Thanks! I wish i had more new stuff to post. I suppose i can start showing off my christmas layout now. My 18th birthday past two weeks ago, but I didn't get any trains. However, I did buy some new Lionel Fast Track for my Lionele set, which is a great thing. on the old 0-27 track, if you went at any real speed, the locomotive would fly off the curves. Now i can push my train to unrealistic speeds. Why?
The smoke machine on that thing works best at higher power, so now i can really smoke up my christmas tree. the fast track has O-36 Curves, so it works out nicely. It also looks better than the tubular stuff.
Speaking of track improvements, my Bachman EZ track that i use for the tree train got some fixing. I'm still working out some literal kinks (one joint keeps catching on the pilot of my diesel locomotives), but i've got the majority of it rolling. The most annoying thing was a bachman #6 crossover i have ( i run a double main in HO). It would short whenever a train hit the frog. I was told by bachmann to return it, but i didn't, since i figured i could find the source of the problem (also, it was out of the packaging and stuff by then). Apperently, the frog was incorrectlyt installed, and it butted up against the next set of rails.
*LEARNING EXPIERIENCE TIME!*
1. never ever lean your chin on the track while laying on it (also, laying on your track might not be a good thing in the first place either, though no harm came from that. Hey, I had to get under the tree!). Normally, the DCC system can't electrocute you.
Normally.
Apperently, stubble and chin skin conducts. Don't worry, it wasn't nearly as bad as putting your hand on the Lionel sets's active tracks.... never touch both the inner rail and either out rail.
2. Have you ever had problems with a ready made switch like this? A good solution is to take a dull knife blade, and a small hammer, and line it up where the rail is stuck together. To shift the rail, just hit the top of the blade, hammering the blade into the the gap, seperating it. It should shift everything to the side just a tiny bit, and you won't have to get a new switch.
3. are your switches taking your trains off the right track? try using a small flat head file. first bevel the end top to bottom, then bevel it from the end to the mid section somewhere, then shave the corner off the point so that the wheel flanges slide down it instead of climbing it. Problem solved
So all in all, today was a good day for me in the train department.
I'll try to get pictures soon.