Fox Valley Models

 In a previous post I said that I have been collecting Norfolk Southern heritage units. So far I have three; Erie, PRR and Southern. I also have a few non-heritage Norfolk Southern units, of course, because you may recall it all started out with an SD70Ace to lead J class 611.

I also have locomotives in the other Big Three American railroads (BNSF, Union Pacific, and CSX, which is TOTALLY NOT C for Chessie Systems, S for Seaboard Systems, and X for all the other railroads in the merger, oh no). I like to run them in foreign power consists because you are seeing more and more of that on the rails these days.

The two Big Canadian railroads (CP and CN) are also represented in my collection since their locomotives are also seen in foreign power consists, and because they both have mainlines running right down the middle of the US; one on the western side of the "man with chef's hat" states (Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana) and one on the eastern side.

And, since the CP merged with Kansas City Southern, and because I like the KCS Southern Belle paint scheme, I had to have at least one loco with that livery. However, I ended up with two. The first one says KCS de Mexico on its markings, and I didn't catch it before I got home from the train show with it, so I had to get another one that didn't say "de Mexico" on it.

I tell you all of that so I can say this; all three of the NS heritage units and both of the KCS units are made by Fox Valley Models, and they are visually stunning, with lots of little add-on parts that I haven't bothered adding on because they are just too fiddly for me to feel comfortable messing with. They also run great, and are so easy to put DCC in that it's ridiculous; just pop the shell off, unplug the 6 pin shorting plug, insert a 6 pin decoder, and reinstall the shell.

But of course, since they are a different manufacturer with a different decoder than the rest of my modern diesels (mostly Kato, but also two ScaleTrains and one Atlas), they run at different speeds on my NCE system than they do on Digitrax. And therefore, as per my last post, I put them on the "speed match with Digitrax" program.

One thing I should probably mention, when I got the KCSdeM loco the front headlight didn't work. The vendor I bought it from at the train show said he had burned it out when putting the DCC chip in it. That should have told me something... but I just replaced the LED and moved along.

During my speed matching routine I found my PRR engine wouldn't reach the same speeds as the rest of them and the KCSdeM loco was very noisy and ran slower the longer it ran. I swapped in the shorting plug and found that the PRR engine had a bad decoder, which was easy enough to fix, but the KCSdeM loco was unchanged with the shorting plug and started emitting a strong ozone smell (but no magic smoke). So, it looks like it has a bad motor in it.

ScaleTrains bought FVM last year, so I sent them an email to see if I could send it in for warranty repair. Their response was they don't fix different branded locos so I would have to contact the manufacturer. I pointed out that since they had bought FVM they WERE the manufacturer, and they replied, "Yeah, but we didn't make THOSE locos so we're not really. So sorry."

(Come to find out they won't be making ANY FVM locos since some of the tooling was lost. Without that tooling they can't rework the locos for sound and fancy lighting, as ScaleTrains likes to do. Because of that they are just going to design and release their own line of locos with brand-new tooling. So, even though they own FVM, they don't really own FVM, if that makes any sense.)

Bottom line, if you have any Fox Valley Models N scale locomotives they are now expensive (might I even say, overpriced) pretty looking future shelf queens.

In happy news, I put out a plea for FVM motors on one of the N scale forums and I have a few replies, so it looks like I'll be able to put this one back on the rails at least. I've also been informed that the motors are very similar to, if not the same as, new Atlas motors, so that also may be a source of parts. The driveline certainly looks Atlas-like, which is no surprise really since it also looks very Kato like.

When Atlas severed ties with Rivarossi they contracted with Kato to make their chassis, and when they severed ties with Kato they sent all their tooling to China. And once you send something to China, China owns it and makes it for everyone at cut-rate prices, so that's why all modern diesels share the same design now. But I digress.

At any rate FVM joins the list of very expensive nice looking and running locomotives that have no support beyond the point of sale. Say what you want about Bachmann, at least they have a robust support system in both service and parts.

And now I'm done with my rantings. I still have locomotives to speed match.

