Pickup Lines

 Several years ago I obtained a layout complete with trains from a gentleman that was moving out of his house into a retirement community and had to downsize. His focus was more artistic than model railroads, the train served as a component in one of his displays, so he wasn't going to miss it much.

I ended up taking the whole thing apart and using the pieces elsewhere. All told there was a full collection of DPM buildings, quite a few houses of various makes and sizes, a couple of built-up structures and all sorts of little N scale people. And the trains, let us not forget the trains.

The trains consisted of an oval of Bachmann EZ Track and a couple of turnouts and sidings, a Bachmann 0-6-0 in Southern livery, and a handful of  Bachmann freight cars with a Santa Fe caboose, new enough that they were equipped with fake knuckle couplers rather than Rapidos. The loco was one of the newer split-frame designs that actually run pretty well for a train set Bachmann.

The major problem these new run 0-6-0's have is pickups. As in, there aren't nearly enough of them, and the ones that are there aren't the best in the world. Only the front truck has pickups, and they consist of brass wipers that ride inside of the wheels. A better method of pickups is brass plates on the side frames of the trucks that the axle points ride in. All of the newer Bachmann steam locos have pickups of this type...except the 0-6-0 (and the non-J class 4-8-4, that has absolutely no tender pickups at all).

Once upon a time Bachmann carried a line of tenders that had all wheel pickups of the axle point kind in several different shapes and sizes. I managed to snag a slope-back tender for my Pennsy 0-6-0 and the difference is amazing. I picked up a few of these for other locos as well, but unfortunately Bachmann has long since dropped these tenders from their lineup. They do list the axle-point trucks as separate line items, but at this time they are all sold out However, they still have the 0-6-0 trucks with pickups as separate items. Not as good, but adequate.

The Southern 0-6-0 has a short square tender instead of the slope-back tender that came on my Pennsy switcher. I have been told this is more prototypical, but East Broad Top #3, a standard gauge 0-6-0, had the slope back tender so I guess it's a matter of what the road preferred when they ordered the locos. I decided to make this one a Prairie, so I got the leading and trailing trucks for it. While I was at it, I got a set of the not-as-good pickup trucks for it.

The front truck was fine as it was, so I drilled some holes in the bottom of the tender floor, one on either side of the bolster, and soldered wires onto the drawbar. I then drilled another set of holes on either side of the rear truck bolster and soldered the wires onto the pickup tabs of a new truck. It bolts right in, so no modifications were needed, and now the Southern switcher is now a Prairie with full tender pickups.

It runs much better than before as well, so we'll call this one a win.

Republic Locomotive Works

 If you model Nn3 you know Republic Locomotive Works.

A couple of months ago we were greeted with the sad news that Marshall Thompson, owner and operator of RLW, had passed away.

Other than the obvious tragedy of the loss to the family, this was a blow to the Nn3 community as well. Since RLW makes a lot of its own kits instead of just being a source for outside suppliers this put the future of many Nn3 models in jeopardy.

Today we were greeted with the happy news that Republic Locomotive Works has been purchased by Monroe Models. The assets of RLW are being moved to Minnesota and hopefully we will be able to once more purchase RLW kits.

Thank you Bruce Monroe and Monroe Models, may you find much success in your Nn3 venture.

Modern Power

 Last week I purchased one of these.

Normally I wouldn't be interested in such modern motive power since my railroad is set in the late transition era, and normally I wouldn't be interested in Norfolk Southern, either. But we have train shows coming up, and I am always looking for new and interesting trains to run at public shows. So why this loco?

So that I can do this with it. Yeah, it's the wrong number but it is the right type, and numbers can be changed.

Now all I need is some high-side gondolas in NS paint and I'm all ready for a ferry move to Strasburg.

Grrrrrrrr

I'm always on the lookout for new loads for cars to deliver to my team track. For instance, a couple of days ago I made a gravel load for a hopper car out of ballast and a styrene base and it turned out pretty good. I thought I might like a load of cars (as in automobiles), but the auto carriers are just too new for my era.

I did some research and found out before the era of auto racks some railroads, notably the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, delivered cars on truck trailers by way of TOFC loads. They did so by using 85 foot flat cars, which is way too big for my railroad, but one truck trailer will fit on a 40 foot flat car, so that's what I am going to do.

But to unload this flat car requires a ramp that the car can be pushed up against so that a tractor can hook up to the trailer and pull it off the flatcar. I didn't have a ramp...but I had a pile of stripwood.

