Come on back to the caboose and get a cup of coffee [or sweet ice tea] Part II

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Good Morning All from NE Ohio

Where the temp is 45 deg with rain falling and so is the temp, going down to the low 30's and maybe SNOW! :curse:

Well the outside Christmas lights are up. Did it the past two days when the temps were very mild. :mrgreen:

We have been very busy at the museum reworking part of the track to the permanent design.:thumb:

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For those who don't know, this leg is 60 feet long and is one of 3 legs on this layout.
:wave:
 
HI GIZ,
Rainy one here today. Getting colder later today and windy, hope all the leaves come down?
WELCOME FRANK53,and DON. I too just got here last week. Nice to talk to and read about the old gang.
Have a good one.
laz57
 
Morning, Morning [both faces wanted to say good morning :wave:] Slept till 9:15. Feel a lot better this AM. Now to call the Town Manager to return his call and thank him for ringing my phone and waking me up. wall1 Actually raining off oand on and turning cool so it is one of those sleepy days. Now for some red hots and GRITS. Don, I think you have a battery problem. Good luck with that one. See what happens when you call NC. Some one found out and put witch's hex on you. :eek: Frank, great pictures on the thread. Don't think you will get zapped for posting a link to a thread like that. All have a great day. Where is the Buckeye? That guy must have bought his house and moved it with Buckeye in it. :twisted:sign1
 
Good afternoon. I agree with Chief on this one, Frank. I doubt you would get in trouble for posting a link to that thread. As for me getting in trouble Chief, I ain't scared! They can call me what they want, my skin is getting thick these days. I am sure you are the same way, or better get that way quick with the mayorship. Kim wants me to get the layout done and give here a list for Christmas. If given the OK and now the time, I should be able to get some serious work done. Boy did I marry well.
Dennis
 
Hi guys...Hope you don't mind sticking my nose in here now & then...I can see that most of you fellas are 3-railers ('ceptin' TomPM and Jeff). I'm a humble HO gauger too...but I love those 3-railers. I see in one of Tom's (Spankybird) pics what appears to be some S American Flyer...Now that's something I understand..!! I have a mid-50's (my age is showing...) vintage AF set (that's been expanded some). Got it from Santa many eons ago..!! Still bring it out for Christmas...
Hope all have a good night.
 
Buckeye........ said:
Chief, I have just spent about two hours trying to make a MTH 42 LH Switch work. This one will not close tight. Any suggestions?
:curse:
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Take bottom off, look at the clear/white plastic block that the metal wire goes over when it closes that way. If the wire is not dropping down all the way, trim the edge so it will. Had to do one that way. Only other problem can be low voltage not allowing it to SLAM closed. Think you will find it is the first thing. I know you have checked for foreign matter in the switch and at the points. BTW: are you still using track power or have you converted to ax power. I found aux power is the way to go. 16 volts or so and they will slam. Without that much voltage, two back to back switches will not work good.

Steamhead, always good to have you drop by. HO and N guys have my respect. Such tiny details.

Cold and windy after 6 tenths of an inch of rain.

Later
 
Chief Eagles said:
Take bottom off, look at the clear/white plastic block that the metal wire goes over when it closes that way. If the wire is not dropping down all the way, trim the edge so it will. Had to do one that way. Only other problem can be low voltage not allowing it to SLAM closed. Think you will find it is the first thing. I know you have checked for foreign matter in the switch and at the points. BTW: are you still using track power or have you converted to ax power. I found aux power is the way to go. 16 volts or so and they will slam. Without that much voltage, two back to back switches will not work good.
Click to expand...

Chief, I found, when I took the thing apart that under the movable points there was a connection that was really rough. I filed it smooth. The wire seems to be going all the way down.

I am using track power, 18 volts, 360 watts and all of my other swithes just snap in place.

I am begining to think that the movable points are not attached to the throw bar at the correct gauge. I used to build my own switches when I had an HO layout.

Next layout, GARGRAVES.
 
