Quote from: lirrman on January 19, 2012, 01:09:47 PM
Brad:
No kidding!  The aux. water tender was made to haul water - who knew.  I know what it was for.  My question, if you read the entire string,  was why the new one (the black freight one) was 3/4 of an inch shorter than the one Bachmann made to match the "J" and if one, both or neither are to scale.   The new one is factory lettered for the N&W. 

I don't know why the new tender(canteen car) is 3/4 inch shorter than the other water tender produced by Bachmann, BUT, I do know that there were different sizes of water tenders used by several different railroads. They ranged in size from around 15,000 gallon tanks to something around 22,000 gallons. I believe N & W operated several different size water tenders. It could be that Bachmann used more than one prototype for their water tenders.

Maybe, The Bach-man can answer that question.

The Bach-man

Regarding the new Bachmann Turntable. I just finished helping out another model railroader with a couple of glitches he encountered when hooking up his new turntable.

If you could pass along a couple of things.  It wouldn't hurt to improve the provided instructions to reflect that operating the turntable with a DC controller and the layout with a DCC controller  is a third option. We were even told by Bachmann Tech Support that this could not be done. Bachmann Support said the only two choices were totally DC or DCC with the installation of a decoder.

And, the provided cable, that goes between the turntable direction controller and the turntable is way to short.  That cable needs to be twice the current length, at least. Either the cable should be longer or a note added to plainly indicate that a red 10' Extenstion is required for DC operation of the turntable.

Will

Quote from: Jerrys HO on January 11, 2012, 12:16:40 AM
Will

Yes the old DC power pack can be hooked to your turntable. The separate DC power actually just controls the TT bridge movement. The actual power to the rails comes from the #4 track position. Do not hook any other power tracks to the TT unless you insulate them from the TT. I used Atlas insulated rail joiners to do this.
Once and if you decide to put a decoder in you will have to remove the separate DC power pack.

Jerry

Jerry,

I was at my friends this afternoon.  He sends his thanks. Works like a charm. Well enough that he may not even order the decoder.

To The Bach-man

If you could pass along a couple of things.  It wouldn't hurt to improve the provided instructions to reflect that operating the turntable with a DC controller and the layout with a DCC controller  is a third option. And the provided cable that goes between turntable direction controller and the turntable is way to short. It barely reaches the far edge of the turntable with 9 inch straights installed. That cable needs to be twice the current length, at least.

Will

I thought I hadn't been very clear.
We don't have a decoder for the turntable right now. We have to obtain one and since there is no
LHS, it will have to be ordered. In the interim can the turntable be operated using the old EZ DC Controller,
and still operate his trains DCC?

I been asked to help install a new Bachmann turntable on a DCC layout with a DCC EZ Controller, and something  has come up that I can not answer.

The instructions provided  say that separate power supplies are required for the track and the turntable, or a DCC decoder has to be installed in the Turntable.

Can the DCC EZ Controller be plugged into the track and use the old DC Controller to power the turntable?

Or am I misreading the whole thing?

Will

I believe, if you want a large degree of automation, JMRI is probably  a very good  way to go.


http://jmri.sourceforge.net/


My understanding, unfortunately,  is  that  MRC is not compatible with JMRI by MRC's choice.

You might contact MRC. They might have a solution.

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewCat&catId=460

Someone gave you some inaccurate information.

The Dynamis and EZ Command are two totally different and totally separate systems.

I have a Dynamis(I "upgraded" FROM an EZ Command) and while it does have some limitations, I am happy with it. It handles my layout with ease and I have run three trains at the same time.

Here is the URL for the Dynamis manual:

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/ez_content/dynamis_manual.pdf

Will

Thanks for all the ideas.

I am going to start exploring all of them and see which will give me the best results.

Will

Quote from: jward on December 24, 2011, 03:38:26 AM
have you thought about an L shaped yard? there is no reason why a yard can't bend around a corner.

switches take up alot of room. for example, a pair of #4 switches will eat up about 16" or more of space, leaving you with a couple of 8" tracks. of that 8", you may have 3" if you're lucky that doesn't interfere with another track.

if 2 feet is all the space you have you won't be able to have a staging yard.

Thanks, L-shaped is what I am going to look at. I think I can stretch my space out to about 3 feet. That combined with the L-shape might do the trick.

