Doneldon,
The only time I was ever drunk at work was the day I spilled a beaker of 99% ethyl alcohol on a bench top.  I started cleaning it up, and the more I wiped, the drunker I got.  It seems you can absorb it much faster by inhaling it than by drinking it.  But the total amount you absorb is quite small, so you sober up relatively quickly.  I have not repeated this with turpentine so I don't know if it works the same way. 

I wonder if the fellow of whom you wrote was working with lacquers.  Lacquer thinner is typically about equal parts of naphtha, acetone and methyl alcohol with some toluene thrown in for good measure.  All of these are bad for the brain, the lungs, and particularly the liver.

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mabloodhound,
Thank you for the kind words!

Jim

A resistor or a current regulator IC can be built right into an LED.  Some of the fancier ones automatically blink or flicker.

Jim

I believe the bluish green colour is Malachite green.  Early on, it was probably made with Malachite ore, ground up and added to boiled linseed oil along with turpentine and white lead.  Later, the natural ore was replaced with pure copper carbonate which makes up the bulk of Malachite.  Not only was this paint relatively cheap, it also discouraged bugs and mould from attacking the wooden cabs, greatly extending their life.  What it did to the engine crew is open to debate but its effect was probably lost in a background of tobacco smoke, wood smoke and coal smoke, not to mention lead based paints, asbestos, and large, daily breakfasts of bacon and eggs.

Even cheaper paint was made with red oxide of iron plus boiled linseed oil and turpentine.  This was the original barn red and boxcar red.  Fortunately, the human body can deal with iron, unlike copper and lead, and so this paint was relatively harmless as long as you did not drink it.  Those that did drink it usually died with a nice finish.

Jim

Rod,
Your finger nail polish test has confirmed that it is indeed the first set of wheels that short.  Why not just replace them with plastic wheels?

---

Tom,
I too have many Shinohara turnouts on my layout.  Only a couple of them gave any problems with DCC and required modification.  I used Alan Gartner's method which not only gaps the closure rails as you have done and removes the sliding contact tabs as you have done but also isolates the the points from one another and then jumpers each point to its corresponding stock rail.  This forces each point to have the same polarity as its stock rail so that any accidental connection between them, such as Rod has been experiencing, does not cause a short circuit.  Without the jumpers, I do not see how your point rails get any power except possibly through the notoriously unreliable contact of point to stock rail.  And if somehow they do get power, I do not understand how you avoid having the points, when open, from having a polarity opposite that of their stock rails.  With the point rails still joined by the metallic hinge and throw bars, powering the points so the closed one matches the polarity of its stock rail perforce means the open point does not match the polarity of its stock rail.  And that, it seems, is what is causing Rod's problem.  I am also left with the question:  if you do not somehow power your points, what is the purpose of having all metal turnouts?

As to which Shinohara turnouts gave me problems, they were both number fours.  The number sixes and eights have never been a problem with any locomotive and doing any modifications to them would have been a waste of time.  My hand laid turnouts in all the scales I model are all metal with points isolated from the frogs and jumpered to their corresponding stock rails.  (The only exceptions are stub switches.)  The only shorts they ever have are when operators attempt a trailing point movement with the switch set against them.  But that is a whole other story.

Jim

Quote from: Rangerover1944 on April 17, 2012, 03:29:13 PM
Back to the topic, if the tender trucks somehow got turned around so that they are both on the same side, the decoder would have fried without doubt if the short detection device failed. Jim

Close, but no cigar.  Shorting the INPUT of a decoder shuts off the power to the decoder.  There is no power at the decoder to over heat it.  Shorting the OUTPUT of a decoder overloads it, causing it to heat up.  If the decoder has over current and/or over temperature detection, the decoder should shut itself off to prevent damage.  If not, the decoder will self destruct.  Over current protection in the command station is basically to protect the command station and to keep the wheels from being welded to the rails in case of a shorted locomotive.  Over current protection in the power supply ("wall wart") is to keep it from starting a fire in case of sustained overload.  Suggestion - before junking your E-Z Command, use a meter or a small, 12 volt lamp to make sure the power supply is working.

