WHAT’S ON THE WORKBENCH AT THE MOMENT

@Junior, I'm still learning about DCC and o scale and will answer as best I can.

DCC is a standard maintained by the NMRA, it is the command system in all the other scales, from Z to G. The decoders made for G scale will also work for O scale. 2 rail O scale has been using DCC for years, not really new as such. Yes, you will need another command system, DCC is not compatible with DCS/TMCC. I use a DPDT switch to select either DCC or DCS/TMCC to the rails on my layout.  There are many manufacturers out there, I use the Digitrax 8 amp starter set and a $30 180 watt DC power supply from Amazon. The best part is everybody's decoders will work with any of the DCC command systems on the market. One remote to run them all!

If you don't want to buy another system, Soundtrax should be releasing the 4 amp Blunami this year. This is the same as the Tsunami2 boards I use plus Bluetooth, runs with an app on the iphone, not sure if they will work on AC power, will probably need DC power or add a rectifier to the loco. Or go dead rail, there are folks here that are doing that.

I have so far converted a RMT Bang and a MTH PS-1 loco to DCC, all you need is a loco with DC can style motors. I have seen where universal motors were made to work on DC power but I think it is easier to send the loco to Frank Timko and have can motors installed. AC only motors will not work and would have to be replaced.

But, yes, we have choices other than MTH or Lionel for command systems.

@ToledoEd posted:

One truck of my Menards flat car with Army Bus that I've had for a few years just fell off when my grandson lifted off the shelf. I'm trying to figure out how to fix this.  You see all the parts in the pic. The truck separated from the rivet (?) the connects the car to the truck.

This looks similar to some of my Lionel trucks Ed.

Find the two screws for the loose side plate and attach to the truck /coupler body with the wheel carrier and wheels.         At that point you have to have the existing rivet drilled out.   A  LARGE rivet * then needs to be used to secure the truck to the chassis.

*  Or a screw or nut could be glued or soldered to the underside of the truck/ coupler .  Then the wheel carrier with wheels can be attached  to the truck body.   Then a nut or screw with probably a washer could be run down through the chassis to the truck.

Good luck on this one Ed.

@Darrell posted:

@Junior, I'm still learning about DCC and o scale and will answer as best I can.

DCC is a standard maintained by the NMRA, it is the command system in all the other scales, from Z to G. The decoders made for G scale will also work for O scale. 2 rail O scale has been using DCC for years, not really new as such. Yes, you will need another command system, DCC is not compatible with DCS/TMCC. I use a DPDT switch to select either DCC or DCS/TMCC to the rails on my layout.  There are many manufacturers out there, I use the Digitrax 8 amp starter set and a $30 180 watt DC power supply from Amazon. The best part is everybody's decoders will work with any of the DCC command systems on the market. One remote to run them all!

If you don't want to buy another system, Soundtrax should be releasing the 4 amp Blunami this year. This is the same as the Tsunami2 boards I use plus Bluetooth, runs with an app on the iphone, not sure if they will work on AC power, will probably need DC power or add a rectifier to the loco. Or go dead rail, there are folks here that are doing that.

I have so far converted a RMT Bang and a MTH PS-1 loco to DCC, all you need is a loco with DC can style motors. I have seen where universal motors were made to work on DC power but I think it is easier to send the loco to Frank Timko and have can motors installed. AC only motors will not work and would have to be replaced.

But, yes, we have choices other than MTH or Lionel for command systems.

Ah! Something new to dig into. Thanks for the quick response @Darrell.

I was kind-of-aware of DCC but never really looked into it for 3-rail use (although I knew PS3 engines supported DCC. Funny...I always wondered if MTH was planning a transition away from DCS to tried-and-true DCC ).

Only drawback I can see (without too much thought for now) is it would be an "all or nothing" for running DCC-equipped engines. DCS and TMCC can (and do on my layout) coexist. DCC probably would not be able to (coexist).

Not a real fan of Bluetooth for running trains because I really don't like running trains off of my phone. I prefer the handheld remotes and do have several brand new/in the box remote's as backups.