Quote from: jward on December 24, 2011, 02:38:46 AM
in ho, you will need alot more room for any kind of yard. mine is 2x6 and i can only hold about 5 car trains. i wouldn't advise less space than that.

The room my layout is in is only 11 feet long and I already have a 6 X 5 table in it. I might be able to squeeze it  out another 3 feet, but 6 feet

is not going to be feesable. That why I was hoping someone could suggest a way of compressing it some what. My main concern is the width.

I can uncouple the locomotives from the cars and that should allow a workable yard, though not ideal.

I need some suggestions.

I would like to add a 3 or 4 track staging yard off my mainline track.

I have considered coming off a main line  straight section,  at one end of the layout, using a # 5 or # 6 turnout.

The problem I have run into is limited space.  I only have about a 2 X 2 foot area, maybe slightly more to work with, for the actual yard area.

Has any one done this, and/or have any suggestions how to proceed in the most efficient(space requirements) and simplest way?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Quote from: jward on December 14, 2011, 01:14:56 AM
my recommendation would be to use the black roadbed track on dead end sidings or yard tracks where your locomotives won't go that often. that way conductivity won't be much of a problem.

That's a very good suggestion. As that is what I am doing as I replace the black roadbed track with the grey, I don't know why I didn't add that in my comments.

Oh, well, that what happened when you get old.  >gr<

Quote from: hawaiiho on December 13, 2011, 04:13:45 AM
I'll try to provide as many answers as I can.

#1
 
Lugs or otherwise, the Bachmann DCC Controller has no accessory power out terminals. I use my old  Bachmann DC Controller which does have an accessory output to power my turnouts.
The red wire that came with the turnout supplies power from the accessory supply to the slide switch and the green wire is essentially  for control. It connects between the slide switch and the turnout.

As to the two pronged spade lugs on the red wire. I just cut them off, stripped off some insulation, twisted the stranded wire, and dropped some solder on the twisted strands. The two wires slip into the accessory lugs on the DC Controller very nicely.

The packaging of all my remote switches  came with very clear instructions printed on the back of the package and included everything that was necessary to connect and operate
the turnout. And the set that I purchased included a DVD with instructions.

#2

Did you have the turnout powered when you experienced  the derailing problem? It really needs to be powered to work properly.  I would guess that was your problem.

#3

The lugs  on both sides of the re-railer section are for convenience in connecting the power from the controller to the track and probably should not be used to power the

turnouts.

Did you have the green  wire  and the red  wire, both,  properly connected to the slide switch when you attempted to operate the turnout?

The red wire connects to the two pin connector on the slide switch and green wire connects to the three pin connector. The red wire goes to the accessory supply and the green

wire to(or from, depending on how you want to look at it)  the turnout.

I hope this didn't confuse you even more.

One addition that I remembered after I posted this.
Bachmann, some time ago, announced they would offer a companion turnout/accessory power supply for their EZ Command System.  I haven't seen it in the Bachmann on-line catalogue as yet.

I'll try to provide as many answers as I can.

#1
 
Lugs or otherwise, the Bachmann DCC Controller has no accessory power out terminals. I use my old  Bachmann DC Controller which does have an accessory output to power my turnouts.
The red wire that came with the turnout supplies power from the accessory supply to the slide switch and the green wire is essentially  for control. It connects between the slide switch and the turnout.

As to the two pronged spade lugs on the red wire. I just cut them off, stripped off some insulation, twisted the stranded wire, and dropped some solder on the twisted strands. The two wires slip into the accessory lugs on the DC Controller very nicely.

The packaging of all my remote switches  came with very clear instructions printed on the back of the package and included everything that was necessary to connect and operate
the turnout. And the set that I purchased included a DVD with instructions.

#2

Did you have the turnout powered when you experienced  the derailing problem? It really needs to be powered to work properly.  I would guess that was your problem.

#3

The lugs  on both sides of the re-railer section are for convenience in connecting the power from the controller to the track and probably should not be used to power the

turnouts.

Did you have the green  wire  and the red  wire, both,  properly connected to the slide switch when you attempted to operate the turnout?

The red wire connects to the two pin connector on the slide switch and green wire connects to the three pin connector. The red wire goes to the accessory supply and the green

wire to(or from, depending on how you want to look at it)  the turnout.

I hope this didn't confuse you even more.