce the truck frames on that side of the loco to prevent the problem, or maybe I can cut a disk of very thin styrene to put on the insides of the wheels.

But that is an issue for another day.

The Brute Gets It's Voice Ba...oops...

I took possession of the Brute last weekend to re-install it's sound decoder.

But first, I installed the newly turned-down wheelsets and ran it around the NTRAK layout at the NRV show that I was telling you about in my last post. It ran pretty good, but in one corner it was hanging up at the junction between modules. The corner module was off level by just enough to cause a hump between it and the next module, and the Brute being as long as it is would high-center on that hump.

After the show ended on Saturday one of the other club members and I leveled that corner out, and Sunday she ran all day at the head of a string of Tropicana reefer cars. Not quite 560 of them, though, so she didn't even break a sweat.

After the show she came home with me, and Monday morning she went on the bench. Everything went swimmingly until I put it on the track to test it out. It sounded horrible! The volume was way too low and when I turned the volume up to full everything was garbled. When I pulled up on the speaker to check the connections, one of them shorted against the frame, and now the decoder is dead again.

I am tempted to say this was the problem all along, especially since I have looked everything over and I can't see any way that suspect weight could have moved forward enough to touch the motor leads. I am reliably informed that this happened in Altoona though, so I guess that was a problem. The center weight over the motor had been removed when the Digitrax decoder was installed, so that may have allowed just enough movement to let it happen.

At any rate, the DZ126 is back in place, the motor leads have been insulated with some shrink tubing, the weight over the motor has been reinstalled, and the Brute is back to silent running. I have so informed Mr. President, and instead of sending the re-fried decoder back to ESU he is just going to procure a new one, along with a new speaker.

I did manage to get the rear handrail stanchions replaced, though. When I put them on originally I had installed them with super glue, and when I got the loco on Saturday I found that three of the four of them were missing. So, when I was done with the decoders, I cut three replacement stanchions off of the Gold Medal Models fret and installed them. 

I soldered them in this time, including the one that had managed to stay on. It's the first time I have ever soldered brass locomotive parts together, and it came out looking pretty good. I'm pretty sure they are on there to stay now. I'll try my hand at soldering brass Nn3 cabs next.

At least that went right.

Motive Po...oh...never mind.

 I bought a couple of the brand-new Atlas Classic Silver Series SD9 locos, undecorated, in the hopes that I could put my Life Like Burlington SD7/9 shells on them. I got the silver series because I really didn't want sound, but this newest release comes with speakers already installed just in case you change your mind.

The good news is I was able to mill the inside of the Life Like shells to fit the chassis. The bad news is the chassis are back in their boxes ready to go back to Atlas.

So what was wrong with them, you might ask? Did they run poorly? No, not at all, they were smooth and quiet and the performance was superb. I was a bit surprised to see the trucks are wired rather than having the normal brass contact strips, but it seems to work well.

The problem is in the decoder boards.

For some reason Atlas has decided that the new SD7/9 should use the E24 connector. This is a brand new proprietary connector from ESU, meaning that only ESU is using it, and as far as I can determine it is only being used on one, and only one, of their decoders, the LokSound 58925.

I have no particular problems with ESU LokSound decoders, other than having to have special equipment to program them with their sound "projects" because they do not come pre-loaded (most dealers can do this for you), but I specifically bought the silver series because I didn't want sound. Unfortunately, with this locomotive, your choices are either DCC with sound using this particular ESU decoder or DC.

Swapping the entire interconnection board isn't an option either, partially because of the aforementioned hard-wired trucks and partially because the board is held to the chassis with screws. This means you either have to remove the light board altogether and replace it with a mash-up of a wired decoder and lights, or you go with the LokSound decoder. 

Either way there is no benefits from using the new chassis when there are still plenty of the older ones out there that will serve the purpose. I was able to mill the LifeLike shells enough to fit, but not well, on older Atlas/Kato SD7's, but it is my understanding that the China made chassis are a bit narrower, which is why I wanted to go that route. 

