Seneca Ridge MS Afters School Train and RC Club


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Our refreshed layout... we went back to a basic oval with 3 lines switching to and from... the inner most line will have a siding for a yard...

We will also try to elevate the outer most track using a 3d printed risers...

I wanted to ask, how come when we run DC power, the trains run well and fine without any hesitation or stopping at the tracks... however, when we switch to DCC, there are spots where the train will struggle to pick up some power... we are running Bachmann DCC equipped trains...

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Brake wheels!
Just wanted to share the brake wheel that one of my student designed in our 3d printer.
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The right one is the original model, while the left is the 3d printed one.
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Good job on the brake wheels, no doubt because he'll get good grades for that piece of work, he'll get the job of designing and making the grades for the track :rolleyes:. Your problem with DCC is probably to do with the track joints/joiners. DCC operation is heavily reliant on good connections, why most advice for it is to have a Buss wire beneath the layout, following the mainline, with dropper wires soldered to the track at intervals around and then soldered/joined to the buss. Reason being that the track not only carries the electricity to power the loco/s, but also the digital signal that tells the decoder in the engine what to make the engine do. This is much more reliant on good current flow than DC, which only needs to power the motor and lights, from 0volts to 12volts generally and is more tolerant of power drops. DCC as you know, applies full 14+ volts all the time and drops affect that Digital transmission much more severely. A loss of voltage can result in a loss of transmission which causes the engine to stutter and/or stop. This is a problem where the trackwork plan may want to be changed about frequently.
 
I wanted to ask, how come when we run DC power, the trains run well and fine without any hesitation or stopping at the tracks... however, when we switch to DCC, there are spots where the train will struggle to pick up some power...
One only thinks the DC trains are running well without hesitation because of the momentum in the motor. It is not going to respond to tiny variations in power. DCC on the other hand is highly dependent on a high frequency digital signal. The power to the motor is controlled by those digital signals not directly from power from the track. Those same tiny variations in power lose valuable bits of information that is supposed to be telling the locomotive to go. They may even be causing it to interpret the message as stop. Hence the stuttering and poor performance.
 
Yes! Thanks! I sent you a text message the day we got the package... we used the flex on some section

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Hello. It's been a while... I didn't realize it has been 3 years since I last posted here... I apologize for not updating the posting. I had a very challenging year the past two years and the project railroad got derailed. As a matter of fact, our old table and layout got tossed out during custodial change last year, and I didnt get much interest from my prior students in recreating a layout so it got sidelined...

This year appears to be different, however. I have incoming sixth graders who expressed interest in creating a new layout. I was able to get a 4x8 table from our woodshop so we are making headway. I am also fortunate that I was able to box up most of our engines and train cars, and some brass tracks. We can easily build a simple layout just to run the trains for the mean time until we can agree on what layout to build. I actually found an old layout book and saw one called Waterlevel Western... looks promising and we might consider using it as our design.

This year, I am not planning on advertising a club, rather, just keeping in low key and offer it to interested kids... ofcourse, all students are welcome to visit my room to operate the trains if so they desire... I was going through our current supply and may need to ask for help from you guys... at this point, we have not started anything, just trying to see what we have on hand. Our admin also relocated my room with more space.

I am hoping to gather specific tracks in code 100, namely:
RH and LH Atlas turnouts (we do have a bunch of motors we can use)
22R curves
25 deg crossing
45 deg crossing

If you guys don't mind donating those items above and maybe other stuff, we would gladys appreciate it. I can personally cover the shipping cost if need be. Thank you in advance!
 

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