Two hours later I had a frame for a ramp. All I needed was decking. I had some wooden coffee stirrers somewhere, so I went to try to locate them. When I came back, I found the dog had eaten my newly constructed ramp.

To say I was discombobulated is putting it mildly.

I never did find the coffee stirrers, but when the wife got home I handed the dog watching duties over to her and built another ramp. The decking is sheet basswood that I have scribed decking lines into. It is safely installed on my layout now, far away from chomping doggie jaws, and I think it will look pretty good after some weathering.

Shapeways has truck trailer auto carriers. They also have autos to put on them. Additionally, they have tractors to put on flatcars, and since I now have a ramp to unload them...

 

My team track has never been busier.

Back to the NCE

 I got an email last week saying my NCE PowerCab was in the mail.

This was welcome news, but rather unexpected since I had not received any word at all about it since I sent it in. I checked on the tracking number and the post office said it would be here Saturday. So today I went out to the mailbox and there it was!

I opened the box and the job sheet was the first thing I saw. Reading the job sheet showed that they had indeed found a faulty component that would keep the Cab Bus from operating, and on top of that they replaced a faulty potentiometer for the speed knob and threw in a new book for the 1.65 firmware upgrade.

I plugged the PowerCab into the left socket on the WFD31, turned the power on, and when the PowerCab booted up the light went from red to purple! Success! I connected my cell phone to the WFD31 network and for the first time the PVRR was wireless!

I plugged the Cab06 in and checked it out, and it works as well. So now I have both wireless operation and a throttle for my future yard. For now I have one locomotive programmed into the PowerCab and one programmed into the Cab06 so I can run them both at the same time without having to punch the Recall button.

I was a little put out that I had not gotten any updates while they had my system, I was at least expecting a "We found this wrong and it will cost you this much to fix it" but I can't argue with the results. The Cab Bus is up, the thumbwheel operation is flawless, and it only cost me shipping to Webster NY.

Fun little detail, I had sent it to New York in the original box all wrapped up with brown paper, and to send it back to me they unfolded the box and turned it inside out. I unfolded it and turned it back right side out and I'm using it to store my new manual and the extra cords.

One day soon I'll break out the Dynasis system and do a side by side by side comparison with it, the PowerCab and the Digitrax systems. Until then I have some trains to run.

A Tale of Two Couplers

Well... three actually, and four if you count the Z scale coupler that is pictured in comparison. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First, it is confession time. I am not a big fan of Micro Trains couplers. I'm not a really big fan of their trucks, either, but I like the trucks better than the couplers. Except for the six axle passenger car trucks. I hate those things, always dropping wheels, and the exploding couplers, don't even get me started...

But back to couplers. Micro Trains uses a two piece coupler design with a spring in the middle to provide a delayed uncoupling action. Some of the designs are meant to replace the T shank Rapido couplers, and if the standard design is a PITA to put together the T shank designs are something altogether different.

You can buy all Micro Trains couplers in kit form, which just adds to the aggravation (the price break advantage pales considerably with every spring that flies off into the null space between universes, never to be seen again), and some assembled, which adds to the price but in the long run is worth the extra charge. Some couplers do not have pre-assembled versions, most notably the T shank designs, so assembly is required. To add to the fun of the T shank design, most of them cannot be assembled off of the model and can't make use of the assembly jig. 

The assembled versions also have a very annoying habit of coming to pieces at inopportune times, most notably their talgo truck designs (for non model railroaders, talgo trucks have the couplers mounted on arms off of one end of the truck). I can't count the number of times a trip pin has caught on a piece of clothing, or a low hanging pin has caught on a tie, and popped the lid off the draft box. You may be able to recover the coupler halves, but that spring is nestled up to your missing socks and 10 mm sockets.

The body mount designs, once they are mounted, have the mounting screw to hold them together but everything else needs to be touched in strategic areas with a hot soldering iron tip to keep them together. On top of all that purists will point out their unrealistic size, although to be fair the standard N scale couplers from all the manufacturers share that particular flaw; some are worse in this regard than others, but all of them are oversize.

One thing that all Micro Trains couplers do, regardless of their design, is bounce. This is extremely annoying as you watch your train run down the track at switching speeds, the cars bouncing back and forth as if they are connected with Pogo sticks instead of couplers. Unfortunately this design flaw is carried over into the Z scale line as well, so fitting Z scale couplers to your rolling stock to provide a more realistic size doesn't eliminate the bounce.