I'm sure that someone out there is buying the Gold chassis to fit older shells, so perhaps I can find some China made non-sound DCC ready chassis to use instead. But I digress.

To say I am disappointed with the new Atlas SD7/9 is a gross understatement. I don't know who the genius was at Atlas that thought it was a good idea to limit the decoder selection like this, but that decision puts them on par with the Bachmann GP7s and their crappy crippled Lenz decoders at twice the price.

If this is their new design paradigm, I certainly won't be buying any more new locomotives from Atlas.

Cotton Brute: The Saga Continues

 While in Altoona the Brute once again started acting up. The problem was traced to the weight just behind the motor, it was shifting forward just enough to short out against the motor contacts. This is no doubt what let the magic smoke out of the ESU sound decoder, but the Digitrax decoder was robust enough that when the source of the short was removed it came back to life.

The offending weight has been Kapton taped and the motor leads have been filed/bent to prevent further contact. When the ESU decoder comes back from being repaired it will be reinstalled, and I don't expect to have any more issues out of it.

The next request was to have the wheel flanges turned down to allow the loco to run on Atlas code 55 track. The idea is to enable it to run on Free-moN modules. To that end a set of wheels was removed from one of the four donor locomotives that the PVRR shops has on hand, and the flanges were turned down by chucking them in a hand drill and applying a file to them until they were reduced to .022". The Atlas code 55 track needs .035" clearance, so this will work just fine.

As an added bonus the loco should be able to run on hand-laid code 40 track as well. That is important because the planned Path Valley rebuild will include dual gauge code 40 turnouts and track. But I digress.

While turning the wheels down I had particular issues with the horrible looking plastic wheels. They would just spin off the axles when they were chucked up in the drill wheel lathe. By fortuitous circumstance, one of the insulated metal wheels also came off when being turned down, and I noticed that the axles were the same size. The axles looked bigger on the metal wheelsets because there is a sleeve over them. I slid the insulated metal wheel on the idler axle in place of the plastic wheel and it fit as if it were made to go there.

Back to the salvage track I went for another set of wheels. The four insulated metal wheels were turned down and fitted to the idler axles. I temporarily installed all of the wheelsets in one of the donor locomotives and ran it across the PVRR system to check for shorts or other issues, and absolutely no problems were found. So, now I have a full set of six metal wheels per truck, with flanges adequate for Atlas code 55 track, tested and ready to install on the Cotton Brute.

The Brute is scheduled to come into the PVRR maintenance shop on the 3rd of November, and then she will be the star of the show on the North Raleigh Model Railroad Club layouts at the annual November Neuse River Valley Model Railroad Show in the Jim Graham Building, North Carolina Fairgrounds, Raleigh NC, on the 4th and 5th of November.

If you are in the area, please do stop by and see us.

Cotton Brute, part ???

Once again the Brute is on my work bench. She will get a Digtrax DZ126 decoder for now until another is selected for her. She will be able to make her next appointments at Altoona and Danville, and then we can worry about it.

But before the decoder gets installed I have to check the stall current on the Sagami can motor that is as old as the locomotive is and fix the lights.

I have two days.

Looks like I'd better get to work.

Dissapointments

 I just got an email from John Wallis, president of NRail, on location at Grapevine TX for the 50th Anniversary of N-TRAK.

Cotton Brute, which was restored specifically for this event, has suffered a burned-out decoder. Kenny from Yankee Dabbler installed a second decoder, which operated fine on the test track. However, when the loco was put on the track it, too, failed.

So, the star of the show has been sidelined.

When it returns from Texas I will once again diagnose and repair it and get it back into shape for Altoona and for it's return to Danville in September.