Never the less, DCC looks intriguing. I will definitely have to read up on that command system.

Thanks again....

@ToledoEd posted:

One truck of my Menards flat car with Army Bus that I've had for a few years just fell off when my grandson lifted off the shelf. I'm trying to figure out how to fix this.  You see all the parts in the pic. The truck separated from the rivet (?) the connects the car to the truck.

I had the same thing happen on a Lionel car.  I used wellbond glue,  As good as new and that car ran very well on the layout'... Any metal glue would work...

@ToledoEd posted:

One truck of my Menards flat car with Army Bus that I've had for a few years just fell off when my grandson lifted off the shelf. I'm trying to figure out how to fix this.  You see all the parts in the pic. The truck separated from the rivet (?) the connects the car to the truck.

Problem solved with Gorilla Epoxy. Once I discovered the truck does not spin independently from the rivet assembly, but the whole assemble moves, I simply epoxied the truck to the rivet assembly, careful not to glue the assembly to the car , problem fixed.

Hi Toledo ED I believe your c clip is missing that fell off the truck, just look at the other one and you'll see how to repair it, you can buy C clips kit from harbor freight!

Alan

Thanks Alan. I did look and no c-clip on either and I couldn't push the truck down far enough to provide a "grab" for the c-clip.  Epoxy seems to have worked. 

The GM&O had one solid red Alco FA, and one (temporarily) solid red Alco PA. I am attempting to do both as a powered/dummy pair. Both require removal of the dynamic brakes, and the R-O-W PA snout needed a bit of "de-UP-ing".

Wms FA. Ah, plastic:

R-O-W PA. Ah, fooey, brass. The big UP number boxes and class lights are being filled in (brass backing; epoxy fill).

I have a pair of brass earlier-style streamlined number boards to go on the side of the nose.

Fortunately, the GM&O's PA's also had dual headlights. So, no fill-in there. It will also have a fixed pilot and scale coupler.

Drats! I spoke too soon.  The epoxy didn't work.  No room for a c-clamp...it's now headed to the back shop on my layout.

YW Great glad you figured it out!

Alan

@Dallas Joseph posted:

This looks similar to some of my Lionel trucks Ed.

Find the two screws for the loose side plate and attach to the truck /coupler body with the wheel carrier and wheels.         At that point you have to have the existing rivet drilled out.   A  LARGE rivet * then needs to be used to secure the truck to the chassis.

*  Or a screw or nut could be glued or soldered to the underside of the truck/ coupler .  Then the wheel carrier with wheels can be attached  to the truck body.   Then a nut or screw with probably a washer could be run down through the chassis to the truck.

Good luck on this one Ed.

Thanks Dallas...I'll try the nut/bolt solution. I have taken the side plate off.

Added LED(s) to the #53 switcher. Thanks for all the posts on utube showing how this is done. I used the 5mm warm white LED(s) with resistor and a 1N4007 diode.  The LED(s) and diodes are from Amazon. Photo below shows taping the wires to the body and testing the circuit.

• This pre-wired LED has a resistor (1000 ohms) connected in the pre-wire.

Making Plasticville Inserts

             One of many new scenes for the new layout.

@SIRT posted:

             One of many new scenes for the new layout.

SIRT, now that is very unique. Is the railroad declaring imminent domain?

@SIRT posted:

             One of many new scenes for the new layout.

A unique scene, SIRT.

I do suggest that your contractor starts demo from the top floors down, however.

On second thought, watching the building collapse down on itself would be great to watch!

Thanks for sharing.

When my Lionel 3927 track cleaning car gave up the ghost several months back, I decided to build myself a new one (the 3927 track cleaning car also used to spark a LOT at the pickup roller; which I was not happy about ).

Unlike the electrical engineers that contribute so generously to this forum (you KNOW who you are! ), my projects are built using readily available off-the-shelf items (no designing and building circuit boards from scratch for me...I just dont have the knowledge or experience ).

Anyway....below is my new track cleaning car that I cobbled together using one of my Lionel MPC box cars.