Couplers from other manufacturers don't bounce. Atlas's Accumate couplers, the couplers found on BLI cars, and the McHenry style EZ Mate from Bachmann will all play fairly well with each other and have no bounce. Unfortunately the Accumate is difficult to retrofit onto cars not originally equipped with them, BLI does not offer their couplers separately, and the EZ Mate, although it will fit into Micro Trains draft boxes as if they were designed to do so, are even more oversized than the rest and have excessively long shanks (to fit EZ Mate couplers into Micro Trains 1015 or 1016 boxes, use their short shank and medium shank respectively in place of Micro Trains medium and long shank designs). Additionally, using the EZ Mate means you have to buy two couplers to make one, and that can get expensive in a big hurry.

But, for all their flaws Micro Trains followed the old Texas Ranger motto and got there firstest with the mostest, so they are the industry standard for better or for worse. Most of us use the Micro Trains couplers because they make a coupler style or conversion kit to fit almost every car and locomotive ever made in N scale, and if all else fails you can always glue on a piece of strip plastic for a body mount coupler.

Micro Trains has not been completely tone-deaf however. A few years ago they released a new design of coupler called the True-Scale. I recently purchased some of them to see how they stack up.

 First off, they only come in kit form, not pre-assembled. However, instead of the disappearing spring, each coupler half is fitted with a whisker that provides the coupling action (uncoupling has to be done with a tool, no provision is included for automatic uncoupling). This makes them extremely easy to assemble. The following pictures shows the assembly process:

The parts. Note the absence of coil springs, the whiskers on the ends of the coupler halves serve that purpose.

First the lower coupler half is positioned over the mounting stud.

and then, the upper half.

The coupler box lid is then pressed into place, and just like that the coupler assembly is complete.

Flipping the completed coupler assembly over reveals the mounting hole for the brake hose.

Actually fitting this hose is optional, it does nothing for the operation of the coupler and is there strictly for appearances.

Assembly was so very easy, in fact, that I found myself becoming quite annoyed that Micro Trains hasn't seen fit to redesign the rest of their couplers along these lines. Not only is the assembly very easy, but since the coupler halves have a fixed pivot point the bounce is completely eliminated. Also, true to their name, the size is close enough to scale (smaller than even the Z scale coupler) to make purists smile.

Another good thing is the True Scale couplers are a drop-in replacement for the Micro Trains 1015 or 1016 coupler that is used in many body mount applications. The 1300 short shank True Scale is used to replace the 1015 and the long shank 1301 True Scale is used to replace the 1016. Many diesel locomotives made by Atlas, Life-Like, Kato and increasingly Bachmann, also use this size and style of coupler draft boxes if not the entire coupler, so retrofitting those locomotives is a snap. If your rolling stock came equipped with body mounted couplers there is a very good chance one of these will be a drop in replacement, and if not they are as easy to body mount as the 1015/1016.

And now for the disadvantages.

First off is their size. They are small. Smaller even than the Z scale couplers, as I mentioned before and as clearly visible in the picture below. What that means is they will not couple with any other coupler, either N or Z, by any manufacturer. This means you either have to convert your entire fleet at once, made more difficult by the fact that there are only two offerings (short and long shank, both body mounted) so converting most cars is going to mean body mounting, or you are going to have to make conversion cars to use as you convert your fleet slowly. That's not such a big deal to those of us who started out with Rapido couplers, but anyone that is new-ish to the hobby will likely find this very annoying.

A size comparison: The top couplers are a Bachmann medium shank EZ Mate fitted to a Micro Trains 1016 coupler box on the left and a Z scale coupler on the right. In the middle is the long shank True Scale on the right and the short on the left. On the bottom are the standard sized Micro Trains long shank 1016 on the left and the short shank 1015 on the right. Note the size difference between the EZ Mate on the top left and the standard MT 1016 on the bottom left. Also note the size difference between the Z scale on the top right and the True Scale couplers in the middle.

The second issue is their size. Not only is the coupler smaller in the horizontal dimensions, it is also smaller in the vertical dimension (this is called "gather" and refers to the dimension of the coupler face). The reduced gather means there is little to no wiggle room for mounting height, you will have to make certain the coupler is mounted to exactly the right height as measured by the Micro Trains height gauge or there is a high likelihood the couplers will not couple.