Buckeye, you may want to look at Atlas O track. I know several OTTS members with it and they love it. :mrgreen:

Tonight we finished the 1st loop on the first leg at the msueum. The trains ran great on it. Tomorrow we start the mountain and the blending of the upper S gauge at the end of the leg. :cry:

:wave:
 
Howdy folks - Cold in St. Looey today, think Chewy is glad she's got a fur coat! Got an email that my new (Christmas present) trainset shipped today - is due next week. Too bad about the BB and other troubles, hope they get them fixed ASAP Don. Sounds like your boy will be sleeping in the tent for a while?! Good news on your wife, Chuck - hope she continues to improve! Steamhead - like your moniker! I like all gauges, but O gauge is good for me because I can work on the littles stuff without any problems and it just feels right, big and heavy. Guess there is some nostalgia in there as well.

Laz - still playing golf, or weather changing there too? How is your Big Boy running?

Just watching some good old Popeye cartoons with the kids. They are scandalized that Popeye smoked and drank and carried on - LOL

John Baker - it's all those taxes! You guys need to go dump all that texas tea in a harbor -- it's a good start! ;) Any new word on Scotland? We're on season two of Heroes here and it's not as good, but slowly ramping up to a real story again. They spent too much time introducing a bunch of new characters and half of them are gone already!

I'm working up plans for a bigger layout and might go with gargraves and Ross switches or gargraves switches - I hear Ross are better, but not sure just why?
 
Steamhead, glad you are here. I have found that a good bit of my inspiration regarding the scenery is from HO. I am not as old as some but getting there, so I have found that O is easier to work with and when my eyes and dexterity go, I can still run the trains.
A calm night here. Had some things to take care of, but should be able to work on wiring in the morning...with the help of a 3 year old.
Dennis
 
Brutus said:
John Baker - it's all those taxes! You guys need to go dump all that texas tea in a harbor -- it's a good start! ;) Any new word on Scotland? We're on season two of Heroes here and it's not as good, but slowly ramping up to a real story again. They spent too much time introducing a bunch of new characters and half of them are gone already!
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Hi Jim,

announce1 That was a very timely post. Don't want to start anything political here but do read this editorial.

LancasterOnline.com: Subscriber Authentication

I for one agre with the writer.

And on the train front. I hope to get a Christmas train running on the layout over the weekend, haven't decided which loco to use this year, maybe my railking 2-8-0 since it is a good reliable runner & smokes well. Have to spif it up with some decorations. :thumb: The usual candy in the hopper cars for the kids will be a little dicey this year with the catenary in place. :(

Take care,
John
 
John, I can't read the story, it wants a login? Can you copy it and post it or shoot me an email with the full story?
 
Chief, finally found the cause of the problem. In fact it was two things. First the movable points were too long on the frog end. Ground them off. Second, inside the switch the actual piece (white plastic) that thows the points has two slots that stop the throw. I had to lengthen the slots and now it is throwing the points right up against the rail.

I'm sure glad I own tiny screw drivers.
 
Skipped Grey's Anatomy and Cold case to work on old saw mill. Took the covers off and put a little synthetic oil on all the rollers and moving wheels. Now it will work good but takes 18 to 20 volts to keep it going with out hang ups. Bet the longer I run it, the better it gets. Been stored and not run since 85. At 20 volts, she throws the lumber out. Will try toning it down in a while. Had to do some wire repair. Tiny thin wire inside cloth sleve. Looks like it could be Post War. would have thought by 85 they would have used covered wire. Anyway tiny wire shorted out and burnt into while I had cover off. Added covered wire so that will not happen again.

Bed time for the old man.

Frank53, you still work in the middle of the night?

Buckeye, we should not have to work on MTH switches. Yet Mikeyboy told Fife that he had not heard of any switch problems. I now have two extras. One right and one left. Pull one out and put in working one. Fix the one that went bad. :curse: Have it ready for the next one that goes bad.

Later
 
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