The car consists of an AC-to-DC buck converter, a 12VDC N20 1,000 RPM motor, a mini polishing pad with arbor, a shaft coupler, a bronze collar bushing. add-on Lionel pick-up rollers, stick-on tire weights, silicone wire, various TINY metric screws and nuts, some sheet brass to build the mounting bracket and the box car.

The parts list might make you think it's pretty complex to build, but as you can see the assembly is pretty straight forward.

Here it is in operation. It's a bit noisy but no worse than the 3927 car.

The car does a pretty good job cleaning the track. And no more dreaded sparks!

Hope you like!

Lionel H16-44 that won't move.  And a Legacy GP-7 that makes noise and doesn't move.  The former hasn't been powered up in the last 15 years and the latter I acquired "lightly used" and didn't bother to test when I received it.  So I get some troubleshooting fun.

Junior's track cleaning car is a work of art!

This JLC UP H7 arrived a bit worse for wear. Apparently it was in a flood and then suffered from poor packing when shipped. A number of cosmetic parts were replaced including the steam chest and headlight plus a few flexible pipes. Also the AC regulator was binned, smoke unit rewired and the 2 lobe cam replaced by a 4 lobe.

Pete

@Norton posted:

This JLC UP H7 arrived a bit worse for wear. Apparently it was in a flood and then suffered from poor packing when shipped. A number of cosmetic parts were replaced including the steam chest and headlight plus a few flexible pipes. Also the AC regulator was binned, smoke unit rewired and the 2 lobe cam replaced by a 4 lobe.

Pete

Very impressive, Norton...as always!

Is that a factory smoke unit or a Super Chuffer?

@Berkshire President posted:

Very impressive, Norton...as always!

Is that a factory smoke unit or a Super Chuffer?

Thank you Pres. its the original semi smart smoke unit with the 8 ohm resistor replaced by a 22 ohm, on board circuitry bypassed, and the resistor wired directly to the R2LC.

The 4 lobe cam actuates the micro switch wired to a DPDT reed relay which drives the fan motor and chuff in on the R2LC.

Pete

Looks really, really good Pete.  Thanks for sharing!

Don't you hate it when something other than trains are on the work bench? Several projects have been occupying space since mid November. We had our house re-sided so the number signs had to be repainted (they were light blue). A real PITA keeping the lettering clean. I won't get into the other projects related to the siding job. My garage looked like a war zone.

Then I was asked to fix my mother-in-law's vacuum......

Hiding under the white towel in the back is what I was getting to...

I upgraded these ATSF F3s with ERR boards and LED lighting last year. Several lingering issues need to be addressed which will be my next project.

Bob

My Rail King PS1 Challenger never smoked very well. It easily ran at 11 volts which wasn’t enough to stoke the smoke unit.

So today I wired the 2 motors in series. The result is it runs at 16 volts.

Update 1/18/23

I was getting too much smoke at 16 volts so I added a buck converter to knock it down to 13 volts DC. This is the same buck converter Junior used in his track cleaning car.

@RSJB18 posted:

Don't you hate it when something other than trains are on the work bench? Several projects have been occupying space since mid November. We had our house re-sided so the number signs had to be repainted (they were light blue). A real PITA keeping the lettering clean. I won't get into the other projects related to the siding job. My garage looked like a war zone.

Then I was asked to fix my mother-in-law's vacuum......

Hiding under the white towel in the back is what I was getting to...

I upgraded these ATSF F3s with ERR boards and LED lighting last year. Several lingering issues need to be addressed which will be my next project.

Bob

Glad to see your energy level is still way up there Bob.

Not to worry about the lettering Bob.........at 75 feet from the road it should look perfect and most importantly READABLE.

(  didn't realize Oreck vacuums needed fixing  )

What are the lingering issues on the F3s ?

@Dallas Joseph posted:

Glad to see your energy level is still way up there Bob.

Not to worry about the lettering Bob.........at 75 feet from the road it should look perfect and most importantly READABLE.

