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Post by tjdreams on Mar 13, 2024 15:52:18 GMT -5
Contact Rob Kluz ztrack@aol.com He can help you with getting a replacement board.
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Post by tjdreams on Mar 11, 2024 20:15:46 GMT -5
Steve The motor contact tabs can be a bit of a pain to get just right but with a little bending and tweaking they can be made to work just fine. Its pretty much the same with Both TCS and Digitrax. Additionally where you added solder to the TCS board, the Digitrax boards tends to all ready have a little extra solder and may need a little filing down to fit.
Now with that said when it comes to the loco's I run at shows, I've found that constantly transporting them back and forth to and from shows can jostle the boards loose. So I have been removing the motor contact tabs from the decoder to prevent them from accidently contacting the chassis if the boards shifts and soldering wires from the decoder directly to the motor wires for a couple years now. I also drill and tap the chassis halves then attach a ring terminal to each half with 00-90 screws and solder wires from them to the board to insure proper power pickup.
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Post by tjdreams on Mar 11, 2024 14:52:54 GMT -5
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Post by tjdreams on Feb 28, 2024 18:38:59 GMT -5
Actually there is a decoder that will fit with out having to mill the chassis The ESU LokPilot micro but its only a 0.75A decoder. Read scanrail's post above. With that said I ran a pair of the MTL F7 with the ESU LokPilot micro decoders for a hour or so at our last show with out any issues. Well actually that's a lie i did have trouble with the MTL Ringling Bro's passenger cars that they were pulling constantly derailing. So after about a hour i just parked the whole Circus Train on a siding. But that had nothing to do with the locos or the decoder. Another option would be to swap in a Can Motor that draws less. My MTL F7 Can Motor Upgrade is posted over on TrainBoard
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Post by tjdreams on Feb 23, 2024 20:52:08 GMT -5
The Western Maryland appears to be missing the "Fireball" logo Dave AZL did there homework .Western Maryland roster none had fireball on any units until they added another RS 3 loco 199 that I can fine. Unless they did some freshly new paint jobs. I wonder how many RS 3’s are still active ? Bob Like Bryan said the 199 did and that's what we want.
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Post by tjdreams on Feb 23, 2024 17:45:07 GMT -5
The Western Maryland appears to be missing the "Fireball" logo
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Post by tjdreams on Feb 5, 2024 18:25:18 GMT -5
With a couple axles removed you can see the brass/bronze contact strips that transfer the power from the axle shafts Oh and a word of advice Don't even think about taking one of these apart as putting it all back together is well lets just say Difficult
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Post by tjdreams on Feb 5, 2024 18:25:02 GMT -5
With the trailing truck removed you can see their are 4 wires attached to the loco chassis 2 for the head light and 2 for power pickup. With the loco body, the weight and the LED wires removed you can see the 2 Brass/bronze contact strips running up the the insides edges of the chassis, they go through the chassis under the springs which hold them down so they make contact with each set of axle shaft on either side of the gear.
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Post by tjdreams on Feb 4, 2024 17:09:10 GMT -5
I don't have a heavy weight here to check but my AZL light weight Mikado's pick up power from both the loco wheels and the tender wheels.
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Post by tjdreams on Feb 4, 2024 16:41:42 GMT -5
Which is best really depends on your layout and how you want to run your trains. Both are good. For smaller layouts or even big ones only running one train per loop or using blocks DC is fine.
On the other hand if you want to run multiple trains per loop than DCC might be the better option. I've seen mid train helpers work well with both DC and DCC setups on flat layouts. But when you factor in grades you may be better off with DCC and maybe even a 2nd or 3rd throttle to control the mid-train helpers and the rear pusher individually. Its really hard to predict as a lot of factors come into play. The quality of the track work how clean or dirty the track and the train wheels are the length of the slope and the % of the grade, is the grade straight or curved, The weight and rolling resistance of every car on flat track verses going up or down a slope. and how well each car handles being pushed verses pulled.
As for sound their is no need to use a dummy sound car I've been installing Sound into my powered loco's for 7 or 8 years now + their are a few under the table sound systems that are out there.