Verification

For Christmas this year, my wife noticed that I had been eyeballing a Digitrax Empire Builder Xtra DCC starter set. The set was complete with DT402 throttle, DB150 booster, 15VAC power supply, and Loco Net panel, and even included a Bachmann DCC equipped F7A Erie-Lackawanna locomotive.

The reason I had been eyeballing the Digitrax set is that I noticed when I speed matched my locos at home on my NCE PowerCab they played very well together, but when I took them to the shows and ran them on the club layout (which runs on a Digitrax system) they no longer did so.

Another reason is that some - most, to be honest - of my TCS decoder equipped locos hesitate when you roll on the throttle on my home layout, sometimes taking up to a half a second to respond to throttle increases (they slow down just fine). I suspected that having the NCE firmware updated so that I could install the WiFiTrax WFD-31 had this unexpected side effect, because I hadn't noticed a problem until sometime after I had the work done.

Side note, no one else I have ever talked to, either in person or on line, has had this problem. Go figure.

One of our club members has been involved in DCC since the get-go and he said the track voltages were different between the two systems. He had no idea why the TCS decoders had a delay on the NCE at home but not on the Digitrax club layout. At any rate, I wanted a Digitrax system so I could compare locomotive speeds and hesitation tendencies between the two systems. 

I have a Digitrax Zephyr, but it doesn't show locomotive speed so it wasn't much use in comparing locomotive speeds at 50% and 100% throttle settings. The set I was looking at had a speed percentage display, so it would have done quite nicely.

Much to my dismay, the listing disappeared before I put a bid in on it. As you may have guessed, some sneaky wonderful person in my life had paid the price to snatch it out from under me, and it magically appeared under the tree last Wednesday morning.

I finally got a chance to test it out today, and as expected the locomotives that were perfectly speed matched with the ACCUTRACK II speedometer on the NCE ran at different speeds on the Digitrax. What I didn't expect is the NCE system was faster. It uses a 13.5v DC power adapter and the Digitrax uses a 15VAC power supply, so I had expected the Digitrax track voltage to be higher, resulting in faster locomotive speeds. 

However, when I measured the track values using the AC setting on my multi-meter, I found the NCE system puts 13.8v on the track, almost a full volt more than the Digitrax which measured at 13. This causes as much as a 10 SMPH difference at the top end of the throttle, and of course different decoders and different brand locos are all affected differently. 

The Digitrax has a switch to set track voltages for N, HO and O, and the owners manual says the track voltage for N is supposed to be 12v. I expect the situation would be reversed if I was an HO guy, since according to the manual the Digitrax system puts 15v on the track in the HO setting (there is no adjustment for scale on the NCE).

So far I have also verified the locomotives that hesitate on the NCE do not show that tendency on the Digitrax, which is a real shame because I love my NCE system for its ease of use, and the WiFiTrax 31 made it super easy for me to control the trains with my cell phone. Yes, WiFi control can be done with a Digitrax system, but it's not as easy as simply replacing the interface panel. I'll probably continue to use the NCE on my home layout and just live with the hesitation since that is what I've been doing all along.

So, that is what I expected. What I didn't expect was one of my locomotives (a Kato SD70M with a TCS K1D4 decoder), which had been a problem child at the shows, also acted up on the Digitrax system at home. On the NCE system it worked just like it was supposed to, hitting the expected half and full throttle programmed speeds within a SMPH or two, but on the Digitrax system it's like I never programmed the speed tables at all. It is controllable, it is just rocket-ship fast and hits it's peak speed (as in all she can do, not the programmed full throttle speed) at half throttle. 

I will be changing that decoder, and I'll send it in to TCS to be checked, although I'm doubtful they will be able to find anything since it does work as it should on the NCE system. I will also be pulling out the sound decoder on my only sound equipped Kato locomotive because I've decided that a) sound is over-rated and b) I don't like dealing with the start-up sequence shutting the locomotive down whenever it hits a bad spot on the track. I have some NCE decoders I could use, but I really like the slow-speed characteristics of the TCS decoders, so I'll just stick with those now that I know they aren't a problem on the Digitrax system.

