A Blessing in Disguise?

After not running trains in months, I decided to spend a rainy afternoon doing just that. And things did not go smoothly. There were a whole lot of derailments and shorts and other issues. But the worst was when I ran my I1 into a turnout set against it and fried the decoder.

Suffice to say I was not happy. The stream of obsenities that left my mouth sounded like a Lenny Bruce routine. I set the locomotive on my display and went about running some other stuff. Eventually I got the layout's creeks worked out and things ran smoothly.

Once I cooled off, I realized maybe this wasn't such a bad thing. First off, if any decoder was going to get fried, better the cheapie DZ-126 in the I1 than one of the expensive sound decoders in my BLI locos. It could've been worse, right?

Second, I realized this is an opportunity to do things right. The initial decoder install on this beast was a nightmare. It took me a good two weeks of tinkering to get the locomotive to do one lap around the layout without derailing. A big reason for that is the wires running from the tender to the loco are too stiff. I plan to replace them with more flexible wire that's colored black.

While I'm replacing the decoder, I plan to make some other upgrades. Chief among them is replacing the tender trucks with Bachmanns, which feature all-wheel pickup. Right now, the drivers pick up power from one rail and the tender wheels pick up power from the other. As such the locomotive has a tendency to stall on turnouts, even with powered frogs!

And as long as I'm replacing the decoder, why not go all out and add sound? This will be a nice upgrade.

I wouldn't be making these upgrades had I not fried the decoder to begin with! So maybe this is a blessing in disguise. The accident forced me to quit kicking the can down the road.

In other news, I've published my first eBook. If you're wondering what I've been spending my spare time on while I'm not working on the layout (or burning up DCC decoders), this it. So now, I'm oing to try and sell you something. If you buy my book for the low, low price of $1, you'll get to read a really cool story and you'll help finance further layout construction. Check it out:

Multiple formats including Amazon Kindle can be found here:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/821410

And you Nook users can get it here:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cataloosa-island-alden-bauers/1128568803?ean=2940155234418

Hope you all enjoy.

A Tree Grows in Johnstown

Wow, four months since my last entry. But it's summer and you know how that goes. Honestly, today was the first day I ran the trains since March. Now, on to what I actually did.

This project took all of about five minutes. In involved me going to Hobby Lobby, buying a 14-pack of Woodland Scenics prefab trees and scattering them about the Johnstown part of the layout. Now, I tried my best to situate the trees in odd-numbered groups. I read on Spookshow's site that trees tend to look better this way and I tend to agree.

 

Another project I'm in the midst of is making high-voltage transmission towers. They'll run from the Model Power susbstation back to the wall. When I needed transmission lines in Gallitzin, I opted to use HO telephone poles. But, I decided not to half ass things this time.

I bought some basswood dowels and square sticks at Walmart. These looked about the right size in the store. The next step was staining them with Minwax "Special Walnut." While the stain was drying, I built a jig to speed assembly. I fastened everything together Gorilla wood glue.

The wire supports and insulators came from my Model Power substation kit. They're held in place with some Testor's model glue.  

Here's the prototype:

In other news, I'm planing a trip to Pennsy country at the end of the month. I'll be staying in Altoona and visiting many of the places I've modeled. The last time my dad and I made the trip was 2010. So yeah, long overdue.

My dad and I basically came to the realization that it was now or never for making this trip. He's not getting any younger and my list of responsibilities isn't exactly getting shorter. With that in mind, this will most likely be our last father and son trip to Altoona for quite some time. So this is bitter sweet.

At any rate, I plan on shooting tons of photos and video while I'm there and I'll be making a full report when get back to the Palmetto state.