Rob uses conductive paint on his wheelsets for detection in blocks and has working signals on his Swiss Gotthard layout So yes Resistance wheelsets are used in at least 1 layout that i am aware of.
The bottom line is DC and DCC are both good. Which is best for you? Well that's entirely up to you.
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Post by tjdreams on Jan 31, 2024 18:18:24 GMT -5
Removing the shell on a F3 / F7 A or B unit. Holding it upside down i slip my fingernails between the fuel tank and the shell while gently pulling them apart i lift the front truck and it slips right off. To remove the truck i loosen the screws on each side of the truck i want to remove. You only need to turn them 1/3 to 1/2 turn each No More then use a screwdriver between the frame halves to pry them apart about no more than half a millimeter and the truck will come right off with a gentle wiggle. The coupler box cover is then popped off with a gentle twisting / lifting using a pair of tweezers the broken coupler parts removed and the cover is replaced with out a coupler as this loco in this video will be using the drawbar I found it easier to put the cover back on first then simply slide the drawbar into the end of the pocket till it snaps in place. When reassembling only retighten the screws the same 1/3 or 1/2 turn that you loosened them. over tightening them or leaving them too loose can cause the loco to not run as well as it did before.
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Post by tjdreams on Jan 14, 2024 10:59:23 GMT -5
Most larger scale manufactures do have plug and play decoders for all there newer loco's but when it comes to Z scale our loco's are so small that their is no room for that luxury (at this point in time) I know AZL is working on Drop in decoders for their newer releases. And remember the F59PHI sets were first released in 2004 20 years ago they were the newest top of the line back then. Simply being able to buy a decoder that small and having room to install it in your Z scale locomotive was huge improvement in those days.
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Post by tjdreams on Jan 14, 2024 10:17:36 GMT -5
"DCC Ready" is a term that is often misinterpreted to mean way more than it does. "DCC Ready" does not mean "Drop in Decoder" It only means that it is possible to install a decoder in that loco. Back in the day DCC Ready simply meant it was possible to install a decoder in that locomotive. Before the invent of Digital Command Control DCC many loco's came with motors that were a physical part of the chassis or in some cases like TYCO and Mantua the motor was made into the truck making it impossible to isolated the motor from the rails. These type locos were Not DCC Ready, As time moved on manufactures started building their loco's with newer style motors which were insulated from the chassis and the rails in such a way that a decoder could be wired in. These Locos were then Labeled as DCC Ready. There is no way to insulate this type motor from the power pickup with out major modifications Thus it is not DCC ready AZL's F59PH has a cavity big enough to hold a decoder and the motor can be isolated with out modifying the chassis so it is considered DCC Ready On the other hand MTL's F7 requires milling the chassis down to make room for a decoder so it is Not considered DCC ready.
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Post by tjdreams on Jan 8, 2024 22:12:28 GMT -5
South Dakota has Mount Rushmore and Z Scale has Old Fish Face.
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Post by tjdreams on Jan 8, 2024 22:05:55 GMT -5
The following was copied from a email i just received Re: MB Klein Follow-up Dear David, In a previous email, we had advised that MB Klein (modeltrainstuff.com) had been purchased by UK train store Hattons. The upshot was that Klein was shuttered and out of business. And that’s true. However, customers were promised that their orders and service requests would be properly handled. We now know that Hattons, itself, is going out of business. So, the UK company that put a US company out of business is, itself, out of business. Oddly, the modeltrainstuff website says nothing about this, as of this moment (7 PM Jan 8, 2024). But the Hatton’s website DOES declare their exit. Because we can’t know how long the Hattons website will survive, we have made a copy of their announcement which you may review here: drive.google.com/file/d/16OYwE32B0yecbT204sEUZtQTsL3OFymr/view?usp=sharingThere shall, no doubt, be a great deal of discussion and speculation about this. And for now, it is important that you, and the hobbyists you know, be properly informed of what is proven to be factual. Mike and I, as operators of the Great Scale Model Train Show, obviously receive many “shop-talk” questions. We hope this message to you portrays our commitment to sorting through rumor and speculation to deliver reliable information which is important to you. Thanks for reading.
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