benshell

Chuck, I love those Shell tank cars. If you ever get a chance could you take a picture of them next to something 1:29th scale? I know they are going to be a little small for me, but still considering them!

Do you mean extended vision caboose or center cupola caboose? I have the former in undecorated and would consider parting with it.

Welcome Chris! I also got out of the hobby during college (while, mostly out of it), but once I got back in and bought a house it didn't take long to get really into it! I'm also really interested in designing and 3D printing (and CNC milling) models. I think it's the future of the hobby, at least for me since nobody makes the models I want. Anyway, I hope to see you around here often!

+1. This is by far the best forum software I've used. It even works well on my phone.

When I talked to Charles Ro about wiring diagrams and exploded parts diagrams for the Big Boy they said that they don't even have them! I'm inclined to believe it. These engines are contracted by USA Trains / Charles Ro but from what I understand they are entirely designed and built in China.

Hi Joe, I've heard the minimum order is 100 for USA Trains American Series cars, like the billboard reefers. I think it's about $5000 for 100. They are actually made in America so they can do custom runs in a reasonable amount of time. But that doesn't help you since the tank cars are part of the Ultimate Series, made in China. I'm not sure what these minimums are, but no matter what it is it seems to take years to get anything produced! And unless you want a LOT of cars you'll need to re-paint and use decals.

This looks great! I'm really impressed with how your railroad is coming together. Now, if only you had a few more diesels.

Well, there's nothing new from Bachmann: http://www.bachmannindustriesinc.com/pdf/NMRA_2014.pdf Anyone heard anything from MTH, or anyone else?

I agree, I've noticed this too. It's pretty much impossible to be completely prototypical in G scale, but I like to try and go for the essence of prototypical railroading. However I need more diesels too now. I only have two big diesels (USA Trains SD70MACs) and they can barely pull 20 cars up my 3% grade. Keep up the "inspiration" and I'll have another on the way sooner than later.

Wow, you have an incredible roster! Although it's hard to tell the scale from the picture... but maybe that's because I'm only used to seeing a roster like this in HO scale!

Personally I'm really hoping for more Bachmann 1:29th scale, although it may be a bit early for that since the Peter Witt streetcar has only been available for about three months. I bought one partially as a vote for 1:29th scale! But I'd wanted a trolley and I'm really happy with this new Bachmann product. In any case, I'll be interested to hear of anything new from any large scale manufacturer in any scale.

Looks like a great start! Blocks are great! I have some steel channel in place of bridges in some places too. The important thing is to get trains running. You can refine later. Keep the pictures coming.

That's pretty crazy your booster went up in flames! I also have an NCE 10A booster, although now I'm just using it on my workbench since I've switched to MERG 10A boosters for my layout (mostly because they are a lot cheaper and I needed three of them). Do you also have a circuit breaker? I'm using a PSX circuit break with my NCE booster since it doesn't have built-in protection. Anyway, if the "start up" function doesn't do it, your next step is to reset the QSI. Read the manual for the instructions--you can do it with CVs or with a magnet and a reed switch. I've found the reset procedure to be really finicky so it might take a few tries. If all else fails, I'd disconnect the motors and hook up the QSI to a spare motor or 24V bulb. Then you'll be able to find out if it's really a decoder problem or might be something binding in the locomotive (doesn't sound like it) or a loose connection somewhere.

That's someplace I'd like to visit sometime too. Although the thought of going in the summer isn't too appealing. It's hot enough here--another 100 deg day today in Sacramento.

Hi, is there any chance you accidentally pressed some function keys you didn't understand... specifically one for "shut down"? I think it's F9 by default, but I forget because I'm now carefully to remap the function keys and remove this one! "Shut down" only affects the motors, leading to the situation you describe, and worse of all it persists after power is lost. So it can really get you thinking that your locomotive is broken. I say this from experience! I went through the decoder reset procedure once after I thought it was broken, but all I really needed to do was use the "Start Up" function (F6, I think). I love DCC and use mostly QSI decoders, but I really wish this "feature" didn't exist! About the voltage, how are you checking voltage? Unless you have an oscilloscope or DCC meter you're probably using the AC setting of a typical voltage meter which will read out less than the actual peak voltage. I think mine usually reads about 14 or 15 volts AC when it should be more like 20-22 volts with my setup. In any case, even if it were only 14 volts that'd more than enough to get the motors running.