The next few pictures shows the size difference between the standard N scale Micro Trains, the True Scale, and the Z/Nn3 Micro Trains couplers.

First is a comparison of horizontal dimensions. On the left is a standard MT coupler on a standard gauge caboose. In the middle is a True Scale coupler on a standard gauge caboose. On the right is a Z scale coupler on an Nn3 (narrow gauge) caboose. The difference in the horizontal sizes means the True Scale will not couple with either standard N scale or Z scale couplers.

Another view from the side shows the difference in the gather (vertical size) of the couplers.

A direct comparison from the side of the standard gauge cabooses better illustrates the difference in the gather of the standard vs True Scale couplers.

This side view of the narrow gauge caboose with Z scale coupler on the left shows the gather of the True Scale on the standard gauge caboose on the right is closer, but still less.

Another disadvantage to the reduced gather is that the coupler does not tolerate sloppy track work. While we should all strive to be perfect in our track work to improve the running qualities of our railroads, in the real world we are not all skilled enough to get every level perfect and every grade transition flawless. The True Scale coupler demands both.

A third issue is their size. Because the shanks are so much shorter the coupler swing, the angle it can deviate from centerline, is greatly reduced. And, since they are all body mounted, this means that tight curves will cause longer freight cars to be on the ground instead of on the rails, and passenger cars or extra-long modern freight cars such as auto racks would be even more likely to do so. So in addition to the tight tolerances in vertical variation required, larger radius curves are also a must-have.

So far I have one locomotive, a handful of freight cars and a caboose converted to the True Scale couplers. I have adjusted coupler heights to match perfectly between the cars on level tracks, but my trackwork is not pristine enough to ensure flawless operation. I am happy to report that Kato Unitrack assembled on a flat surface is generally sufficient to run this train, however, and I am pleased with the results. No bounce, closer coupling (not a good thing on tight curves but it looks great on the straights), and more prototypical size.

Since my current layout uses curves tight enough to derail body mounted couplers (especially these body mounted couplers) and has vertical variations in excess of their gather (meaning, great enough to cause them to uncouple by lifting one over the other) this train will not see service on my home layout. I am almost positive that vertical variations will limit their use on show or club layouts as well. Since T-TRAK and N-Trak layouts both often have large enough vertical variations at the module joins to cause problems on standard size N scale couplers, these will likely have a lower possibility of working consistently. When I build the next version of my home layout I will pay closer attention to my trackwork and use bigger curves, so hopefully they will work there.

In the meantime, they look great on my display shelf.

Swapping Systems

 When last we met I was awaiting parts for the Digitrax Zephyr.

The plug arrived, I wired some track wiring to it, plugged it in and set the system up...only to find that half the power cord had not been included either.

So, back to Amazon I went for a power cord to run from the wall to the AC/DC adapter. It is a standard cord like you would find on a laptop computer, so no big deal, just the frustration of not having it included to deal with.

The cord arrived and I hooked it up. It works just like it is supposed to, running trains flawlessly...except for the Atlas redbird. The decoder is acting up on that again, once again it is hesitating between the application of throttle and the movement on the loco at the initial roll-on. After that initial roll-on it is fine. 

Just to make sure I hooked the NCE up to it and got the same results. Check the momentum, yep it's off, looks like that decoder is going flakey again. I don't think I'll bother sending it in for repair, I'll just put another decoder in it and call it good.

As a side note, one thing that I like about the Zephyr that I don't have with the PowerCab is the ability to see what is already programmed into each of the CV's. I'm sure there is a way to do it with the PowerCab but I haven't discovered it yet. Perhaps it will be in the version 1.65 book when it arrives.

At any rate, I have a third (count them, THREE!!!) DCC system to play with; the NCE PowerCab (which I love), the Digitrax Zephyr (which looks to be just as good as it is advertised to be), and the Bachmann Dynamis wireless system (which has an annoying tendency to have throttle to base station communication issues but is otherwise OK). One of these days when the PowerCab has returned from it's test and check I'll have to do a side-by-side comparison of all of them.

But for now I am building a shelf for the Zephyr to sit on while the PowerCab gets sent to Webster NY to have its cab bus system checked out. Hopefully when it comes back it will be fully operational and not only will I be able to use my new Cab06 throttle with it, but I will also be able to use my WFD-31 and control trains with my cell phone.