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They're Atlas Master Series freight cars with fine scale trucks. I would assume Atlas trucks since I bought them new. I made a spacer out of some scrap sheet metal from the guts of an old fax machine and the car now rolls okay (almost went blind making a washer that small:)). Was just checking...

Hi; I have a few Atlas N scale Master Series freight cars and one of them took a header off the table. When it hit the floor the trucks and mounting pins separated and flew in separate directions. I found the trucks and pins but not the metal washers that go between the mounting pin and...

You could also try removing the body mounted couplers and replacing with truck mounted couplers if you wanted to keep those cars.. Of course you would have to check first if truck mounted couplers will be long enough to allow the conversion. Just a thought.

Great! Thanks for the explanation and the pictures. That certainly looks like the way to go. I actually have an old Craftsman wire stripper that looks very similar to the Klein. I'll give that one a try first. You have been very helpful.

Yes. you have it correct! DC loco on DC setup only and no DCC in the picture at all! After things are working good then DCC loco's on DCC (with DC loco converted to DCC). No mix and match in either case. Not sure how this got so convoluted:oops:

I probably wasn't clear in my response above. I have another DC throttle/power pack to run the DC loco. So no DCC involved at all, just the old way with analog DC.

Yes - I did buy a separate decoder but haven't installed it yet. I'm still hand laying the code 40 rail and like to check out the progress in stages using the DC controller first to work out the bugs. Once all the rail is installed and checked out I will then convert the odd one to DCC. Like...

Sounds like a plan. I Googled Klein strippers and 3 different ones came up. Which one did you settle on? Also did you make one cut in the middle and just push the casing aside to get a spot to solder or did you have to make two cuts and remove the piece in between first?

Thanks for the inputs. I'll just use the pure DC setup for checking out the track and only use DCC with DCC equipped loco's then. I did buy a DCC chip for the DC loco just haven't attempted to install it yet. This is a DC Atlas SW2 with a separately purchased DigiTrax decoder. From what I...

I'm new to DCC and building a small n scale layout. I've bought a few DCC equipped locos and one DC version I will convert to DCC at some point. I also have a DigiTrax ZEPHYR DCS52 for the DCC part. I understand that DCC puts a constant 14 - 16V on the rails but one DC loco can also be run...

Very timely post indeed! I actually have a 2 x 6 foot L section of this layout bolted on to the 2 x 8 foot section so that it can be separated for moving purposes. There will be 4 places where track runs over the two sections that will have to be cut when separating the two modules. This is a...

Thanks for the input. That might be an option. Which auction site are you referring to that you bought the shear from?

I'm in the middle of laying code 40 rail using n scale PC board ties. CloverHouse was my goto place for the 12" n scale tie strips that could be cut to length, however they appear to have stopped making this handy package for n scale. Has anyone found a replacement place to get n scale PC...

Interesting idea. Sort of like a 'sub-bus' on the table top then connected to the main bus below. I've hand laid code 40 rail using PC board ties so there is a convenient soldering tab at the end of each tie. Will look into that in various spots where the wiring could get congested.

Thanks for the tip! I was thinking stripping just a section out of the middle of the cable would be the hardest part.

Nice! Thanks for the pic. The IDCs do look a lot easier than soldering. I have spools of 24 gauge wiring on hand I was going to use for the feeders. Hope that is not too small - a post above suggested 22.

That's interesting about IDCs working best with solid wire. I visualized a splade of some sort wedging itself between the individual strands of wire in stranded wire. So how do they work - when properly installed are they just pressed against a small section of the solid core wire and held...

Hi - I'm building a small n scale switching layout that is in an L shape - 10 feet x 2 feet on the long side with a 6 feet x 2 feet extensor on one end. I'm going to use solid core 14 gauge wire for the DCC bus, preferring to solder the track feeders versus the suitcase connectors which I...

Great tip - copper clad worked! Would also be interested in where you got the shear. Thanks.

Nice. The skewer alone is kind of awkward because it is too thin to twist with fat hands but you certainly fixed that issue. Will try this as well. Thanks for the idea.