Over VOLTAGE is a whole different kettle of fish but it too can damage or destroy a decoder.

Jim

Quote from: Johnson Bar Jeff on April 15, 2012, 10:58:15 PM
I do hear tell that growing older is mandatory but growing up is optional.  
Jeff

Jeff, I hope you don't mind but I just stole that for my signature line.

Jim

What is this "recapture my youth" stuff?  I started my first childhood almost 70 years ago and am still enjoying it.

When asked how I ever got into model railroading, my usual answer is that in my generation, many little boys got train sets for Christmas.  The only difference was that they grew up.

Jim

Twelve volts applied to 12 ohms would indeed give a current of 1 amp if you were dealing with a resistor.  But this is a motor.  PM motors also work as generators when they are spinning.  This means they produce Back Electro Motive Force (BEMF) when they are running.  This BEMF opposes the applied voltage, lowering the effective voltage that is running the motor.  Depending on the motor and its mechanical load, the current could be anything from 1 amp (motor stalled) down to a few milliamps.  I assume you measured the motor's resistance with a meter.  Why not measure its current with a meter too?

Using a rheostat to control the motor's speed can cause you no end of problems.  The first problem is that a proper, high wattage, taper wound rheostat designed for this application will cost you more than a good used power pack would.  Or possibly more than a brand new power pack would.  You would be better off using a potentiometer and an adjustable voltage regulator.  A 1000 ohm, 1/2 watt linear taper potentiometer plus an LM317 regulator work very well.  Not only will this vary the voltage from about 1.2 to 12 volts, it will automatically limit the current to about 1.5 amp in case of a short circuit.  And if the short circuit lasts long enough to over heat the regulator, it will automatically shut down the current to protect itself.  I usually mount an LM317T on a 3" x 3" square of 16 gauge aluminum as a heat sink.  More details are available for the asking.

Jim   

I have seen rail similar to what NM-Jeff posted about but the 3/8 x 1 bar was welded to metal plates which were screwed to ties.  The ties were pressure treated wood but the owners were also trying out reclaimed plastic, similar to what is used for building decks.  This was at a club where they ran live steam, battery powered diesels, and a gasoline/electric hybrid to pull many carloads of tourists on summer weekends.  They felt the long service life even with their heavy usage made this type of track practical and revenue from their tourist operation made it affordable.

For lighter use, I have also seen track made with 3/8 x 1 (or perhaps is was 1/2 x 1) channel iron with the open side to the outside of the track.  It was drilled and screwed to the ties, two screws per tie for each rail.  The secret, they told me, was to drill the holes close to the junction of the web and the lower flange, which automatically put them at an angle, and to angle the screws.  This kept the rails from spreading under load.  I believe this would merit further investigation as 3/8 x 1 channel is about half the weight (and about half the price) of  3/8 x 1 flat bar.  It also does not require welding, and can be curved more easily than flat bar.  It struck me at the time that this would be a good choice for a home ride-on railway.

The club using the 3/8 x 1 flat bar track made their turnouts and crossings of the same material.  Their biggest problem apparently was tapering the points of the turnouts, even though they used relatively short point rails.  I suspect they could have made quite serviceable single point switches with that heavy a rail although club members might object to running on "street car track."  With channel rails, tapering the points would be somewhat easier, assuming tapered channel iron could take the weight, but stub switches might be a better choice for the backyard builder.

Jim

I am still wondering where the O.P. got 1:28 scale from.  It occurs to me that 2.8" scale could be confused with 28:1.  My calculations indicate 2.8" scale could be real world standard gauge on 13" gauge track, although I cannot think of a reason why someone modelling this size on this continent wouldn't go the extra bit and use estate gauge at 14".  On the other hand, if the original poster is in the U.K., he might have a problem using estate gauge because it was and probably still is considered a working gauge, meaning it is subject to all kinds on regulations and possibly taxes.