Thanks Chuck! DCC is "plug & play" as long as you're within certain bounds. For larger railroads I've learned the hard way that you have to consider additional factors. It's worth it though. I don't know how it compares to DCS, but compared to the other major alternative being Airwire with Phoenix sound it's a lot less expensive per locomotive, and you can run anytime for as long as you want without charging batteries!

I set up the Big Boy with my PFE cars again (during my open house I had no time for photography!) and I took a lot of pictures and videos. I just finished processing and uploading the photos (video to come probably in a few days): Here are the rest: https://www.flickr.com/photos/benjaminshell/sets/72157645423843035/

I was curious about the status of the UP steam work. Thanks for visiting and sharing what's going on!

I haven't heard anything good or bad about Piko drives, but I will be very interested in seeing how these locomotives sell! (Since I'm quite interested in new steam locomotives!) Are you considering getting one and putting in a QSI Titan? The 6amp QSI Titans are $200 and with the newly released Q3 steam files the quality is incredible. I was never very impressed with the Q2 steam chuff sounds, although it was still better than most alternatives.

Thanks Raymond! Yes, all the problems I've had to deal with and fix were finally all worth it when I got it working reliably for this open house! This was our third open house, and the first open to those outside our club. I gave a list just to emphasis all the very stages of control system disasters I've worked through, but yes I can detail the DCC problems! 1) One problem with long DCC bus runs is inductance. Just two months ago I had one my and only DCC booster in the garage with 10 gauge wire running out to the track. It was about 100 feet, and then that powered a 150 foot loop with just a single track connection. It worked perfectly! So I didn't really understand all the cautions mentioned in articles like http://www.wiringfordcc.com/track_2.htm. Then I finished my expansion to a 500 foot loop literally the day before my previous open house (in April). I didn't have time to run more feeders, but I ran an engine around for a couple hours while I was cleaning up the yard and it worked great. So I thought, "wow, this is too easy". Well, the next morning I tried to run a locomotive with a train--just 10 or 15 cars--and it couldn't make it. The further it got from the power it more it just suddenly stopped. I was able to run one engine with just a few cars, but anything more and everything would just stop! I thought it was dirty track, so for the next couple weeks of running I keep trying to clean the track. But that didn't really make sense. Now that I've learned about inductance it's amazing anything ran at all! Just having 100 feet of parallel wires running to the layout is a huge no-no with DCC. 2) Another problem I had was intermittent failures of my MERG DCC system, including on the day of my April open house! It uses a layout control bus called CBUS which connects components like the computer interface, command station, turnout controllers, and hardwired throttles. Since I just had a computer interface and command station I wired them together, not realizing this bus needed terminating resistors. Somehow mine had still worked without them until the weather got hotter (that's my guess on the reason). I was relying on the internal resistance of the ICs, which vary greatly. So my "beginners luck" came back to bite me until a lot of help on the MERG forums led to the problem and solution! So what I have now is 100 feet of 24V DC (not DCC) running from the garage to the layout, and 100 feet of CAT 5 carrying the DCC signal. There I have a DCC booster connected to my original 150 foot loop. Then I'm running both DC and the DCC signal another 75 feet to another outdoor enclosure where I have two more DCC boosters each connected to about 150 feet to 200 feet of track. Each of these three districts has two or three feeders from the booster to the track using 10 gauge and/or 12 gauge wire which is twisted together to minimize inductance. I could still use more feeders, especially in one district. Evidence of bad wiring is that shorting the track on the last 20 feet of track furthest from one booster does not trip the circuit breaker still. But earlier when I was running the DCC all the way from the garage the circuit breaker didn't trip ANYWHERE on the layout. I thought there was something wrong with my circuit breaker. I'm very lucky to have not blown out any decoders. I have had shorts but my QSI decoders seem to be pretty resilient! So my wiring is not perfect yet, and may be even worse than I realize once I get an oscilloscope (on my wish list), but it's SO much better and I can now run several trains at once anywhere on the layout without running out of power!