What I Did on my Summer Vacation

 In a previous post I mentioned the acquisition of some Atlas/Kato RS parts that I used to refurbish and in one case completely assemble a couple of locomotives. Well, there was one more auction that I lost, for another complete RS-11 shell. Apparently the "buyer" failed to make the payment, so I got it for my last bid price and now I have two complete undecorated Atlas/Kato RS-11's that I have no need for (to go along with the complete undecorated Atlas/LifeLike GP7's; Atlas shells on LifeLike GP-18 chassis).

The refurbishment of the South Hampton Roads NTRAK modules is almost complete. The wiring is done and now the scenery is being refreshed. I'm doing two of them in the hopes that I can build some frames to package them together for transport. There's a good reason no one has 3 foot corners; they're asymmetrical and so they can't easily be packaged like 4 foot corners (which are symmetrical) can be.

And last but not least, when I was on my modern locomotive purchasing spree I was buying and installing decoders to go in them. One of the decoders was an NCE non-sound unit that I fried during installation (my own damn fault, I didn't pay close enough attention to where the motor tabs were and one touched the frame). I sent it in to NCE with the expectation that I would be charged for the repairs.

I just got an email today from stamps.com (the company that NCE uses to ship things) saying I have a package coming. NCE hasn't contacted me with an invoice, so I can only assume at this point that it is my previously fried decoder and that said decoder has been repaired without further cost to me. North Coast Engineering. Great products and a great company that stands behind them, but lousy communications skills. But, all told, I would rather have it that way than the other.

And speaking of modern power, I'm ashamed to say the madness didn't stop with the locos I had posted earlier. I have, in fact, purchased two more since then; both Kato, one in Canadian Pacific paint and the other in Canadian National. I've been kicking around the idea of getting one in Kansas City Southern as well, but so far I've been managing to resist that temptation. But, since I have a newly repaired decoder coming...

Revival

When first I got involved in NTRAK I was a nearly-retired Navy man stationed in Virginia Beach, and my "home" club was South Hampton Roads NTRAK. The club met upstairs in a church in Norfolk and made regular appearances at the local train shows. I retired in February 2005 and moved to Raleigh (but didn't join the Raleigh club until January 2016).

Late in 2022 the club lost its space above the church. They reached out to the North Raleigh and Richmond Area NTRAK clubs to adopt their modules. Since they were my first NTRAK home, I wanted to make sure that something of the club survived. I rented a U-Haul and emptied the church out with the help of two NRMRC members and several folks from RANTRAK.

These modules have sat in my shed since December. They are old, heavy and outdated, the wiring is nowhere near where it needs to be for modern operations and the corners are all 3 footers. Because of the work needed to bring them up to spec and all I have going on in other parts of my life, I haven't taken the time to do anything with them. Yet.

Every year in late September the Eastern N Lines Partnership sets up an NTRAK layout in the Pepsi building for the Old 97 Rail Days in Danville VA. This year, due to a concert being given over the festival, we have lost our space in the Pepsi building and will be in the basement of Danville Station right next door. This necessitated a redesign of our layout. The redesign needs a 3 foot corner.

I happen to have five of them...

Looks like one of the 3 footers gets to escape the scrap heap at least.

I can stop any time I want to...

 For Fathers Day, Mrs Hades and I loaded up the pups and drove to see my parents in southwest Iowa.

Our mostly annual trips out to the Midwest always include a shopping day to nearby Omaha NE and Council Bluffs IA for my mother, who doesn't really get out much because Dad doesn't get around so well any more. Mrs Hades says it's to cement her "favored daughter-in-law" position (but not in front of my brother's wife).

As is usual, whenever I am in Omaha I stop by the House of Trains located at 8106 Maple Street. I don't really need anything since my layout is 1300 miles away, and there isn't anything I can get there that I can't get at Nicks in Raleigh, but traditions are traditions and I always like to drop in to see what they have.

This year I found a Micro Trains Father's Day car, a handful of other rolling stock pieces, and a Digitrax non-sound decoder for the new CSX ES44DC that I mentioned at the end of my last post (bringing the total of modern locomotives up to seven). With that done, I then turned my attention to their scrap boxes.

