Coffee Shop XXXIII 06/21/12


I have two FP45's myself but they have the older blue box shells. Both were originally Athearn blue box, one unit powered, the other a dummy. I rebuilt the powered chassis to RTR specs with good trucks, new H-type motor, flywheels and shafts from an Athearn AC4400. The dummy frame couldn't be made powered so I ditched it and put a modified Proto 2000 E6 drive under the other FP45 shell. Very big heavy pullers. However they're a bit big for my layout so I retired them earlier this year. They're packed away in an Athearn box in the top of my closet. They both need minor wiring work before they're ever used again. My other too-large locos met a grimmer fate. They got torn down for parts for my smaller locos like the F units, GP9's and Atlas rebuilds.
 
Today I scored a previously owned MRC prodigy express DCC system.....such a deal I could not pass up. Now I'm looking to find what is good/cheap generic, itty-bitty, N scale decoders which might work in most any N scale locomotive......if such a thing exists. :D


Mike
 
railfan said:
Nice natural HO clakity-clacks in the video.....no sound decoders needed!


Mike
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I left a very thin gap in the rail joints when I put the track together. I did it originally for expansion but found out later I didn't need that much expansion. A gap here and there would do. So I soldered most of the rail joints and left e few unsoldered. Later when I ripped up half the layout to put track down in the configuration it;s in now I left the same small gaps between the sections but soldered the joiners. That kept the clickity-clack sound all the way around.

railfan said:
Now I'm looking to find what is good/cheap generic, itty-bitty, N scale decoders which might work in most any N scale locomotive......if such a thing exists. :D
Click to expand...
Most of my decoders are Z Scale. They can be tucked into very small spaces.
 
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Time for me to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.

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Good Morning...

Good Morning! from Tipton IN.

August 27, 2012 is the 240th day of the year 2012 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 126 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Monday.


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:cool:

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TIPTON
 
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Mornin' Bill. Today is the 27th. Or is that a test to see how many of us are reading your morning greeting?

Long weekend in the UK. Time to get the groceries done then an afternoon of track laying.
 
Good morning. It's 79° with 85% humidity. A tropical storm watch is in effect. The chance for rain today is small. It'll be partly cloudy and the high will be 95° but will feel like 102°.

Nothing much going on today. I think I'll do some catching up on my movie watching. The bones in my right leg are letting me know they're unhappy and it hurts just to stand. This morning I'm watching my three GP9F's slowly pull a string of twenty-one cars around the layout.

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jeffery issac is passing me rite now so i looks like its heading your way, have you gotten any word on that??
 
blackz28 said:
jeffery issac is passing me rite now so i looks like its heading your way, have you gotten any word on that??
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The last time it looked like a hurricane was passing us in Cape Coral, Charlie made the biggest 90 degree right turn you ever saw and flattened a good part of where you are right now. It went just North of my house, and went nearly over the top of Larry's house in Arcadia.
It ain't gone until you see the taillights...
 
Toot: Not sure if I am reading this right, but if you have a QSI you are far better off than a cheapy MRC. BLI has always used them and I have several of their locos with never any problems over 8 years. The QSI Revolution is excellent and its new replacement, the Titan, is an even match for the Tsunami (I have all three of these installed in various units).
 
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bnsf971 said:
The last time it looked like a hurricane was passing us in Cape Coral, Charlie made the biggest 90 degree right turn you ever saw and flattened a good part of where you are right now. It went just North of my house, and went nearly over the top of Larry's house in Arcadia.
It ain't gone until you see the taillights...
Click to expand...
yes my g/f has been here since 86 & she told me all about charley, lol:eek: i think you told me this but didnt you move north a bit afterwards??
 
RexHea said:
Toot: Not sure if I am reading this right, but if you have a QSI you are far better off than a cheapy MRC. BLI has always used them and I have several of their locos with never any problems over 8 years. The QSI Revolution is excellent and its new replacement, the Titan, is an even match for the Tsunami (I have all three of these installed in various units).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info about QSI, the decoders in my earlier release Athearns are definitely MRC (found the little hand control for DC sound effects on their site as final proof, a pity as that's a good idea). I've just taken the body off the Tsunami equipped FP45 and found that there's provision in the chassis for a second speaker ahead of the motor.
 
blackz28 said:
yes my g/f has been here since 86 & she told me all about charley, lol:eek: i think you told me this but didnt you move north a bit afterwards??
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Somewhat North and a lot West. I now live several hundred miles North of you.
 