I have an NTRAK show coming up in February (New Bern NC from the 21st to the 23rd, you should definitely come check it out), and that's where I run my locos in consist, so I will be setting up a loop on the Digitrax to program locomotives for the next couple of months. The ones I use exclusively at home (a pair of Atlas GP7's) won't get the speed matching treatment on the Digitrax, but they run alone anyway so it doesn't really matter.

By the way, I did check out the Digitrax DC mode using address 0. It works, but not well, and I burned up an old cheap white-box train set Bachmann F9 in the process. Not a big loss, but there it is. Also, regarding the Bachmann F7A that was included in the package, it ran pretty well for about 20 minutes and then coasted to a stop. After a brief rest it ran again, for about the same amount of time. 

Either the decoder is flaky or the motor is on it's last legs, my guess is the motor is going bad. I'll have to send it back to Bachmann for repairs I guess, whenever I get around to it, or I could just order another motor to put in it. It's not like I don't have other locomotives, and I'm so concerned about this one that I'm not quite sure where it is right now. Somewhere in the train room is all I know.

I hope everyone else had a great Christmas, and we'll see you all in the New Year!

Blunami!

 In my last post I told you about purchasing a couple of Blunami sound decoders and promised an installation article. In this post I'll show you how I put the decoder in a Bachmann 4-8-4 Northern and I'll show you a couple of different options during the installation. There are a lot of pictures, so fair warning, it may load slowly.

First, you are going to need a donor locomotive. I picked the Bachmann Northern because it has a huge 52' tender, and also because I have three of them laying around that I've been able to pick up for good prices, and they are all split-frame versions. However, not all split frame versions are created equal, as I will show you when it comes time to install the locomotive wiring harness.

In addition to the decoder, you are going to need speakers. I picked a couple of ESU 50326 speakers, doubling them up to handle the output power of the decoder's amplifier. I also installed a set of tender pick-ups from Richmond Controls and a TCS six wire micro-connector between the tender and the locomotive. The tender pick-ups make the loco run much better and ensures steady power to the decoder, and the micro-connector makes the installation much easier as well as allowing the tender to be disconnected from the loco for any future maintenance.

Richmond Controls includes installation instructions with their pick-ups, so I don't feel very bad about not documenting them. It's pretty easy, you just have to remember to check your wheel set installations when you put them back in to make sure they are all in the right way. I had one of my wheels reversed and it caused an immediate short circuit when I put the loco on the track.

 

Notice that I installed the two-pin connector that Richmond Controls includes in their kit. For the regular DC installation, the other side of this connector is fastened to the engine, which allows the tender to be unhooked from the engine. In this installation, I connected the other end to the decoder track power wires. 

In my previous installation I mounted the speakers to the tender floor. In that configuration the decoder stays with the tender floor when the shell is removed, so the truck wires are connected directly to the decoder wires. In this installation I mounted the speakers in the tender shell, so the decoder will stay with the shell if it is removed, which is why I chose to use the two-pin plug to allow for the complete removal of the tender floor.

The TCS six-wire plug is also connected to the decoder and the connections are insulated. I used a liquid insulation, but heat shrink would work just as well (and be less messy). TCS provides these connectors in a flat 6 wire plug or in a 2x3 plug, and there is also a flat plug version with black wires (one has a white chaser so it will be connected properly). The black wire version might be better to disguise the connection, the colored wires definitely stand out.

There is plenty of room in the Northern 52' tender shell for the decoder, even though it is intended for HO locomotives. There is plenty of room for the speakers in each end as well, and the entire thing fits right over the weights on the floor. 

Since I was using two speakers they had to be connected together. Soundtraxx cautions against using speakers less than 4 ohms, and each of these speakers are 8 ohms, so I wired them in series. Wiring in parallel would drop the impedance to 4 ohms, so that wasn't an option.

The decoder has plenty of wire for the speakers, so I cut some off to connect the speakers together.. I toyed around with several options when installing the speakers. I thought about mounting them on the forward and aft tender walls pointing inward, but I found there was plenty of room to install them on the top of the shell facing down. Later during testing I discovered that the sound was louder in that configuration than in the previous floor mounted installation.

