Traveler,

I like your idea of using a trackside heat sensor as a hotbox detector.  Don't know if the condition would ever develop on a model railroad to trip one of these, but it would be very prototypical, as this is how the detectors used on the actual railroads work.  You should be able to test it using an incandescent bulb, such as a grain-of-wheat bulb.

Les

I don't think so, Ken.  If the loco is DC, and is being fed 30v AC, the loco will hum and burn out.  If by some chance the 30v AC is routed through a diode before going to the motor (say, a miswired loco with a headlight diode interposed in the circuit between the track power and the motor), the motor would then be getting half-wave DC, but in one direction only.  In other words, 15v DC pulse.  This would cause a 12v DC loco to go at high speed, but in one direction only.

I would say the problem is in the power pack.

Les

2002,

When I posted, I forgot that you are using DCC.  The Kato Analogue Sound Box only works with DC.
The device has to be in the circuit to the locomotive, so it cannot work with DCC.

Les

I am in GMT-7.
Merry Christmas!

Hoping for some train DVDs.

It is always high summer on my model railroad, but it carries the Christmas Spirit.  I added a dome lounge to the Billings Local!

Les

Trainman:
You might be on to something.  "Realroad" as differentiated from "Model Railroad".

My observation as a retired "Realroader":  I am generally opposed to mergers, especially parallel rather than end-to-end.  I have seen this strategy badly abused in the midwest.  While sold to the ICC as a way to improve service, it has resulted in abandonments of merged lines and loss of jobs and service to the public.  Even if the service isn't abandoned, shippers are often left captive to one railroad rather than being able to choose between two competing railroads.  In my own hometown, service has gone from three competing railroads to one.
If a railroad is being mismanaged, buying more railroad is not going to help.  It will just spread the misery.

Les

I am not aware what is currently available in N scale, but there were models available in the past that you may still find on the market, either as New Old Stock or used.  I do not recall any available from Bachmann.

In view of that, perhaps I can mention some that were (and possibly still are) available from other builders.
These are in my own collection, which is both geographically and era-specific, and heavily weighted toward passenger operations (after all, you can't model everything).

Diesel Locomotives:

Con-Cor:  PA1.
Life-Like (now marketed by Walthers) E-8A; FA-2; BL-2.

Passenger Cars:

Con-Cor: streamlined, smooth-side: full baggage; RPO-baggage; coach; dining car; sleeper (6-6-4?); dome coach; teardrop observation.
Kato: Slumbercoach "Southland".  Lettered for MP.  Part of 4-car Slumbercoach set (1 MP; 1 B&O; 2 NP).

Freight cars:

Atlas: (I think) 40'box; 50'box; 80'box; 50'TOFC flat; cupola caboose.

I am sure there are/were many more.  Check manufacturers' listings, hobby shops, train shows.

Les

Many hobby shops sell these joiners.  They are cheap and come in strips.
Separate them with a wire cutter.  I always keep some around as spares.

Les

drhunt

You came back from a weekend honeymoon to find your railroad disassembled and boxed up?  Sounds like a pretty strong hint!

Yes, things are a lot better than 30 years ago.  Not huge, obvious changes, but a refinement of small things that add up to better quality overall.  I think we are doing better now, even with the price increases.

Les

You may want to check out the Kato Sound Box.  This plays through a central or under-the-layout speaker.
It carries nothing on the locomotive itself.

There are various sound cards available to produce sounds appropriate to different locomotive models.

I use one and am happy with it.

Les

To get painted but undecorated Diesel shouldn't be too bad, as that is how the actual locomotives look before they are painted.  They come in gray primer before being painted to suit the customer.

The strangest experience I had with this was back in 1969 when I bought a new AHM Fairbanks-Morse C-Liner in HO.  It was painted in Penn Central Black.  I wanted to strip it to repaint it in my own railroad color scheme (silver and green).

When I stripped off the black paint (using Pine-Sol.  Don't leave it on very long or it will attack the plastic.), under the black paint was a full NH McGinnis paint job!  The factory had done to the NH locomotive what PC did to the actual NH locomotive: just sprayed it black over the NH paint.  Black seemed to cover orange and white pretty well.

