I think DCC has made sound so much fun with model trains. I remember the days when people would sell Tape cassets of Diesel/steam sounds to play under the layout LOL. Now we play with sounds that emit from the loco running on the layout. Its very cool. Smoke. ....I dont own any locos that smoke...yet....The old tyco smoke unit is BS. However I think the BLI/MTH puffing smoke is very cool when putting on a show for guests. I like the slow speed puffs like when you are pulling a train out of a station at 10mph , passing under a bridge and picking up speed... it looks pretty cool. Its not something to be used all the time. its just one of those things that you use when "showing off".

the 4 Tsunamis I have bought all had to be hard wired in.

I buy an 8 pin plug with teather, hook it up to th correct pins and make it a plug in decoder. IMO that will be the simple way to do it. I have not looked lately to see if they have decoders with plugs already on the wire leads

Trent

hauling coal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqBgNLUQQBQ

If i read his post correctly hes asking how to unload live loads of coal? did I understand his post correctly? I have seen a few guys do this and it always seams to work for short trains as they are so heavy. both times I had seen it they used the rotater unloader with the couplers that spin...forget what they are called. it was mostly just for show with guests around.

speaking of coal. If you have alot of cars and need cheep loads buy some sheets of coarse/med foam spay black and cut out to size. I just did 50 cars from  $0.00 ! a used can of satan black spray paint that we had at work and a free piec of 3"foam from a shipment we got in at work. Its not as good looking as the ones made from sand or balast but its very very light and free!. i see on line some people pay as much as $3 a car for a load.

my 2-8-0 doesnt eaxactly haul the mail but it looks so good pulling 30 old time freight cars with a little caboose

I think it really comes down to the loco in question. a really old or poor engine with a cheep motor may not improve like a newer engine will.

When new My Bachman DCC 2-8-4 standard line did not run well at low speed out of the box. It took 1/2 throttle to get it to move with 20 cars. as soon as it started to move it took off to 60MPH. I could not use the momentem because of this. I took the bachman decoder out and put a $30 Lokpilot decoder with BEMF and now it would walk away with 40 cars at 2 scale mph. Amazing!

this is what DCC can do for you. the hard part of BEMF is that some decoders need lots of CV settings to adjust the BEMF.

Trent

that gap is normal its a split frame with the motor between them. glad you got it fixed

In my experince If the axel can easly fall out of a truck then the truck is warped badly, the axel is bent, the axel pocket is miss formed or it was not put in all the way at the factory. I cant see how shipping could cause a properly fitted axel to fall out. With most trucks you really have to bend the sideframe to get an axel to slip in.

most paints that comes in a spray can will attack foam. There are a few that wont but I cant name any off the top of my head. In My experince you need to use a paint that is more water baised or laytex. most of these will not attack the foam. If this is scenery work brush painting the foam is all that is needed. I wont go into more details untill I find what your end goal is with the paint.

the thin CA glue is a PITA if you dont have the quick set spray to make it harden ASAP if this is what you had I know exactly what issues you had... LOL

Trent

Configuration Variables = CV

CVs adjust the decoders action when that CV is in use with the loco. you change its value depending on its use. Its how we tune our engine to do things we may want. it can be used in lighting,motor control,sounds etc....

this may help explain(for now dont worry about bits and that talk)
http://www.nmra.org/standards/DCC/standards_rps/RP-9.2.2%202007%20July.pdf

the DCC system does not really give you better motor control but certain decoders will allow you to address this issue. For instance you can get a standard "cheep" decoder that will just do basic F-R motor control and F-R light control. this cheep decoder will run locos basicly the same as DC did. Now some slightly upgraded decoders will allow you to adjust the BEMF control  and Voltage start control (AKA.. Vstart.) these can greatly help low speed motor RPM and tame a jerky motor. I have taken a cheep decoder out of a sluggish engine and put in a $25 decoder with BEMF control and it was like a complete new engine. Its amazing what DCC will do for you!

Trent

Down at the club a member has assembled a Edmound fitzgerald Ore boat that sits next to the Walthers ore docks . the model is about 13'+ long. We will soon be adding a 2nd boat with 3 Hulett unloaders that will serve as the ore load out for our trains. I will have to get you guys some pics of the progress. We plan to tie in the ore docks with the steel mills section that is also under construction. I did not know what a Hulett was untill a few months ago.

Thanks for posing those vids. amazing how they unload the great lake boats. next time im down in the city I will have to stop over and try to get some pics of the old Huletts. Got a friend that is a Chicago cop and might get over there without any trouble?

Trent

With the added weight I added the berk will pull about 45 cars on the flats. and 38 cars up all the clubs 1.25% grades if I can get a run at them. In this vid I will have to admit I have a powered box car hidden in the string of cars. I can pull 80 car trains with both engine and powered box car all day long.  On Open house nights at the club it puts on a good show for the public. Also gets the modern Diesel guys spun up with there multible 4 axel engine consist pulling shorter 50 car trains LOL!!! If Im real tricky I put in 2 powered box cars and can pull about 110 with "one" loco at the lead... I have 10 scale miles to work with so we have the room to get around the club layout just fine...

In My pretend ...world STEAM STILL RULES!

IMHO 22" is the min. Mine will make it thru 18" curves but it grinds through and slows down from the tight radius. It likes the 22" alot better and rarely will derails on the 22".

Down at the EMRCC club with the Bachmann NKP Berkshire this weekend. Pulling 62 cars around the 10 scale mile layout for open house

Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA28-zblCm8