The other possibility might be a 2.8" scale model of 36" real world gauge running on 8-1/4" gauge track.  While not one of the usual choices, 8-1/4" gauge is one that is used occasionally, including here in Saskatoon.

Jim   

I give K487's method two thumbs up.  Using a similar routine which includes oiling the rails has worked on my various layouts, indoors and out and in various scales and gauges since the 1960's.  I believe that Ray hit it right on the head when he said that wheel arcing has a lot to do with the problem.  And I believe that is why oil works - it suppresses wheel arcing when the wheels roll over a bit of dust.

But not just any oil will do the job.  What you need is a very light, non-oxidizing oil that is compatible with plastics.  Light oil is thin enough to be almost completely squeezed out from between the wheels and rails so that you lose very little if any traction and lose virtually no electrical conduction.  Oils which can oxidize will form a nice, non-conductive layer of varnish on top of your rails which is the last thing you want.  Non-oxidizing oils will not do this.  And compatibility with plastics is important if you have certain types of plastic wheels.  Wheels made of ABS slowly decompose in many oils and leave a black coating on the rails but are okay in plastic compatible oils.  Delrin, a form of Nylon, can survive all common forms of oil as can metal wheels.  Problem is, the type of plastic used in a particular wheel is not immediately obvious.  After running on oiled rails for a while, you may find some of your plastic wheels build up large amounts of dirt while others seem to gather very little.  Generally, the ones building up all the dirt are ABS or related plastics or possibly Styrene.  The ones that pick up very little dirt (and often shed that dirt by themselves) are usually Delrin or similar.

Wahl hair clipper oil is a light, non-oxidizing oil that is compatible with all the types of plastics Wahl has ever used in their hair clippers.  There is some evidence that it may not be compatible with ABS plastic, but if you ever had ABS wheels, you have probably long since replaced them with Delrin and metal anyway.  If you still have some left on some old train set cars, they will let you know.

Oils like 3-in-1 and motor oil are too heavy for H0 and probably other gauges as well.  Even small amounts are enough to cause loss of traction and interfere with electrical conduction.  And WD-40?  Keep in mind that WD stands for "Water Displacer" and not "oil."  If you have wet tracks on your indoor layout, I am afraid you should be worrying about more than just track oil.

Then there are the hobby oils that are listed as "conductive" as well as plastic compatible.  Non-oxidizing goes without saying in these high class oils.  They are highly refined natural oils or synthetics.  I have tried a number of these over the years and they all seem to do well at keeping the rails clean and improving conductivity between rails and wheels.  The one I am using now on my H0 and 0n30 layouts is Bachmann's E-Z Lube Conductive Lubricant.  I started using it on my 0n30 because of a steep helix where I did not want to lose any traction and some quick tests showed somewhat better traction with the extremely thin E-Z Lube product.  It got a good testing a couple of weeks ago when I had the layout at a train show for two days.  Track cleaning consisted of running my fingers over all the rails to knock off the dust from being stored in my woodworking shop.  Then I used one drop of the E-Z Lube Conductive Lubricant on each locomotive and tender wheel of a 2-6-0 and ran it around the layout half a dozen or so times.  Finally, I hooked on a couple of coaches and ran that train for two full days without any attention beyond shutting it off overnight.  No stalls.  No failures to throw the automatic reverse modules, and through them, the two turnouts that allow this loop-to-loop single tack dog bone layout to work.  And it was only toward the end of the show that I realized that I had never cleaned a section of "new" track that I had installed just before taking the layout to the show.  This would not have been remarkable with brand new nickel-silver flex track.  But this was a piece of old, fiber tied, brass flex track that hadn't seen a wheel in over half a century.  I keep wondering if the previous user of this track, now long dead, also knew about the advantages of oil.

