Post 53 4/28/2018
New Diesel Engines, Track Upgrade with Track Nippers and Track Cutting Jig
New Diesel Engines
Been working some on the layout but just not posting much lately.
I have obtained a Williams F7 ABA Santa Fe diesel set at a warehouse sale and a Marx IC&G 0-4-0 diesel lately.
Here are a couple of pictures
The F7 powered 4032 has an issue with the E unit and would only run in reverse. Not wanting to spend in excess of $40 for a new E unit I reversed the leads to the two DC can motors and the powered A unit runs forward with neutrals. This is OK with me as I normally do not do much switching and reversing with an engine that will mostly just run around the layout pulling consists. And now I can use it as a single A unit, an A and B unit, a AA unit and a ABA unit.
This Williams is now a good runner. This Williams F7 seams to be a minimal engine set with numbers only appearing on the lighted marker board and not on body. It is on the smallish size for F7 or F3 engines compared to Lionel units but is bigger than my Marx F3 diesels. This is good for me and my 027 toy layout and the Williams F7 does not have trouble with 027 curves and does not have much over hang. All three units are very heavy and the powered A unit pulls very well with that weight and two powered trucks with traction tires.
The 4034 B unit has very loud engine and engineer talking sound with no cut off switch or volume control. I added a small slide switch to the bottom to at least have a choice of loud railroad sounds or no sound.
The little unnumbered Marx 0-4-0 switcher runs very well with the motor being from the Marx 666 motor with two gears. It came with a Marx coupling on the rear and I added a Lionel dummy coupling on the front to allow use with both Marx and Lionel cars. Lots of fun projects to improve layout operation and fun !
Track Upgrade
I had track issues with the Williams F7 wheels and or pickups resulting in derailments usually around the Marx 1590 switches. I spent lots of time isolating the problem areas and found the Williams engines were very touchy to small differences in rail heights at the 027 track joints especially before the Marx switches. I found out filing off the edge of the less than 1/32 inch high spot at track joints before switches eliminated most of the derailments.
I also added small pieces of thin aluminum flashing to fill in the gaps I had in several of the track joints between track sections. This helped the Williams locos and should reduce wear on wheels and pickup rollers. I have done this for years to large 1/8 inch gaps and just went around the whole track and filled many more smaller gap joints. You can also see one of the popsicle wooden wedges I use to bank some of my 027 curves.
Track Nippers and Track Cutting Jig
Yes it is aluminum flashing sheeting but you will need only a small scrape. I had some left over from gutter work. If not in hurry, I would watch the trash, where roofing jobs are underway, a used thin cake pan, check out small hardware stores for fee scrap, etc. If it is painted, just scrap or sand off all the paint on both sides. This goes for if it is anodized also, to get better conduction. You can use tin from a tin can too. Tin can will probably wear less but will be harder to bend. It just needs to about the thickness of the metal used for your rail. If you get fancy get a small piece of brass shim stock from a machine shop. I have a few pieces but find it to hard to find and too valuable to use for this purpose.
Probably the best hint is get a pair of nipper pliers shown below. Mine are from a cheap Chinese pliers set (Harbor Freight now days) and are small, about 4" long. I use these to tightly wrap the piece of shim or flashing stock around the pin in the gap. I usually cut a strip of flashing about 3/8" wide and a few inches long. Then I use a small tin snips to cut a piece about the width of the gap and it will be 3/8" long. I cut it too wide and then keep trimming it down until it fits in the gap. I then wrap it around the pin in the gap with my fingers and squeeze it tight with the nipper pliers. If 3/8 " is to long I just let it hang down. It should take only a minute or two do each gap.
This will not work with the gap from the tooth picks I use mostly used for insulated center rail gaps. (I know Lionel makes plastic pins for this use but I did not have them years ago.) Note the picture above has a Lionel plastic pin in the center rail. I have lots of insulated center rails as my whole layout is blocked into 5 or so foot sections.
I cut a gap sized of plastic insulation from some solid electrical wire to fill the gap. I split the little do nut of insulation with a X acto knife and slip it on.
I also took care of a long term issue with high spots where my three bridges lay on the layout. I failed to recess the bottom of the metal bridges into the layout surface and the bridges are a least 1/16 inch higher that the other track. I could not easily remove the bridges and repair without lots of work removing track and switches. I used a bent flat nose pliers to flatten the metal ties on the 027 track on the bridges to lower the track and screwed the track down of the bridges. This made a good improvement.
Some of the bent metal rail ties can be seen on the red girder bridge on the left. That is a Williams BL2 that I have had for a while and it runs better with improved track too. The Williams BL2 is dressed up better than the Williams F7 and has some numbers on the body.
Charlie
