Quote from: jward on August 28, 2013, 10:09:30 PM
rbryce has figured out how to get the cars to rerail, now the trick is to keep them from derailing in the first place.

That's going to far easier for me as 99.75% of all of my de-railings are manually induced de-railings to test the re-railer!  As I have said before, I have very, very few actual de-railings, but if one should occur, I would like the re-railer to work correctly to resolve it.

This argument is like saying that if I go off shore on my boat, I should never be concerned about my EPIRB working correctly because I should never need it, as if my boat was made correctly, it should never sink!

However, in the rare instance that I actually do sink, I think I would like it to work!

OK, Jeff, I'm done with this.  How many times in the past thread did we argue about the fact that we are not concerned here with de-railing.  IT HAPPENS!  No matter how good things are, IT HAPPENS.  The issue IN THIS THREAD, and please stick to it, is the failure of Bachmanns product to re-rail the very occasional derailment.

I really believe I may have solved the problem in 2 ways.  1)  I think I can modify the Bachmann re-railers I already have so the things work, and 2) from now on, I'm no longer using the Bachmann product.

If anyone wishes to know how my test turns out, then just say so.  If you still want to switch the topic of the thread, then please, start a new one.

If it's this easy, I'm going to be amazed, but there is a definite difference between the Bachmann re-railer design and the Atlas design.  The Atlas re-railer has a flat spot in the outside of the rails where the Bachmann has the groove continue up to the rail.  The flat spot on the Atlas allows the outside wheel to rise up to the level of the top of the rail and slide sideways as it is pulled back into alignment by the wheel on the inside of the tracks being forced by the guide on the inside of the re-railer.  The Bachmann design has the outside edge of the re-railer come to a point and align with the groove on the outside of the rail.  The wheel flange then enters that groove and never crosses over the rail to re-rail.  I'm going to modify a Bachmann re-railer to the same geometry this weekend and try it.  If it works, I'll post photos.

Either way I'm still going to convert the entire upper level to Atlas track.

Today I went over to H&R Trains and bought 4 sections of Atlas Code 100 NS track and 2 Atlas re-railers.  I tested several cars by manually de-railing them and passing them over the Atlas re-railers.  98% success rate of re-railing on the first pass, 100% re-railing on a second pass.

I wanted to ask if there had been any progress on finding the problem with the Bachmann re-railers, so I went to the thread to post the question.  I see Bachmann has found a way to fix the problem with their re-railers, or at least stop the issue from being discussed.  On April 1, 2013, the Yardmaster posted that it was being "discussed and will be remedied".  He then locked the thread so no more posts can be done there.  WHY?  That is kind of low!  Thank you Mr Bachmann, I guess this is the same "Tech Support" everyone on this forum has been complaining about for as long as I can remember.  At least you are consistant.  From now on, I'm buying Atlas track, and if I find a buyer for several hundred pieces of new Bachmann track at our club's next train show, it's all out of here!  Since I have not yet started building the layout, planned for this fall, it's all still new.  I do have several hundred pieces of track, but that is only enough for the lower level, and every piece of Bachmann track I sell is a piece of new Bachmann track they will not sell.  Atlas will be selling me a lot of track.  

I am a big user of Anyrail and have found it to be very accurate with Bachmann EZ track.  I also second the opinion regarding steel track. Stay away from it no matter how cheap it is. You will just be throwing good money away.

I have designed a fairly large and complex double layer railroad with Anyrail, and have needed to scrap my ideas several times and start over when the software told me I could not get there from here. Every time it told me that, it was correct. After designing my most current layout and eliminating all the problems I could find, I then printed the layout at 1:1 scale. After printing the 200+ pages of the layout, I laid the sheets out and placed my track and buildings over the printed pages, and everything fit exactly like it was drawn.  I did need to make some adjustments to the layout because the printed paper version showed me that some buildings may not fit, and when I laid the track and buildings over the paper, they did not fit. After the adjustments, they worked.

I have a lot of confidence in Anyrail, and even though it made me revise the layout a few times, it's easier and cheaper to fix paper than plywood and plaster, and far less frustrating!

Brass may conduct better than NS ... as long as the brass does not have a corrosion or passive layer formed on the track's surface.  I find that NS needs cleaned occasionally, but not as much as brass does.  Brass's passive layer is not near as conductive as NS's passive layer, which is why I prefer NS over brass.  Steel rails are not even in my vocabulary.  

Quote from: Doneldon on April 23, 2013, 01:37:51 PM
So I don't think anyone intends to "rave" about NS track; it's more like it's the smartest kid in the dumb row.
                                                                                                                                     -- D

The trouble is, it's the only row !!!

And I would agree with both Jeff and jbrock27 as well.  I offered the Bull Frog Snot option in case there was some sentimental value to the locomotive and you wanted to continue to use it.  I did state the Bull Frog Snot costs about the same or close to the cost of another engine, but it would at least allow you to keep using it.

You can also try Bull Frog Snot to replace the traction tires.  I have used it, it's easy to apply, there are real good videos on how to do it on You Tube and it works great.  But, a container of it costs almost as much as Jeff said the replacement engine costs ($24.00), however a container will do about 2.3 x 10² of wheels. 

Quote from: Doneldon on April 14, 2013, 11:36:07 PM

Quote from: jbrock27 on April 14, 2013, 10:34:56 PM
This year, I like ARMY'S chances of beating NAVY in lacrosse. 

jb-

As an old sailor I have to say, "not a chance."

                                                            -- D

As a retired submarine sailor, I agree with --D!

