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...