billyboy

The controller and both locos powered down , sometimes it was momentary they'd halt and then start on their way again, once or twice full shutdown and power off.

I deal with one of the Ship agents in Foynes port and I heard rumours about the line been reopened from the Financial controller while making small talk before Christmas. Freight traffic is on the rise and container , fuel and other products been shipped by rail make more sense. The state of the current track and some of the infrastructure isn't the best between Foynes port & Limerick. One thing that surpised me was that nobody ever used the line for rail preservation , you have a line with a small but decent terminus in Foynes, a run in to Limerick via Adare....good for tourism and then into Limerick station. Foynes port could get Cruise ship in, stick then in a train, stop at Adare village and then into Limerick for shopping and look at a few historic sites there and maybe a bus out to Bunratty castle. The odd freight train could run up and down the line to pay its way. Anyway thats what I heard and my 10 cents work. Bill

Hi guys, just an update, I went through the Digitrax warrenty, sent the chip back explaining what happened and they told me to bag it up and send it back to them, three to four weeks later a new decoder lands back at my house. I fitted it and now the front and rear leds work depending on direction of travel of the loco , so I'm thinking it was the previous decoder was a bit iffy. I then had over-voltage shutdowns on the loco after running it on a few circuits and also when it met another local on the second parallel track head on and it was also jumping and shorting on a set of points. So I reset the decoder , took the loco part , re-wired it and resoldered to the trucks in what I found on a hunch to be a far simpler and easier setup, my previous soldering job was a nightmare to do. Put it back together again and touch wood four days later it running extremely well, leds working no issues on points. I had a look at the internals of my next two candidates for conversion IE 201 and a GWR Pannier and hopefully with lessons learned above it should be easy enough. Bill

Well I fried the chip it seems, while checking the wiring to the front LED it touched the chassis and shorted.If I run a loco with the chip it shorts the controller and kills power to the track. I suspect it may of been slightly iffy anyway as the rear light was a cause for concern. After it was fried I took the blue insulating cover off the chip and no scorch marks or burnt electronic smell. I took the motor off the chassis and ran it purely chip and motor only and it shorted . Lesson learned there..... I'll fire a mail to Digitrax as they as a no quibble warranty on decoders and see if they'll replace it. Thanks guys. Bill

The Digitrak DCS51 , I've a BR Class 37 thats DCC ready with a chip and I can program away on that with both front & rear lights. I'll strip it down again tomorrow night or Stephen's day and have a look.

Very weird, I've double checked everything. Wiring is: Blue common from the chip to both LEDs on the positive. Yellow to the rear light negative. White to the front light negative. For good or bad I've the 2k resistor on the positive common on both LEDs. I'll change that and put the resistor on the negative. I'm pretty sure I've both lights on Function one but still learning and working my way through manual. Bill

Hi Lads, I've wired up my loco for front & rear lights (LEDS) , the front led lights up just fine and I can program it for the various modes . The rear light stays on constantly unless I drop the power to the BUS and then off it goes. I've check the polarity on the LED, the common blue wire and the yellow reverse wire is as it should be I'm using a Digitrax DH126D. I've factory reset the chip and still the same. Any ideas? Bill

Awesome work!

@ Irishthump I haven't hooked up the lights yet, I'm waiting on a batch of LEDs and resistors to fit to it. @burnthebox I used Digitrak DH126D for the Class 37 as its plug & play, the DH126PS I fitted to the SD40-2. The only major problem I had was soldering the wires to the trucks for the pickups even with the unit striped down . I'm pretty sure there's an easier way to do that part. Besides setting the new IDs I haven't tweaked the chips yet. Thats for a quiet weekend. Bill

Hi lads, well I've started the DC to DCC conversion of my trains. The BR Class 37 was plug and play so no problem there, the fun started with my Athearn bluebox SD- 40-2 . I looked up youtube and found a great step by step guide. It took about 3 hours to do but by god it was fun. The light I had to take out as I want to fit LEDs front and back to I've to order them and a few 2k resistors. The train itself I bought in Canada back in September 2001 and its running well and its one of my all time fave units. I've a few F7 A's and a SD70M to convert from my North American\Canadian rolling stock. More to follow. Bill SD-40

Thanks guys, the single led is an option but I've the signals so I might as well use them. I just need to go build the rectifier. That's one thing missing from the Digitrax DCS51---- a DC output. My old Hornby controller had one.

