Large Scale Central

Chuff trigger on some new locomotive

General Discussion
#1

To do this, you must lock #1 and #4 axle as shown earlier! This shows the magnets in place (set them where you want them), and the screws pre-threaded into the lower firebox holes provided.

This shows the Sierra reed attached to the wires, and the .080" black styrene mount, 1.75" long X 1" wide. Holes are about .565" apart, and about 1-1/4" from the end, and a Number 30 bit.

This shows the Sierra reed hot-glued to the plate.

This shows the plate installed. The magnets are super-glued to the plastic insulator between axle halves, to one side to keep any possibility of bridging.

This is the same shot, more centered. You can just see the wires going off into the firebox on the engineer’s side. The holes in the plate can be slotted to allow for fine adjustment.

I was told many moons ago, never modify your lifestyle to suit your house, always modify your house to suit your lifestyle. TOC

#2

So, in other words this new locomotive doesn’t have the chuff triggers already installed as in previous models so you can just run the wires to the new soundboard? Not that they had the correct amount of triggers on the 4-6-0’s, but it was nice that you didn’t have add them yourself.

#3

Ken,
The K-27 does have chuff triggers.
They are a swishy new concept of light operated optical couplers mounted in the cylinders.
The problem is they don’t work very well.
They don’t start “chuffing” until at least 5 volts is on the track.
The chuff signal is the wrong way round for most sound systems and will require the LS K-27 owner to source extra parts and install them themselves.

DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!!

DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!!

Not what I would call very smart marketting and a probable PR nightmare.

As is usual, Dave has solved the problem in a very simple to do addition of a reed switch mounted on a scrap of styrene and four magnets.
The only thing I need to see now is, how Dave gets the two wires back into the tender.

#4

Sounds very similar to what happened when BellAtlantic merged with NYNEX. Instead of testing new products before they were introduced, they went with introducing the product AND then trying to fix the problems. Made the customer the guinea pig…I guess it saved them some money…

#5

Didn’t know Microsoft made trains.

#6

Ah, the wires to the tender are the easiest part!
I just use the Ames Train Buss!
It’s worthless for anything else!