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sschaer
Moderator
913 Posts |
 Posted - 06/04/2023 : 20:41:39
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hello all
saturday june 3rd, 6:37am CET the last of the 3 mainlines finally went into operation !  
last week i installed a few more turnouts (had to replace another one), installed dcc controllers and frog juicers. then saturday morning i was able to run a first train over main 1a thru the yard. why main 1a ? mainline 1 and two split into two tracks each for the whole length of the yard and engine facility. like that i can keep two long trains on each of the two long mainlines. then i can store one more train each on the summit sidings. mainline 3 is way shorter and there's only one part of the loop where i can store a train while still running another. so... after this rather confusing explanation i will sum it up : the 3 mainlines allow 3 running trains with 5 more ready.
next steps :
- finish main 1b thru the yard
- finishing the north end of the yard. there's quite a bit of track working missing.
- mount servos on the north end
- install decoders and frog juicers
- install the defect detector for main 3
defect detector is a fancy device from boulder creek engineering (recently closed their business). each decoder features two infrared sensors looking over the track. if anything interrupts the light the decoder starts with a welcome message. then determines way of travel, speed of the train and counts the wheels. so the sensors have to be positioned very precious to avoid false readings (counting couplers or other low hanging parts on cars). once the train went thru the sensors the detector will report temperature, direction of travel and more. every now and then it will report an issue. hotbox (bearing running hot), draging equipment and similar. this adds another level of reality. as said, it takes a while to adjust the sensors to ensure the wheels are counted correctly.
anyways, today i did run my coal train on the new main 1 for the very first time. the incline towards summit is much longer than on main 2 but with 1-1.1% really easy to run (main 2 : 1.8-2.3%) . until today the coal train had 4 engines in front, 50 cars, 2 more engines, 30 more cars. powered by a total of 6 sd40-2. this power was needed for the steeper mainline. i was able to remove the midtrain helpers on the new main 1. 4 sd40-2 followed by 80 coal cars (46-48grams each) is quite a sight. especially if it runs over itself at the spiral section.
if i find the time i will take a few videos and upload them to my youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@custom-nscale4331 |
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weekly work report..........06/04/2023
