Large Scale Central

Steamup and sparkies at Dan's

Conventions, Shows, Clubs and Get-Togethers
#1

Dan kindly invited us to freeze and run trains on his layout on Sunday. It was 40 deg and blowing a gale, but he lit a fire and we were down in a valley so it wasn’t too bad (when the sun came out.)

Here’s our host’s N&W J 611 with the coal drag.

I had my RYM Mikado which is battery powered, and hasn’t turned a wheel for a couple of years. (It lives in MD and I’m in FL for 6-7 months, plus the live steam tracks aren’t quite the place for it.) Dan has a ground-level loop for watching trains while sipping a beverage on the front porch, so I put it on that. The sun came out just as it stopped on the trestle.

His gondolas were already on the track, so I tried to take them for a spin. Unfortunately the engine-tender wires are too inflexible and started breaking at the solder joints. Sigh.

I also had my EBT coaches, so after working on the wiring I attempted to get a proper EBT train to run.

Almost made a full circuit.

So back in the box and home to find some better wires. In the meantime, Joseph was running his leaky, wheezy EBT #12 (very prototypical) on the main track.

Many thanks to Dan and Sabrina for their hospitality and the use of the tools!

#2

Just as a follow-up, here’s what happens when your wires are stiff and don’t flex.

#3

I get super flex wire at a R/C airplane hobby shop.

Apparently the critters like it too!

#4

John Caughey said:

I get super flex wire at a R/C airplane hobby shop.

Apparently the critters like it too!

This wasn’t critters, just the wire wasn’t flexible enough and it broke the solder joints at the plug. As most of the wires carry LED power or chuff triggers, they don’t need to be very big, so finding replacements will be easy.

#5

I was speaking from experience, in 24 hours they ate a lot.(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-yell.gif)

I can buy it off a bulk roll, various gauges. It withstands a plane’s vibrations which causes work hardening. Just a thought.

PS: Any problems with RY’s flanges? I’ve heard some negatives, butdidn’t know if it was track or loco.

Thanks.

#6

John Caughey said:

PS: Any problems with RY’s flanges? I’ve heard some negatives, butdidn’t know if it was track or loco.

Thanks.

John, I used to run the loco on Roger’s outdoor track, and it was quite reliable except for one spot where it wouldregularly hit the gravel (fortunately only the 2 front wheels.) Geoff and I did some discussing of the issues, and it isn’t the flanges that are a problem. Especially on the tender (and the RYM hoppers) the trucks are very flexible so they stay on rough track. I did find some notes about the rear truck wheels lifting due to over-strong springing; it’s described on the RYM website under “large scale tips”.

The problem with the Mikado is that long wheelbase of 4 axles, and those blind drivers. They are too stiffly sprung - I seem to recall there are 2 little springs over the axleboxes. Geoff and I removed a spring from the front axle, but that doesn’t solve the problem of the center drivers riding the crest of a bump and lifting the front wheels high enough to derail. I think the solution will be to remove most of the springing on the center axles - just keep enough to float the wheels onto the rails - and let the front axle rock a little (don’t ask me how to do that - I’m still working on it.)