House of Trains takes in quite a bit of used stuff, for trade in and I think for consignment as well. Because of that you can always find something you didn't really know you needed. The last trip it was a box of Kato Unitrack, and this time it was a first-gen Atlas/Kato RS3 in Rio Grande black-and-yellow paint.

Although the photo shows the completed loco, it originally came in kit form (meaning disassembled) in a bag marked "Parts" with a $25 price tag. When I examined the contents of the bag it looked like everything was there. The motor, trucks, driveshafts and body were present, as was the mangled remains of both frame halves, and a mess of something that appeared to be light boards and decoders. The Micro Trains coupler conversion had even been done (although the walkway was broken).

The frame had been hogged out to clear the motor contacts (that's not really the way you're supposed to do it) but it looked like it would bolt together and hold the motor securely. The decoder wires were broken off and disconnected, and upon further examination it appeared that there were two decoders in the bag, one connected to the light board and one not. Both were missing wires.

I took it back to the folks house and tested the motor with a battery, and was ecstatic to see that it actually ran. I assembled what I could of the loco, leaving the gray and orange motor wires attached (they weren't attached to a decoder, though) and once again tested it with a battery. All the running gear worked like it should with no strange noises, and the body fit on the frame with no issues other than the walkway being broken.

Then I took a look on the auction site and found that you can actually get quite a few pieces for this loco. This is somewhat surprising since this is the older pre-China Kato chassis. I found a set of frames that hadn't been butchered and put in a bid, and then I ordered a walkway from an auction site store. I won the bid and had both of them shipped home, expecting them to be there when we got back.

And they were. I assembled the loco with the new walkway, new frames, and a proper TCS CN-GP decoder and it runs just like a brand new one. But wait, there's more! It turns out there was not one, but TWO sets of frame halves in the auction, so with the extra frame in hand and an Atlas/Kato RS11 shell in a box that I had sitting around I thought I might try to build a complete running chassis for it as well (they use the same chassis, the only difference is the fuel tanks).

Motors, worm gears, and U joints can all be had on the same auction site store as the walkways, as can fuel tanks and truck frames. Amazingly enough, the truck halves and gears can be found in the Atlas catalog, as can the body shell headlight inserts and light boards. 

In fact, about the only thing that you cannot find new is the screws to hold the frame halves together (although you can get the plastic insulators and nuts, go figure) and the wheel sets. Amazon has screws that I think will work, and I was able to find a guy on one of the mailing lists who had some wheel sets laying around in a parts box.

I've ordered all the parts that I could order from Atlas and the auction site and I'm waiting for the wheel sets to show up. He didn't know how many he had, so I'm hoping at least four. If I can get wheel sets, I'll have a complete running undecorated RS11 that I have no need for (to go along with the two Life-Like GP-18 chassis with undecorated Atlas GP7 shells that I have).

And if there are more than four, maybe I can order the parts to put the mangled chassis back together, too. I won't have a shell for it, but I'll have a running chassis at least.

Sounds of Silence

 In my last post I mentioned the possibility of putting sound in the modern Kato diesels. To that end, I did purchase a couple of Digitrax SDNX146K1E decoders, but they have keep-alive capacitors that just don't fit anywhere under the shells. The speakers are the oval type that will fit under the shell tucked under the rear light LED, they will go in without modifying the frame, but those darn caps just won't fit in anywhere.***

A second option is a sound decoder made by XL Systems Inc. I haven't linked them for the simple reason that they are crap. They used to make the sound decoders for MRC, and they were crap then, too. I put one (MRC 1961) in the Hudson I had repainted in Erie fantasy paint and ripped it back out again because I couldn't get the start speed set to move the loco at speed step 1; at speed step 1 the loco would chuff merrily while not moving at all. To date it's the only functional decoder I've ever thrown in the trash. But, the XL's are inexpensive, so I bit the bullet and ordered one for the CSX SD70M.

Yep. Still trash.