The six wire plug feeds out of a slot cut in the front of the tender shell and the floor installs with no issues. The harness wiring was tucked underneath the decoder, so the only wiring I had to fight with was the wiring coming from the tender trucks. The screws on the trucks have to be left slightly loose so that the trucks will pivot, the Richmond Controls wipers interfere with the pivot action if the screws are too tight.

And with that done, it was on to installing the other side of the TCS harness on the locomotive.

Both of these locomotives are split frame versions, but as you can see the locomotive on the bottom has a couple of extra screws hiding under the trailing truck.They both run much better than the previous plastic framed version, but the one on the bottom runs slightly better than the one on the top. The biggest difference is in the motors.

As you can see, the top version has the old open sided motor that Bachmann has used for decades. The other version has a nice little can motor that is used on almost all of their newer locomotives tucked inside where it can't be seen. The bottom locomotive had to be completely disassembled to electrically isolate the motor and install the wiring harness, but because the brush caps are exposed on the top locomotive the wiring installation was much easier. The only part that had to be removed on the upper loco was the headlight, to connect the white and blue wires.

The bottom locomotive got holes drilled and tapped for 00-90 screws in each frame half so that brass tabs could be used to connect the track power wires to the locomotive. The Richmond Controls kit includes a neat little bit of double-sided PC board that can be inserted between the frame halves for the wires to be connected to, but I felt this would be a more secure connection.

For the top locomotive, the brass strips that connect the motor to the frame were pulled out of the motor brush covers and wrapped around the frame. The track power wires were then connected to them, and the motor wires were soldered onto the motor brush covers. Care must be taken not to overheat these brush covers, otherwise they may separate from the motor and destroy it. Ask me how I know...

Just a dot of solder on the brush holder is enough to secure the wire. Use of a non-corrosive rosin based flux intended for electronics work is a great help in getting the solder to flow quickly. Under no circumstances should an acid based flux be used! The track power wires are likewise soldered to the brass strips that were formerly connected to the motor brushes.

After the connections are made to the motor and frame a piece of thick styrene can be inserted between the top of the motor and the frame to prevent any inadvertent contact. I cut this piece and test-fitted it before connecting any of the wiring.

The head light holder is secured to the locomotive with a single screw under the leading truck, the same screw that holds the cylinders in place. The bulb holder has to be removed in order to connect the wires from the harness to the bulb.

On the bottom locomotive there was a capacitor installed with the headlight bulb, but on the top loco the bulb wiring was just wrapped around the holder. I opted for an LED on the bottom loco, but I simply soldered the wires directly to the bulb on the top one. There is plenty of room for an LED resistor in the space behind the curved bulb holder. The connections are insulated to prevent contact, and then the holder is reinstalled with its single screw.

There is a plastic piece that the shell screws into that has to be modified for the headlight wiring to pass around. The sides of the screw holder are trimmed back with a sharp hobby knife as shown in the next two photos and the wiring is routed around it, one on each side. 

Notice how the headlight wiring is tucked between the frame halves. The screws that hold the frame halves need to be loosened slightly so the wires can be put into place, then tightened back up.

And with that the wiring is done. Reinstall the shell and connect the connector to the tender, paying attention to the color codes to ensure the connection is correct. Reattach the tender and put it on the track to program.

Using the Blunami app on your phone couldn't be easier. It can be used with either DC (turn the throttle knob all the way up!) or DCC power, and all the speed tables, lighting effects, and other CV's can be programmed either through the app or using your DCC system. You can run multiple locomotives in the app as well, in fact I found it easier to do so that way than on my NCE PowerCab system. I had both of my Blunami locomotives running via the app to speed match them and it was much easier than trying to do it on the Power Cab.

I must say I'm pretty impressed with these decoders, and I certainly hope that SoundTraxx can shrink the size of them in the future so they will fit into more N scale locomotives.

Today's Events

 There were a couple of interesting things that happened today.

I installed one of the two Blunami decoders that I bought at Altoona, and I received this car in the mail.

First the car. 