Well my father went out to his RV this morning to check if the generator would start. It did. so then he shut it down and pulled the fuse out of the faceplate on the genny. The fuse fell out of the fuse holder and ended up in a little hole at the bottom of the well where the fuse fits in. Now I wonder why he pulled the fuse. The thing started, it worked, obviously it was good. Why pull the fuse out? Well he wanted to see if it was good. God, I know this man isn't an idiot, so why does he act like one? Anyway, he reached in with a needle-nose pliers and managed to ground the hot contact of the fuse clamp to ground and the sparks flew! At that point I finished with mowing the grass and stopped to see what he was doing. Well I made the smart play. I took the face plate off the panel and used a small magnet on the end of a plastic rod to fish the fuse out then put the panel back on. I used a small piece of electrical tape to secure the fuse to the little holder it's in so it couldn't fall out again then put the fuse and holder back into the front of the genny. He went to start it from inside and it wouldn't do anything, not even click. I checked all the fuses in the vehicle with a fuse tester and used a multi-meter on the ones the tester wouldn't reach. So then he calls my nephew and tells him he needs him to come down to see what's ailing it. Now this man knows what bait to use. He hung a case of beer out there as a reward and the boy came running! Within an hour he found the problem. My father had fried the circuit board that controls the starter. No new board for a twenty-five year old Onan genny. So he rigged a bypass on it so it can be started and cut off. It starts now and it works! So my Father has a working genny in case the coming storm takes out the power. It's not much but it can run both fridges and a couple of lights and fans. That's all he needs it to do. Can't run a TV on it. We tried that when Rita came through in 2005. I had to carry the TV out of the house before it burned the place down! The genny puts out AC but it's not clean. The circuit for that is built into the RV but doesn't seem to work with outside appliances.

Since 5:00 pm we've been getting short showers here. Some light, others heavy. Looks like it's starting.
 
Just got this flash from my weather service. It's something all of us along the gulf coast should be thinking about.
...TROPICAL STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT...
...PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
PREPARATIONS SHOULD BE MADE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE...BEFORE CONDITIONS DETERIORATE. KEEP INFORMED WHILE LISTENING FOR POSSIBLE WARNINGS. SECURE LOOSE OUTDOOR OBJECTS WHICH CAN BE BLOWN AROUND. STRONGLY CONSIDER EVACUATING IF YOU LIVE IN A MOBILE HOME...AND DO SO IF ORDERED BY LOCAL OFFICIALS.
CLASSES AT LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY AT EUNICE WILL BE CLOSED TUESDAY.
&&
...PROBABILITY OF TROPICAL STORM/HURRICANE CONDITIONS... THE CHANCE FOR HURRICANE CONDITIONS AT THIS TIME (for my area) IS LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO 11 PERCENT. ALSO...THE CHANCE FOR TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS AT THIS TIME IS UP TO 75 PERCENT. THIS REPRESENTS A GENERAL UPWARD TREND SINCE THE LAST FORECAST.
...WINDS... AS TROPICAL STORM ISAAC MOVES CLOSER...THE THREAT FOR SUSTAINED HIGH WINDS IS LIKELY TO INCREASE. THE LATEST FORECAST IS FOR WINDS TO REMAIN BELOW TROPICAL STORM FORCE. HOWEVER...A SLIGHT JOG TO THE WEST MAY PUT SUSTAINED TROPICAL STORM WINDS INTO THE AREA FROM LAKE CHARLES TO FORT POLK TO ALEXANDRIA.
 
Jeffery,

One or both of us will be visited by ISSAC. It looks like it will be west of me in Mobile. The question is will it be east of you.

My place of work is closed for the next two days. So it will be TRAIN TIME!!!! Hopefully, I can prep for the next ops session and get some more scenery built.

Anybody on the northern Gulf Coast needs to be paying close attention to the weather for the next couple of days. Even Rex and CJ could get soaked by ISSAC.

Stay dry!

Glenn
 
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