The good thing about them...well, three good things I guess...are they are inexpensive, they do work (in that they will make noise and make the locomotive move, mostly at the same time), and they are true drop-in decoders because the motor power clips are already installed (the Digitrax board requires you to remove the clips from the stock Kato DC light board and install them on the decoder board). Another nice thing is the speaker is installed on the board, so no frame modifications needed. It's nice and loud, too, being at the top of the locomotive and not underneath in the fuel tank. If all you want is an operational decoder that makes noise and you don't care about speed matching (or making the loco move at speed step 1) the XL may just fit the bill for you. However, if speed matching and loco movement at speed step 1 is important to you, the XL won't be a good choice.

The problem with these (and the MRC's that preceded them) is they are nigh unto impossible to program the speed effectively with a standard speed table. They don't have a mid range CV (6), and the high speed CV (5) is only adjustable from 0-63 instead of the full 0-255. As with the Hudson, I have never been able to get them to move at speed step 1, either, although (again, as with the Hudson's chuff) the diesel sound notches up at that setting. Unlike with the steam loco chuff, the diesel loco moves before the throttle notches again, so there is that at least. 

They do have a full speed table, but that is a pain in the arse to program so I haven't ever tried doing it that way**. Who knows, that might work fine, but (yeah, not so much, see footnote) it was enough of an irritation that I pulled the XL back out of the Kato and replaced it with a non-sound TCS that programs easily with a standard speed table (CV's 2, 5 and 6 for start, full and mid speeds respectively). All of my modern locos will run the exact same speeds now, and only the NS loco has sound (but that's something I'm fine with).

I do have three XL 0001955 sound decoders for Atlas GP7's that I believe can be modified for my triple set of Bachmann GP7's. The Bachmann GP7s, like so many other Bachmann non-sound DCC equipped locos, have crippled Lenz decoders that have a non-programmable speed table (their sound decoders are downgraded Soundtraxx units). IIRC you can program the start speed (CV2) but not the mid or top speeds. That means no speed matching, but they do run close enough to each other that they can be run as a single unit. However, they are enough different that I don't dare use one as a DPU. 

So if I ever want to run them with other units, or use one as a DPU, the choice is semi-programmable XL crap that I might be able to program with the full speed table using CV's 67-94, or maybe - just maybe - the more expensive but easily programmable silent drop in decoders from Digitrax, TCS or NCE with the same installation caveats as the XL. I have seen an installation of the MRC 1955 sound decoder (made by XL, therefore identical to the XL 0001955), so I know that one will work, and I assume the others would as well following the same installation tricks. The sound is a bonus, but they have to be wired to the motor and the contact springs have to be removed from the Bachmann/Lenz decoders and soldered onto the XL's (and I assume the Digitrax, TCS and NCE drop-ins) for installation. That's why I haven't put them in yet.

UPDATE: I just pulled the XL decoders out of the bag and pulled the top off of a Bachmann GP7. They won't fit. I'll either have to hard-wire a decoder or live with what I have.

And speaking of modern locos...I have acquired yet another one, this one in BNSF livery like the one above (except mine is number 5953). It is a Kato ES44AC and it, too, has been equipped with a TCS non-noise decoder. So now I have a Kato Norfolk Southern SD70ACE with Digitrax sound decoder, a Fox Valley Models Erie heritage SD70ACE with a six pin something (TCS, I think) decoder, a Kato CSX SD70M with TCS decoder, a Fox Valley Models PRR heritage ES44 with 6 pin Digitrax decoder, and a Kato BNSF ES44AC with TCS decoder.

All I need now is a modern loco in UP livery to round out the collection.*

 

*EDIT: It's on order, I couldn't resist. I'm trying out an NCE decoder on this one. UPDATE: It has arrived, and the NCE decoders work fine with the special NCE kick programming to get them to move at speed step 1. I also ordered an ES44DC in CSX paint because the flat-radiator SD70M just didn't look right to me, but for some reason I didn't order a decoder for it at the same time like I usually do. I'll have to get one when it gets here.