 

This is an NRail Newsletter author's car for 2013, awarded to me from NRail for my article on the restoration of the Cotton Brute in the Jan-Feb 2023 edition. If you are an NRail member, the article is here. I will, of course, be showing this car off whenever I can.

And now for the decoder.

 

It's the relatively new Blunami BLU-2200 decoder from SoundTraxx. I picked up a couple at the N Scale Weekend in Altoona just to see what they were all about. I picked the Bachmann 4-8-4 locomotive pictured above for the installation. Why, you may ask, did I choose this (some would say cheap, I say inexpensive) locomotive for a relatively expensive sound decoder? Simple, it was because of that huge tender. The BLU-2200 is not a small decoder (it is intended for HO or small S scale locos), and so it needs a lot of room, not only for itself but also for the speakers. As to the decoder itself, it is basically a SoundTraxx Tsunami-2 TSU-2200 decoder with bluetooth added, so it has all the sound files and capabilities found on that decoder.

 

I installed a pair of ESU 50326 speakers (the same speaker, incidentally, that was used in the Brute), one in the front of the tender and one in the back, wired in series, to handle the output of the sound decoder. These speakers are rated for 1 watt and the decoder recommends 1.5 to 2 watts (the decoder output is 2 watts), which is why I chose to use a pair of them. The impedance of this setup is 16 ohms instead of 8, but I am hoping this won't end up being an issue for the decoder. There is a warning about using less than 8 ohms, which is why a series connection was used. A TCS 6 wire connector was installed between the loco and the tender so that the two can still be separated.

I didn't take any photos of the installation, so I can't show you how everything went together. However, I do have a second Blunami, as well as a second locomotive, so the next installation will be fully documented. I removed the steel weights inside the tender and replaced them with the cylindrical tungsten weights used on pinewood derby cars to save space, and installed a set of Richmond Controls axle wiper pickups on the tender trucks. The connection to the engine was made by drilling a pair of holes, one in each half of the split frame, and tapping them for 00-90 screws. Brass tabs were installed under the screws so that the decoder track power wires could be soldered to them. This gives power pick ups on six of the eight drivers (two have traction tires) as well as all eight axles (four wheels on each truck) of the tender.

Everything went well, the Blunami sound is excellent as can be expected from SoundTraxx, but unfortunately the headlight doesn't work. I have a feeling the blue wire came disconnected inside the tender, but I haven't opened it up to check yet. For those of you infected with Bachmann hate you won't believe that this locomotive is a good runner, but with the tender pick ups installed it runs every bit as good as the vaunted Kato Mikado; it's smooth and quiet and never missed a beat over turnouts while I was running it. Everything else works well and I am happy with the installation overall.

I tested it on my DCC system, but I wanted to see what the hype for the wireless operation was all about. I found a quick-start guide on the SoundTraxx website, and a limited amount of information about the Bluetooth app on the BlueRail website. From what I was able to gather, the locomotive can be controlled using pure DC voltage between 6 and 22 VDC just as if it was running on DCC. It can also be controlled wirelessly with a DCC system that does not have a radio control or other wireless option. The quick-start guide says the app is only available for Apple phones, but I was able to find it on Google Play for my Android.

I downloaded the app and, following the Quick Start instructions, I opened the app first. I then turned the layout power on DC, turned the controller all the way up (about 13 volts), and the locomotive sounds came on. The app was then able to locate the decoder and I was able to operate it, with sound and everything, just as if I was using the Engine Driver app with a wireless DCC system. I haven't put a lot of time into the app yet, but from what I've been able to find out you are supposed to be able to program the decoder using the app on DC power. I had already programmed it on the DCC system, so I didn't check this out, but if that is the case that could be very helpful. I didn't check out the wireless operation on DCC, either, but I expect it works just as well.