(  didn't realize Oreck vacuums needed fixing  )

What are the lingering issues on the F3s ?

Thanks Dallas.

The F3s have a few bugs. The dummy lighting needs a better common connection, and the powered unit stops unexpectedly....

As for the Oreck.... the handle broke and so far the parts are very hard to find. The company went bankrupt several years ago the parts are harder to find than PS3 boards. 🤣🤣🤣

Doing a little work on the Lionel Polar Road K4.. Working on Pat's fix for the loose intermediate gear shaft.

@RSJB18 posted:

Don't you hate it when something other than trains are on the work bench? Several projects have been occupying space since mid November. We had our house re-sided so the number signs had to be repainted (they were light blue). A real PITA keeping the lettering clean. I won't get into the other projects related to the siding job. My garage looked like a war zone.

Then I was asked to fix my mother-in-law's vacuum......

Hiding under the white towel in the back is what I was getting to...

I upgraded these ATSF F3s with ERR boards and LED lighting last year. Several lingering issues need to be addressed which will be my next project.

Bob

That’s what you get for being so talented Bob.

@Dallas Joseph posted:

Glad to see your energy level is still way up there Bob.

Not to worry about the lettering Bob.........at 75 feet from the road it should look perfect and most importantly READABLE.

(  didn't realize Oreck vacuums needed fixing  )

What are the lingering issues on the F3s ?

Absolutely on readability!

I didn’t realize Oreck’s needed fixing either!!  😆

I spent the weekend working on a Lionel Legacy Lionmaster Challenger I bought second hand. The encoder ring was deformed and the engine had some performance issues. With some help from people on this forum I figured out how to fix it and the locomotive runs great now!

@Norton posted:

This JLC UP H7 arrived a bit worse for wear. Apparently it was in a flood and then suffered from poor packing when shipped. A number of cosmetic parts were replaced including the steam chest and headlight plus a few flexible pipes. Also the AC regulator was binned, smoke unit rewired and the 2 lobe cam replaced by a 4 lobe.

Pete

Nicely done Pete.  From the looks of how it runs , I'd say you sure know how to revive a zuffering locomotive.   Nice.

Added "real coal" to my Lionel TMCC B&O EM-1 and C&O 2-6-6-2

@Obsidian posted:

Added "real coal" to my Lionel TMCC B&O EM-1 and C&O 2-6-6-2

Really nice.

What did you use?

John

@Obsidian posted:

Added "real coal" to my Lionel TMCC B&O EM-1 and C&O 2-6-6-2

I miss my TMCC NKP 2-6-6-2......lack of chuffs and all. 

@Craftech posted:

Really nice.

What did you use?

John

Black aquarium sand.   Same technique as when I did my coal hoppers.

                   More for the next layout  ...........

My new (used, but new to me) UP Legacy Lionmaster Challenger was back on the bench this weekend. The locomotive started slipping on the curves and I realized the front truck wasn't spinning. Turns out to be a loose pinion gear on the front motor. Added some loctite and good as new.

Locomotive still makes some odd sounds so I'll keep an eye on it, it is missing one of the screws that hold the rear motor to the truck so I think that is the cause. Ordered a few screws from lionel to see if that helps.

I have a couple of Menards lighted vehicles that I want to put on the layout. Now that the sign and vacuum are off my bench, I can get back to important stuff.
I started by testing the lights on both on the bench. The REA truck was fine but the '48 Ford was a different story. I didn't know Menards put smoke units in their cars.......

When I opened it up I found that the mfr didn't insulate any of the wiring. I'm sure the supply wire splices were touching, causing the short. So now I'm replacing the LED's and rewiring the truck.

To be continued....

Bob

If the Ford was new then that is really poor quality control. However, with your electrical prowess you will make “short”work of this.

Jay

@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:

If the Ford was new then that is really poor quality control. However, with your electrical prowess you will make “short”work of this.

Jay

I was a freebie with a recent freight car purchase otherwise I'd ask for a refund from Menards. It's an easy fix and I'm going to add a few details since it's a plain black truck.

Thanks