Here are a couple short video clips a friend took during my open house: http://youtu.be/IhvcE0LZ0Xs

Yep, that's pretty much the case huh! My previous open house was one of those "why bother" times when a lot of things went wrong. But this time (by biggest open house event) I'm really glad to have had a very successful day. It's not just that the Big Boy ran great, but also I had a lot of great volunteer help and my control system (DCC) worked perfectly. I've been on a mission towards obtaining a reliable control system for years now. It started with two different underpowered analog DC power packs, followed by a 75 MHz Aristo-Craft Train Engineer with no range (and I mean zero range at all), followed by a homemade Bluetooth analog DC controller (worked well, but limited range), followed by an lo:duino and OpenLCB DCC system (very early prototype which was unreliable). This was all while waiting for Zimo to release their long awaited MX10 (still not released!). Then I gave up on them and started using MERG DCC which I still use and love, but had some hiccups along the way because I was wiring my bus incorrectly without terminating resistors and my DCC runs were far too long. Now I have three of the MERG 10A boosters in close proximity to the track. And my system has now been successfully tested with nine hours of running on a hot day! Anyway, back on topic, I should have tried the Mallet as a pusher... I didn't think of that! I'd be slightly worried about the pusher pushing too hard since they aren't perfectly calibrated, but they are pretty close and with QSI decoders they will adjust themselves a little bit to work together.

Hi everyone, I'm here to report SUCCESS with running my Big Boy! Last week I continued to have trouble with it derailing, until Saturday night when I was looking at it closely on an elevated section of track and I noticed the tender was leaning forward a little. Around curves the body of the tender was hitting the tender truck frame and pushing it off the track with anything less than a perfect 20' diameter curve. I found that when I reassembled the tender I missed a washer between the spring and the tender truck! It was right there on my workbench. However after installing that I thought it still didn't seem very balanced so I added two additional washers. And this point it was midnight before my big open house during the West Coast Regional Meet, but this was the last minute fix it needed. I ran the Big Boy pretty much continuously ALL DAY yesterday, from 10am to 7pm, with no problems at all! Well, except for hitting a bridge and almost hitting a tree. It doesn't hit the bridge in the morning or evening but during the heat of the day I guess expansion changed the situation and the near miss turned into a slight impact with the underside of the some piping near the front of the Big Boy. It will be easy to do some paint touch up there. Still no photos or videos, but a lot of people took them (including family and friends who helped with the event) so I'm attempting to get copies now. At the end of the day I decided to do some experimenting. First I tried to pull 48 cars (I'd been running with 21 cars all day). The Big Boy didn't hesitate on level or 2.5% uphill grades, but there's one spot where the long 2.5% grade hits 3% and that's when the wheels started slipping. Then I tried to double head with my Aristo-Craft Mallet but I forgot I still haven't body mounted the coupler on the Mallet tender, so that didn't last long.

Hi Charles, I haven't seen anything like that, but it looks good. I'd just recommend you find a way to anchor in down securely, since it'll be lightweight and prone to move around a little. Also, using wood blocks like this would probably be okay, but better if you can use a composite material. I'm in the process of replacing some pressure treated wood I used for roadbed just six months ago... some of it is already so badly warped the track is uneven. I've mostly used concrete for roadbed and much prefer it to anything else. If becomes uneven you can grind it down quite easily with a diamond grinding cup on a 4-1/2" angle grinder. If wood becomes uneven it's really a pain to try to fix the situation. Ben

Yes! Sorry for the delay--I'll be open Sunday, June 22, for the West Coast Regional Meet so I'm working like crazy to get ready for that. I'll post a more thorough update next week. The short of it is that I've now run the Big Boy around my mainline twice and it runs great except for where it hits a couple obstacles and derails in two places! I'll be working on those trouble areas of track tomorrow. I haven't hook up some lights yet though--the firebox lights, cab light, front marker and number board lights, and running lights. And it doesn't have a smoke unit yet. But I can live without these features for my open house this Sunday.