**I tried programming an XL with the 28 step speed table. It's even more frustrating than attempting to do so with a three step table.

***The answer to this problem was found in this video. Long story short, replace the cap with a surface mount one with longer wires. It works, and the oval speaker fits fine under the shell, but it doesn't make a lot of prime mover noise. That may be a good thing, though.

Modern Power

 My interests are mostly in the early to mid transition era, from post-war to about 1965 or so, and for that reason I don't have a lot of modern diesel power. However, when I was watching the videos about the ferry move of N&W 611 to Strasburg a couple of years ago I purchased a Kato Norfolk Southern SD70ACE so that I could duplicate that train.

Some time later I decided that I wanted another SD70 in the Erie heritage paint scheme, so I went online and found out that they were completely sold out everywhere. Kato made one and so did Fox Valley Models. I was fortunate enough to find one of each, already DCC equipped, on that online auction site. I put a bid in for the Kato because it was cheaper, lost the auction, and purchased the FVM outright.

This FVM is a very nice loco, with an intimidating package of detail parts that I opted not to install. I did run it at New Bern along with the Kato that I had speed-matched it with, and they each took their turns at escorting the J class as well.

I was watching some YouTube videos recently and found that there is also a PRR heritage unit, this one an ES-44AC and not an SD70. Fox Valley makes a model of it, it is likewise sold out everywhere, but one popped up on one of the mailing lists I belong to for a not-horrible price, so I went ahead and bought it. I also found another Kato SD70, this one an M, with the straight radiators, on Amazon for a not-horrible price and bought it as well. It's in CSX livery, so it will be the first non-NS modern loco in the roster. I have seen foreign power on NS trains, and CSX runs with NS in my area (Raleigh NC), so it fits in with the overall scheme of things.

 

So far I have purchased all of my modern diesels for less than retail, but I have to put decoders in the last two. I'm going to try my hand at putting some sound in the Katos since Digitrax has sort-of drop in sound decoders for them, but the FVM's take a 6 pin so the PRR unit will not get noise. If the sort-of drop in decoders give me too much trouble I will probably go the non-sound route instead. Sound is kind of an interesting thing for the first few minutes, but I generally turn it off after a while anyway so it's not that important.

But lest you despair that I am wandering down the path to the Dark Side, I've also picked up a couple of Kato Mikados with accompanying GHQ L1 kits to put on them, so the steam program on the PVRR is alive and well. I'll work on documenting at least one of these builds as well as the decoder installs.

Cotton Brute: The Tour Begins

 The Brute made her first official appearance on the NTRAK layout at the Amherst Model Railroad Show in Springfield MA last week. From the reports I got she ran well all weekend.

She needs a few minor repairs (the fuel tank cover on the rear of the tank fell off and got lost and the snowplow came off of the pilot), but otherwise she is in a fine fettle. I will be doing the repairs next month at the show in New Bern NC.

UPDATE: Repairs were completed the first night in New Bern, not too difficult and since they were done on Friday night she was all ready for the show. She pulled her passenger train around for a bit but had some difficulties with the low-profile wheels on some of the cars coming off the tracks. Later on she pulled a lengthy freight train for a while. The only problems encountered were some dragging of her undercarriage on the joiner tracks, but otherwise she was in fine form.

I didn't get a picture of the freight, but I did get a short video of the passenger train. Enjoy!

And now we do the dance of joy!

 

New Power

Some time back I made a purchase of a Kato SD70ACe in Norfolk Southern paint so that I could model the ferry move of 611 from Spencer NC to Strasburg PA. I usually model the transition era, but I thought that particular consist was interesting enough to put it on the NTRAK layout.

 Of course when show time arrived the SD70 couldn't keep up with the J class and 611 spent most of its time pushing the diesel around until one or both of them derailed. It worked fine at home, but nothing screws up your carefully prepared equipment like show time. But I digress.

