Large Scale Central

I know, I know, check the btb.

Modeling Motive Power
#21

Fred Mills. said:

I’m not going to weigh in on any “Wiring Debate”, here, but…

It is VERY common knowledge that when doing anything with Aristo wiring…DON’T EVER DEPEND ON WIRE COLOURS…always check any wire with a continuity meter before you put power to it…Bachman, is said to have made mistakes too at times.

Now, guys, stop this stupidity…!!..…and get back to none electrical “Connection problems”…!!

Fred Mills

Said to have made mistakes? Say it ain’t so - how can it be a mistake if all the wiring is the same color? (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)

#22

#1 change to track power and you will not have any of those pesky wiring problems or battery to motor problems

#2Swap them Kadee’s out for hook and loop couplers and you will have no problems, they couple easily don’t catch on anything and 99.9/10 of thepeople looking at your trains will never know the difference, and gosh the are was less expensive than KaDee . Feeling a bit contrary to all today!

#23

Thanks, Pete, I think. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

#24

Steve Featherkile said: but this one is recalcitrant (look it up, Rooster).

Steve I don’t have too because it’s my sons middle name!

#25

@Rooster - ROTFLMAO

#26

Pete, track power doesn’t solve Aristio wiring issues, See Pacific battery/track switch miswiring.

Anybody, anybody who knows what trains look like will notice then fugly hook and loop jobbies.

Offset Kadees make Fred twitch, hook and loops make me twitch.

#27

Steve

Greg said :

The miswiring is from the socket “out” so the wires that the Revo thinks are going to the motors might not be so.

The shorting plug hides the problem…

did you follow the wires from the socket to the motor or power pickup ?

#28

David Maynard said:

Pete, track power doesn’t solve Aristio wiring issues, See Pacific battery/track switch miswiring.

Anybody, anybody who knows what trains look like will notice then fugly hook and loop jobbies.

Offset Kadees make Fred twitch, hook and loops make me twitch.

Bachmann’s tie dragging couplers twitched my wallet shut…

Track power? On my Aristo C-16 the tenders trucks were mis wired, one got reversed when mounted, because the tangs went in opposite directions …

#29

Bachmann’s couplers were very “inspiring” to me to upgrade to KaDee couplers.

#30

well we cannot have you all twitching, now can we! I shall do a cost analysis sheet to see what works the best for me

#31

Pete, by all means, use what works best for you. Its your railway after all.

#32

Steve Featherkile said:

I finally dusted off an Aristo Dash 9 that I bought from a club member some 12 years ago, ran once, and put on the shelf as a future project. Well, the future is now.

I took it out the shelf, dusted it off, gave it a battery and a REVO II, put it on the track, and wouldn’t you know it, it stumbles every ten feet or so. All my other Aristo and USAT locomotives run nicely along the mainline, but this one is recalcitrant (look it up, Rooster).

I know, take it to the shop, put it in the cradle, check the back to back gauge on the wheels. And today is such a nice day. No smoke, I can breathe, clear skies, slight breeze. I guess I’ll run my SD 45s, instead.

Sigh.

So I have a question… do you have a turnout every 10 feet? What could be hanging up the coupler every 10 feet?

Maybe I interpreted “stumbles”… The reason I came on this thread is because I had exactly the same thing happen with a miswired Aristo loco where I did not follow my rules and just plugged a decoder into the socket (and yes it ran fine on DC). The swapped wire leads made a low-grade, intermittent (because of varying resistance of wheels to rails) short that made my loco stumble and jerk every few feet… also it seemed to run better in one direction than another.

This would have happened exactly the same way on battery power, since the track/battery switch does not always disconnect the track pickups, usually it does nothing but add the battery in.

So, since I quoted the very first post, wondering what the progress is, and how there could be a coupler issue every 10 feet, or maybe “stumbles” is not a jerky stop start but just poor tracking.

Greg

#33

I am more informed… I did interpret stumbling in a way different from what Steve meant, he meant derailed… I think the loco is still “stiff”, had a similar situation with an SD45 that has been sitting on a shelf since Scott Polk sent it to me from the last days of Aristo…

Greg

#34

Greg Elmassian said:

I am more informed… I did interpret stumbling in a way different from what Steve meant, he meant derailed… I think the loco is still “stiff”, had a similar situation with an SD45 that has been sitting on a shelf since Scott Polk sent it to me from the last days of Aristo…

Greg

Yeah, it was “stiff,” alright. On Greg’s recommendation, I lubed all the wheel axles with gear oil, as well as the motor block axels. When I took off the bottom plate of both motor blocks, the insides were bone dry, in desperate need of a soup job. I didn’t look inside the gear boxes, as Lewis assured us that they had lifetime lubrication, whatever that means. What could possibly go wrong? (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-sealed.gif)(https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)(https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-innocent.gif)I’ll consider finding somebody to open and inspect the gear boxes this winter. This particular unit was built in 2002, it’s probably due.

There is a bearing on each wheel axle, that if not lubed, can freeze, and do expensive damage to the block.

The lead and trail motor block axels are rather stiff, don’t rotate much, to hold the track. The middle axles are fairly free, and the interior motor block axles are the freest to adsorb the vagaries of outdoor track.

Anyway, I took it for a spin this morning, no derailments on the mainline. I’ll check the branch line later.

#35

One thing I learned while working at companies that promised Lifetime Warranties, is that Lifetime Warranties are not meant to be for your’s or my lifetime. It’s what ever the manufacturer thinks the lifetime of the product should be. Now, what life span did the engineers of our trains engineer into them? AND, and this is a big and, was the correct plastic compositions used in making the parts. That sadly, is on the Chinese and their quality control or lack of, as we all to well know.

#36

So now my SD45 has responded to the “soup” treatment also, I will haul out my NS Dash 9 and see if I can give it a go… and I better follow my own wiring recommendations, wired up an old FA-1 and smoked the wires on the little main board, miswired from factory! This is a pre-socket loco…

I removed the little plugs from the motor blocks and put on JSTs just like USAT, with different sexes for motors and track pickups…

Greg

#37

Greg Elmassian said:

So now my SD45 has responded to the “soup” treatment also, I will haul out my NS Dash 9 and see if I can give it a go… and I better follow my own wiring recommendations, wired up an old FA-1 and smoked the wires on the little main board, miswired from factory! This is a pre-socket loco…

I removed the little plugs from the motor blocks and put on JSTs just like USAT, with different sexes for motors and track pickups…

Greg

Video of the Dash 9 running would be nice ?

#38

As soon as it gets a QSI, I’ll do a video of all 3 consisted, all with sound.

Greg