enginear joe

another attempt at finding a donor engine for my switcher build. I had to put in new axle gears as the stock ones are all split. NWSL offers them for K-lines #2464-6. They are made of delrin and seem much tougher. This engine is light and the motors seemed weak so I almost abandoned it. Now with new gears, it seems like it's a decent puller. I'll have to test outside soon.

Well Chuck, you know a lot more than me about this stuff. I think I read from Stan or George on the OGR that the MTH PS board pulses power to them. I wonder if that Titan's board outputs could be changed to do something like that? Maybe it would draw less then? Of course, I'm just guessing. I would think you could just control the smoke motor with the decoder and use (a relay?) to drive the elements then? It would have been great if MTH and QSI stayed together and developed these things further. I like QSI's control of their sound triggers and MTH's board overall. Not knowing more about DCC has driven me to strictly use DCS. I'm very happy overall. Now if I could add the new APP for running the trains from a computer, to help eliminate the remote's shortcomings would be cool. I hope they will add more controls to this platform allowing us to get closer to DCC without the hastles or drawbacks. Anyways, maybe that Stan could be a good source for the Titan's uses and configurations. At one time they had advertised, that the new Titan would work with all major systems if I remember right?

I'm guessing he may have actually talked to someone else or just himself again. Nothing of factual importance other then he hopes he can get something that he preordered to be the first kid on the block. (maybe not even his??) He was actually asking people to contact dealers and beg for product that he wants. Shadows of his close personal sidekick that once spoke to Aristo I guess?? Today he seems all better???and his sidekick is back after promising to leave???? He just keeps bashing other manufacturers that want to make products for the rest of us. Too bad there's no active moderation on children there anymore. He needs help. I don't do that. Not worth discussing further. refreshing that you can just ignore them.

must explain why everyone bought two of them!! I wonder if I could get that gearing from NWSL?? Maybe the internal gears could be swapped? probably too tough to work inside??? Did you mean 11.8:1?

Yeah, if it's just minor I'd ignore it. Thought you were describing a bigger problem. I just noticed that the center driver is blind. That's interesting.

Could I just swap out the motors then? Like the USA one's? Is it geared so bad that no motor could do it? What a shame they didn't test this before it went into production. Got to be one more reason I say that MTH makes the best engines for the best value.

Wow Ray, they are beautiful! Thank you for sharing. I didn't know how detailed they were. That was a great value. About the only thing I could say, I wish they had the larger axled tender. Now, If I can find one....someday. Have you installed smoke or sound in it??

I wish they had Amtrak to fit into my train! I may look at a different road name. I preordered from MTH too. so no big deal to me. It's tougher to decide because of the length and how it would look in my MTH train just by guessing. + I already ordered the Amtrak MTH ones.

Yeap! They already have the tooling. They're installing PS3 with DCC onboard in others. Seems like it should be a good candidate? Maybe they're working on it or something else? Tough to guess.

I'm not sure if you mean a trade or they're for sale? How much? Let me know, Joe jwpcfv (at) msn.com

A few more

just playing now. Too cold out (-20 wind chill!)

another one....

Either one that's handy Ray. I've never seen one in person. How do you like them?

got a little farther:

Anybody here have any photos of the AML K4? I was out of work when they were released. I have not been able to get one since.

I always have some setbacks. I thought the top of the hood was flat from the drawing I had. When I realized it wasn't flat, I didn't correct the details before I glued the hood together. It bugged me that it looked too high. After re-checking, I cut the sides off and re-glued them back on minus 1/4". Urrggg.

I'm looking for a F7 or 3 that I could gut for parts for a scratch build. Maybe a slave unit that doesn't work right? I need trucks, electronics and motors. I bought a new one and can't gut it! SFe F7 WB with mars light that's just too cute. Always wanted one. Urrgg.

Started another build. MP15AC. I got busy cutting some plastic before the donor engine arrived. A MTH F7 SFE. Now, I like it so much I can't strip it. Urrggg.

I saw on another site that Ray Schoup has passed away. It said from cancer. I asked him how his health was just a short while back and he replied "don't cry for me, I've got a great family and I've had a great life." Truly a great man for saying this near the end. I didn't know how bad his health was. God bless him, his family, and friends.

At least we'll know if the engine is getting power to the board. Sometimes resetting the engine can't be accomplished for a whole bunch of reasons. It's hard to know where you're at with this. So if I can help, be specific as you can, time permitting. It's great that you don't smell any burnt electronics. I'm hoping that it may be that the board just got scrambled and we can get it reset. If it's a power pickup problem, the engine won't respond no matter what we do, right?

I'm not sure if running on AC should have hurt anything? What does it do when power is applied in conventional? I mean, just apply power directly without the DCS or DCC signal present. Is there more that you aren't describing on what happened? Did the board smoke or make a short? Sometimes, it's an easy fix like a power pickup wire falls off, etc. It is hard to fix it without seeing it in person. So you must go thru some steps for us to help. Raymond and others here on the forum could help too. Please try it in conventional without the prodigy. Maybe it just lost it's address??? Is there any shorting?

Nope Ray. I sprayed the blue areas myself. When I applied decal solvent, it made the paint crinkle up on a different car. I've torn the decals, wrinkled the paint, etc. etc. I'm learning but it costs my patience!! (of course I only showed the good one!)

It is not for me! You need talent and patience. I'm a little low on both! I guess decal setting solvent eats paint. Urrrgggg.

Great video. Love that whistle sound! Very nice looking RR too!