I'm wondering could the following be done: On my layout I've a track in the yard setup aside for DCC programming. I've wired up a DPDT switch so it switches power from the live power bus over to the programming line from DCC ontroller . I can drive a train into the track, flick a switch, isolate it from the main bus and then program the chip. job done I then flick the switch and roll back out again. Now what I want to know is can I put one of my signal lights in position, hook it into the DPDT switch and depending on whether I'm programming I'd get a red light or running on the main power bus I'll have green. Can it be done? Bill

Hi guys, what the best oil \ lubricant to use on locos? I've a variety or Lima, Hornby, Bachmann and other makes with the usual variety in motors . I've taken a few apart and renewed the solder and wiring on the older models , wheel cleaning which has made impressive difference in the running . Thanks, Bill

Thanks Irishthump I'll give that a try. I ended up stripping down the engine and found that the right hand gears were jamming every revolution and then the force of the engine moved it on , some gunk got into the mechanism. I cleaned it down put it back together again and its driving along pretty smoothly now. Thanks for the info guys. Bill

Thats is pretty good work. I fitted a similar kit to my F7s and it turned out ok.

I'll give the servicing a go, Its about 14-15 years old, good physical nick, how or where do I get my hands on extra pick-ups for the 201?

Hi Guys, I'm in the process of wiring my layout for DCC , I've run the ddc controller in DC mode as I haven't got around to buying DCC chips yet. Except for the Lima Class 201 loco all the other trains tear around the track. I had pretty poor running with all of them until I used a PECO wheel cleaning device I was giving by a guy I know who's late father was a bit train man. The change in the running on all except the 201 was amazing. I followed the wife around all evening telling her about it....she just kept turning the volume up louder. I know people have complained about the Lima 201 and its motor, I never had an issue with it prior to this but christ its bad compared to some of my Bachmann and Athearn locos. The lack of pickups doesn't help but is there anything I can do to speed it up a bit. Bill

I was thinking that as it has a cut in one rail not two , suitable for DC but not DCC. I've a double pole\double throw switch someplace I test with that.

Lads, thanks for the info....I'll have a proper read at lunchtime.

Hi guys, I've three questions about DCC so far, my layout is roughly 4m by 4m by 4m by 6m ( the 6 meter part is the main terminus) I'm about to start drilling the base board for the droppers to the power bus. What the rule of thumb on spacing between them? The second question is... : way back when I bought a Lima signal light that hooks into a lima 3 switch gizmo (flattish square red yoke with a black switch and three power points on it and this feeds to the signal and then to a track with a cut in the rail. The idea been green light you have power to the track and move on ; red light you have no power to the track and go nowhere. My plan was to use this as the programming track as its in the yard and I thought it'd look pretty fancy with the signal light that killed main power to the track. I get the impression that this might be a bad idea DCC wise Third question : My Digitrak Zephyr has landed ....horray!!!! ..... Can I or do I power accessories off the main DCC power bus? The manual is fair sketchy and I'm too lazy to browse the Digitrak site forums. Any help gratefully appreciated. Thanks, Bill

Thanks for the comments guys, its much appreciated. @Burnthebox ...phew an overall plan . I kind of had one on the initial design but my woodworking skills(My father built the benchwork) and tools on the initial build were truly woeful plus the plan proved impractical. Over time I bought in better gear , refined the layout plan , relayed track , pulled it up , tried a new layout or a new section . Ye are seeing about 5-6 years of effort to get me to this point. Lots of sitting down looking at the layout, thinking about it, leaving it for a few days\weeks\ months as the real world intruded. The fuel depot took about three years to build yet again work and children got in the way. The slightly elevated section on the double track took about a month with track alignment as my North American rolling stock tended to derail or uncouple on the climb up. Wiring is my next challenge on the DCC side. Been a lot of fun so far though. Bill

Hi guys, few pics of my layout , I was on the old site way way back when posted a few pics of the layout as it was back then. I ended up ripping the whole layout apart shortly after that post and relaying all the track-work again and getting rid of a planned upper level which looked gammy. The layout is a run around the wall of my attic taking up about three quarters of the attic. The track-work is now set pretty much except for one section I'm not happy with coming out of the main station . I'm doing the scenery and ballasting on the track funds permitting. Some of the track and the main station building is a donation from the son of a man who had a layout of Limerick junction and Colbert station in upstairs of his business here in Limerick. When he died I helped take the layout apart....not a good day. My Hornby controller died about 2 years back and as I was planning the layout there was no push to buy a new one so I've got a Digitraks DCC controller on order and going digital so know I've to plan the wiring and start converting my locos to DCC. Its still a work in progress and about 75% complete , the trains on the layout are test trains for the most part as I check clearance with platforms and points. I'm running Irish rail, British rail , Canadian Pacific freight, Toronto GO transit communter , Canadian VIA rail and Amtrak trains so its a right mongrel of a layout. I've my old Lima BR class 33 that my parents bought for me back in the 70's still running so that will be going digital as well. Should be fun Bill