 

This is a very cool option for the people who have DC on their home layout, are hesitant to install DCC because of the cost, but still want to see what it's all about, or wants to run with a club that is only DCC (as most of them are these days). The decoder itself runs about $170, which, although pricey, is still below a DCC sound-equipped locomotive (starting at $250 or so) plus a DCC starter system (starting at $150 or so for the cheap Bachmann sets, around $200 for the NCE PowerCab or Digitrax Zephyr). Add another $10-15 for the speakers and your initial investment is still less than the price of the cheapest DCC sound-equipped engine, depending on if you have to have the decoder installed by a third party (I'll bet someone in the club will do it for a fair price) or if you have the skill to install it yourself. Plus, if you want to run with your club, you now have a sound equipped locomotive that will run on the DCC club layout using your phone as a throttle. And if after all of that you decide it's not for you, you have a DCC sound equipped engine to sell.

I have read on various forums that, like many DCC decoders, it doesn't play well with PWM DC, but with the PWM throttle turned all the way up (duty cycle 100%) the output is pure DC anyway, so it really didn't affect the operation that I could tell. I didn't try the loco in DC mode, which is disabled as a default setting but can be programmed to be on. Since my home "DC" layout uses a PWM throttle I don't think it would work very well in DC mode, but I do have pure DC throttles I could use to test it if I really decided I needed to. As it stands now, I don't think I really need to.

 

I'm looking forward to playing more with it.

Stuff

 I've been acquiring it.

Several modern diesels, I think I may have a problem. My diesel roster is up to 66 diesels, 24 of them modern ones that can be found on rails today. Since my target era is transition (40's-60's) that's a whole lot of modern motive power that doesn't fit my era. I suppose they are really collection locomotives since I can't run them at home.

It all started (as you may recall) because I saw a SD70Ace leading J class 611 on it's way to Strasburg and thought that it would be an interesting thing to model. The main problem is they won't run the same speed on the Digitrax system as they do at home on the NCE (more on that below). After that I found some NS heritage units (three so far; Erie, PRR and Southern), then I decided I needed other road names, then I decided I needed more CSX units to pull a Tropicana juice train, then I got a good deal on a lot of UP C44-9W locos, then I found some KCS units at Altoona...

Like I said, I may have a problem.

I've got them programmed for use in shows, but due to the fact that I run NCE at home and the club runs Digitrax, I really need to take the time to speed match them all on a Digitrax system. The problem with that is my Digitrax system is a starter and doesn't display the speed steps when rotating the throttle, so getting everything just so is going to be difficult if not impossible. I suppose I could invest in a serious Digitrax system, but I don't really want to spend the bones to do it.

I have gotten some steam, too. One Bachmann Alco 2-6-0 with broken valve gear, I got a real good deal on it in Altoona. It runs great, it's just missing the eccentric crank and rod. The main drive rods are in place and functioning fine. I'm torn, I could send it in for repairs (I have been told it would be replaced for a nominal fee because repair parts are not available) or I could run it as-is. It's not a critical part of any infrastructure, so I'll sit on it for a while.

I have also gotten one Con-Cor J3A Hudson in sort-of non running condition; the motor runs great but the gears aren't engaging. Of course, repair parts are not available, but I might be able to get something Kato, but non-Hudson, to work (Kato made the mechanism). Along with the Hudson came a Rivarrosi 2-8-2 in Southern Pacific paint, it has an unusual shell (air pumps on the smokebox face) and a long haul tender. It's a great runner, but I really have no use for it.

And just yesterday a brand-new Rokuhan 0-6-0 switcher in Z scale, decorated for the B&O, arrived in my mailbox. This is Rokuhan's first venture into North American style locomotives, and it's a winner in every department. It's smooth, quiet and strong. The detailing is very nice and it pulls like a mule. I had it circulating a Micro Trains track setup with six cars behind (and in front) of it and it ran with nary a hiccup. I'm sure I could have loaded it up further, but that's all I had on hand at the moment.

Other than locomotives, I've been working on T-TRAK modules. I have three of them in various stages of construction, the track is laid on all of them and now it's time to decorate. I need some paint and I'm waiting on some building kits. I'll be posting a review on three different T-TRAK module kits (Osborne, Klawndike and RS Laser Kits) sometime in the future.

I hope your rail days have been going as well as mine have.

No News

 It isn't that I'm doing nothing.

It's that what I'm doing is nothing to write about.

Hopefully that changes soon.

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.