Actually, I thought the NH paint job looked 100% better.

Les

Sid,

I was worried that you might take offense at my post, and I'm glad to see you did not.  Posting from the perspective of someone who had been a yard clerk for 10 years, before going into engine service the car would have puzzled me.
Reporting marks and numbers are shown on the left-hand side of the carbody as someone stands facing it.  The reason is so they can be found quickly (like if the car initials and numbers are being written down as a cut of cars is pulled past the writer.  There may not be time to hunt for these.

I thought maybe the "No. 1" on the door may be a car number, but it could also refer to a mill number or even part of the product name (Jack Daniel's Number 7).  Also, car doors were easily damaged and replaced.  If the door carried the car number, it would have to be painted on the replacement door.

At a later time, possibly later than the era you are modeling, the AAR (Association of American Railroads) published an agreed-upon set of standards for car lettering.  This would have greatly cut down on confusion.  As railroads had to pay an equipment usage fee (car hire) to the owner of the car (called per diem), it was important to them to get this right.  On a small railroad that does not send its cars off-line, it probably wouldn't matter much, except to identify cars in train lists as loads or empties.


Les

Sid,

Beautiful job on your lumber company boxcar.  But it would drive a yard clerk or conductor nuts.  No reporting marks or road number.

Les

jonathan,

No.  CGW 90017.  When I wrote that, I didn't realize it was two pictures of the same car.

Les

RAM,
 
The X2f, or horn-hook, coupler was the standard coupler from about 1960-2000.  It was the standard coupler for HO trains as being the coupler HO equipment came equipped with.  Who voted on it?  The NMRA?  The NMRA serves as an advisory board to the manufacturers, but are pretty irrelevant to most model railroaders.  They try to standardize specifications for model railroad equipment to facilitate compatibility of equipment, but have no means of enforcing their standards.

In the period of the horn-hook coupler, modelers wishing better-looking and better operating couplers generally used KayDee couplers, operating knuckle couplers.  KayDee had a patent on these until about 2000.  When the patent protection expired the market was flooded with knuckle couplers.  At this time, knuckle couplers became the industry standard.

The horn-hook couplers did not all operate well with each other, as manufacturers used different designs and materials in their couplers.  To a lesser degree, knuckle couplers today have the same problem.

At one time, I was enthusiastic about the NMRA (National Model Railroad Association).  By the time they decided to hold their National Convention in London, England (!) I came to the conclusion that it was an elitist organization that had little in common with the average model railroader.  I do not consider model railroading to be a competitive hobby, and I do not appreciate other people dictating how I should enjoy my hobby.

Les

ClayNick,

You must have taken good care of those Tycos for them to run fine after 45 years!  I remember them being smooth, quiet runners.

Sometime back in the 1930's, model railroad manufacturers decided to standardize their HO trains so any manufacturer's trains would operate on any HO railroad and power supply.  You can probably find exceptions if you look far enough, but generally it was true.  Scale was 1/87, track was two-rail, motors ran on 12 volt DC (nominally).  The last thing to be standardized was the couplers by the late 1950's.  This situation remained until the late 1970's when DCC appeared.  DCC has supplanted DC control, not replaced it.  Most model railroads today still use DC.

So your 1960's-era trains should do just fine on modern track and DC power.  Two things you should be aware of:  Current HO and N-scale trains (American type) now use knuckle-type couplers.  They will not mate with the horn-hook couplers of the era of your trains, but it is not difficult to change out the old style couplers with new ones.
The second thing is that Tyco freight and passenger cars use truck-mounted couplers.  If you run Tyco cars in a train with cars with body-mounted couplers, you will need to convert the cars to all the same type coupler mounting, or they may derail on curves.  Body-mounted couplers are the current standard.  If you continue to run all Tyco cars, no problem.  Otherwise, it is not difficult to standardize on body-mounted couplers.

Good luck!

Les