When I was shopping for the SD70 I noticed that they were offered in heritage schemes, one of them being the Erie Railroad (and another being the Erie Lackawanna). I wanted the NS paint so I merely took note of it and moved on.

Kato SD70ACe

 Long time readers of this blog (if there are any) already know of my tenuous connection with the Erie, and the thought of that green and gray SD70ACe just wouldn't leave my brain. So, for Christmas, I got a gift certificate and thought I would go looking for one.

The N scale SD70ACe in Erie heritage livery was offered by three different manufacturers; Broadway Limited, Kato, and Fox Valley Models. I own a Kato or two, and I have seen BLI locos in action, but FVM is a company that I have heard good things about and have never seen in person. Of course, they are all three sold out everywhere you look.

The BLI is the only one that comes DCC equipped from the manufacturer, and sound equipped at that, and the price shows it. I've heard mixed reviews about Paragon decoders, and the one BLI loco (a heavy Mikado) I've seen in person ran fine with the sound off but was a stall monster with the sound on. Between that and the price difference (about $120 more than either the Kato or FVM models) I wasn't too keenly interested in BLI. That was a good thing, I guess, because there were none to be found anywhere at any price.

That left Kato and FVM, and I was able to find examples of each on the well known auction site. The Kato was sale-by-auction at a starting price $50 below the FVM's buy-it-now price, and the added bonus was both of them were already chipped. I put a max bid on the Kato at a price equal to the FVM (both with shipping), put the FVM on my watch list, and waited for the end of the auction.

I got sniped at the last minute (one reason I don't really like the auctions and would rather use the buy-it-now option if the price isn't too unreasonable; in a case of poetic justice the sniper got sniped in the last 30 seconds) so I didn't get the Kato. Surprisingly with the snipers sniping each other the final sale price of the Kato was as much over the price of the FVM as the starting price was below.

At any rate, I purchased the Fox Valley Models unit at the buy-it-now price and waited for it to arrive. When it did, I put it on the track and found that it had already been programmed as well as chipped. I didn't care for the way it was set up, so I reset the decoder and started over.

Fox Valley Models SD70ACe

Before setting up the speed table, however, I tested the loco at the default settings. At full tilt boogie the loco ran about 158 scale MPH, which is quite a bit lower than the Kato did (it ran over 200 before I started adjusting it). It continued to run at that speed until I had reduced the throttle below the halfway point (speed step 14 of 28), at which time it started to slow down when the throttle setting was reduced. 

From a dead stop the loco wouldn't run until I had adjusted CV2 to 3, at which point it started smoothly and ran so slowly that I really had to pay attention to see that it was moving at all. The Kato will do the same (in fact during testing I accidentally left the throttle at speed step 1 and turned away for a few minutes, and when I turned back I had lost my loco), but at a higher CV2 setting (7 instead of 3). I then speed matched it to the Kato, which had been speed matched to the Bachmann J class 611, and ran all three of them consisted but not coupled. I was then able to adjust the individual CV settings to get them all to run consistently together at all throttle settings (except for speed step 1, the J class just won't go that slow so unfortunately I had to speed the diesels up to match it).

So what are my impressions of the Fox Valley Models SD70ACe, you might ask? Well, in a word it is a beauty. Reviewers have been pretty harsh on the front windows being the wrong size and their placement being off slightly, but truth be told I'm just not that picky. It looks fine to me. The loco runs smoothly and quietly, the lights are nice and bright, and the paint scheme is just fantastic.

The model comes with a small bag of tiny intimidating detail parts, and the loco has dimples to show where to drill to install them, but since I will probably only break this loco out for shows I opted not to put the fiddly easily damaged detail pieces on. If you look closely the absence of grab irons and windshield wipers is noticeable, but from behind the ropes on the NTRAK layout I don't think anyone is going to see it.

And so, like it or not, my railroad is slowly being dragged, kicking and screaming, behind a pair of SD70ACe's, into the future.