My Riverossi steam engines have a problem running on Code 83 track, due to the height of the wheel flanges used by Riverossi.  Code 100 works well with these locomotives and never visually bothered me, as my eyes are not calibrated enough to see the difference in 13 thousandths of an inch, especially after adding a lot of scenery and ballasting the tracks.  Now it may be visibly noticeable if I had used a combination of the different sizes of track in close proximity with each other, but I don't.

Your re-railer power connection has a terminal on both sides of the re-railer, which will allow you you to "chain wire" multiple units together to provide track power to many devices.  You can provide power from the control unit to the track by pluggin in the wire to one side of the re-railer, and run a separate wire from the other side of the re-railer to the snap-it device.  I have done this to power multiple rail lines the same way.

The mfg advertises it for an Atlas turnout, but it is for a dual coil mechanism, which Bachmann also uses.

And, according to the mfg, you can use an external power supply to provide power to the Snap-it as well.  Not sure what than means, unless the external power supply is a booster, as I believe it's decoder would have to receive the command signal via track power to operate the turnout.



This information is from Tony's Train Exchange:

General

The NCE Snap-It stationary decoder is designed to operate a single snap action turnout motor. It measures 1.80 X 1.50 inches and is specifically designed for low current motors such as Atlas, Lifelike, Bachmann, etc., but it will operate high current machines such as the Nick & Jack International, Kemtron, or Rix with the addition of external capacitors or the use of an external power supply. The Snap-It uses a capacitive discharge technique to operate coil motor switch machines. In this technique, a capacitor is slowly (e.g. about 1.5 seconds) charge and used to store electrical energy. When a command is issued to operate the switch, this energy is released all at once through switch machine causing it to change position. The current pulse is large, but is present for only a short time (0.125 seconds) while the capacitor discharges so it will effectively operate the switch machine while preventing switch motor burnout and keeping the current drawn from the layout quite low.

The Snap-It supports address ranges from 1 to 2044 and is programmed directly on the main rather than by using the programming track. Pushbutton inputs are provided for manual switch operation. As delivered, one manual switch will open the points and the other will close them. A CV value change will cause the Snap-It to toggle the switch position with each push of either manual pushbutton. For those wanting to fine tune the Snap-It operation, the duration of the output pulse and the capacitor re-charge time are both programmable by changing the appropriate CV value.

Feedback

The Snap-It has no provision for cab bus feedback.

Programming

Programming is easy and does not require the use of the programming track. The Snap-It is designed for programming directly on the mainline. With power off, an included shorting plug is connected across the programming terminals. Track power is applied, and a switch command is issued to the desired address. The jumper is then removed. The Snap-It will now respond to the address issued when the jumper was present.

In addition to the address, the on time of the Snap-It can be programmed. This requires writing a value to CV 552 and requires that your system have a PROGRAM ACCESSORIES on the MAIN capability. The factory set pulse width is 125 milliseconds. It can be set from 1 to 255 milliseconds. I found the default value to work well with low current switch machines.

CV 550 can be set to vary the allowed recharge time of the storage capacitor. Acceptable limits are as high as 10 seconds. The default 1.5 seconds seemed to work well. Longer time will reduce the recharge current, but will also take more time before the Snap-It is ready to operate again.

Finally, CV 548 is set to enable the toggle option. In this mode, the point change position each time either manual control button is pushed. A 0 in CV 548 will disable the toggle option. In this mode, one manual switch will open the points and the other will close them.

Manual

The manual is short (four pages) but complete. It clearly shows how to connect the Snap-It to the DCC system, the switch motor and the manual pushbuttons. Directions are clear and concise for programming the Snap-It address and the other programming options.

Performance

On low current switch motors such as my Peco test load, the Snap-It work quite well right out of the box. However, I was unable to operate a Nick & Jack International twin coil machine using the Snap-It as I received it. I need to add 6,000 uF of extra capacitance in order to operate the NJI machine. The directions do cover this case, including Digikey part numbers for suitable capacitors, but 6,000 uF at 25 volts is a fairly large amount of capacitance. Two 3300 uF at 25 volts (parts recommended in the manual) will cost about $4.20. The manual also suggests that a separate power supply might be used. This would help if you are planning on using an array of Snap-Its with NJI machines to control your layout. One booster supply could operate all of the Snap-Its.

Recommendations

For low current switch machines, the Snap-It is a good choice. It operates the machines well, is easy to install and operate, and provides a very simple programming interface. The Snap-It may not be the best choice if you use high current switch machines such as the NJI twin coil machine. The required additional parts make the Snap-It less easy and more expensive to install. Other accessory decoders are more efficient at operating these high current switch machines (see Tony's other accessory decoder reviews). If you like the Snap-It features and only have a couple of high current switch machines, then a couple of extra parts will have you up and running.

Looks like it will work fine with Bachmann turn-outs, right out of the box.

They were suppose to make the third movie, but so far, never have.

Speaking of leaving a railroad tunnel, remember Donald Southerland and his 3 Sherman tanks exiting the railroad tunnel and mistreating many Germans in Kelly's Hero's?  They were even playing "I've been working on the railroad" on their PA system.

I remember the train in the end of the movie "The man who shot Liberty Valance", when the conductor said something to the effect to Jimmy Stewart, " Senator, we will have you back in Washington in 4 days.  We'll push this baby right up to 25 miles per hour or bust her trying!"

Also, another Jimmy Stewart Civil War era movie, Shenendoah, they stopped a POW train, freed all the POW's and actually burned it just because it was a POW train.