Bottom line, do try some oil.  But as K487 pointed out, keep firmly in mind that while a little bit is good, a bit more can spell disaster.

Jim

If preschoolers to octogenarians get equal votes on this question, I would say Thomas the Tank is very high in the rankings in all scales.  I don't mean to imply that the sales of Thomas are higher - a layout can justify many Consolidations, switchers, Moguls etc. but never more than one Thomas.  In my opinion, popularity is more closely tied to recognition than to numbers sold, and let's face it - EVERYBODY knows Thomas.

It would be interesting to know how many "serious" model railroaders have a Thomas and maybe a fleet of his friends too in a drawer, closet or box and only take them out after visitors have gone home or when the grand kids arrive.

Jim

p.s. For the record, my favourite steam locomotive is the Pacific, probably because I rode more miles behind those than any other type of steamer.

Mapstone,
Are you talking about the drivers with with stub axles that fit into plastic connectors to keep the drivers properly aligned and spaced?  I think these were used in a 4-8-4 that was originally manufactured by Lionel in H0 scale and later picked up by Bachmann when Lionel got out of H0.  I have repaired both the Lionel and Bachmann versions when the plastic connector piece slit with age and am willing to write it up if you can confirm that this is the type of locomotive and the problem you are having.

Jim

Bob, the weight and bulk of the batteries used 20 years ago was a byproduct of the technology.  Lead-acid batteries, gelled or not, are heavy and do not hold a whole lot of charge for their size.  But they do accept a lot of abuse - over charging, over discharging, and being left idle for long periods of time.  Today's technology is a whole different story.  Lithium ion batteries put lots of charge in a small, light package but they need to be coddled or they die.  Special circuits to tightly control charging and strictly limit the depth of discharge are a must but they increase the costs of an installation.  So do the batteries themselves.  Those that try to upgrade to Lithium ion batteries on the cheap by simply swapping  batteries are guaranteed disappointment.  Insistence on "one more time around the track, even if it is a very slow one" drastically reduces the number of charge/discharge cycles.  And using an unsophisticated charger designed for lead-acid batteries will end the battery's life prematurely and possibly catastrophically.

Bottom line, the possibilities are great if you can live with the drawbacks.

Jim 

The basic E-Z Command has a number of good things going for it:

First, it is very easy to learn to operate it.  In part, this is because it fulfills the basics requirements of DCC without getting into all the complications.

Second, it has the quickest and easiest method of switching control from one train to another.  Press one button and your throttle is instantly connected to another train, leaving the previous one running in the direction and at the speed it was running before.  You don't even need to know the cab numbers or the decoder addresses - a short description of the locomotive or even a simple drawing is enough to identify which button connects your throttle to which locomotive.

Third, it is very affordable.  Even more affordable when you consider you can run multiple trains with only one throttle.  With many advanced systems, it takes so many button presses to switch a throttle from one locomotive to another that the only way to run two trains at once is to use two throttles.  And there is a good chance that the throttle alone will cost more than a complete E-Z Command system.

Getting started in model railroading can be quite a drain on our hobby resources.  We want it all and we want it now.  But not too many of us can afford it all, at least not all at once.  But going with command control right off the bat is a time and money saver later on.  The trick is being able to afford it without draining the budget of those precious start up funds we need for track, trains, scenery materials and so many other things we need right away.  This is where a low cost starter system makes a lot of sense.  Later on, we are more likely to be able to afford a more comprehensive system, if we find we need it.

Our hobby resources also include the amount of time we can afford to spend on our hobby.  Again, at the beginning, this is a precious commodity.  With so many other things to learn, learning all the ins and outs of DCC may require more time than we are willing or able to spend, especially at the outset of our model railroading hobby.  If or when we need to know will be soon enough to learn all about DCC.

Bottom line, I think Bachmann's E-Z Command is a good starter system.  For many users, it will be all they ever need.  If they do outgrow it, they can always resell it, or better yet, keep it as a standby system.

Jim