Model Trains

[MarkF]

Lovely! You can do a lot in N scale with limited space. But it is too fiddly for me.

I toned down the lights in my layout and it looks much better now.

If you're referring to my layout, it is HO scale (10ft x 7ft).

I have the LEDs set at about 25% of their full brightness.
They seem overly bright in total darkness but I hate to lower them much more.
I've toned them down twice so far.  I'm being to wish I had made them adjustable.

Maybe I'll come back to them.  Now, I need to move on to painting and ballasting the track.

[andy3055]

10x7 is a good size. I have space only for 9x4 usable area on a 10x4 board.  It has already taken half the room!
You can dull the LED surface if needed to reduce the brightness.

[MarkF]

10x7 is a good size. I have space only for 9x4 usable area on a 10x4 board.  It has already taken half the room!
You can dull the LED surface if needed to reduce the brightness.

In the small railroad maintenance buildings, I painted the LED lens with TAMIYA Clear Orange to get more of an oil lamp effect.  In the industrial buildings, I kept the warm white color.  I have some cool white LEDs I'm going to try to use for street/parking lot lights.  They're not very bright though.

If you look at the Signal Tower, the upstairs is 'warm white' while the downstairs has the 'TAMIYA clear orange'.

Warm white LEDs have become difficult to find.  Most of the LEDs (Mouser / Digikey) just say white without specifying color or temperature.  Their datasheets are just as bad.  The datasheet lists that different color temperatures are available, BUT the part number doesn't reflect any temperature selection.

[tszaboo]

Here is what I made. Turnout decoder for DCC.

[andy3055]

I am getting very jealous! 

[andy3055]

Here is what I made. Turnout decoder for DCC.

Make a bunch and sell them.

[MarkF]

I can't quite make out what it does.
I don't do DCC.  Just curious?

Does it just power the frog and diverging tracks? 
Does it throw the points?

Is that a MCU to decode the DCC?

[tszaboo]

Here is what I made. Turnout decoder for DCC.

Make a bunch and sell them.

I tried, there was very underwhelming response from everyone. I gave away a bunch to friends and family for now.

I can't quite make out what it does.
I don't do DCC.  Just curious?

Does it just power the frog and diverging tracks? 
Does it throw the points?

Is that a MCU to decode the DCC?

It drives the solenoid based turnout motors like these:

The whole frog thing... Most European brands as I understand have been making insulated frogs for decades now, so I honestly don't know which brands have this issue. Maybe older layouts.

[MarkF]

I believe most companies offer both insulated and electro- (metal) frogs.
My question would only apply to electro-frogs in which case the frog polarity
needs to change with the point positions.

The advantage of an electro-frog is to avoid loss of power going over the frog
for short locomotives or ones with only one set of pickups.

Most of my turnouts are Peco (who offers both types) with a few Shinohara.
The track is Peco flex track with brown ties.

[andy3055]

I believe most companies offer both insulated and electro- (metal) frogs.
My question would only apply to electro-frogs in which case the frog polarity
needs to change with the point positions.

The advantage of an electro-frog is to avoid loss of power going over the frog
for short locomotives or ones with only one set of pickups....
You should get a patent first. That is if it is a unique design.  Then, sell it to Atlas or Hornby or any other manufacturer.

[tszaboo]

I believe most companies offer both insulated and electro- (metal) frogs.
My question would only apply to electro-frogs in which case the frog polarity
needs to change with the point positions.

The advantage of an electro-frog is to avoid loss of power going over the frog
for short locomotives or ones with only one set of pickups.

Most of my turnouts are Peco (who offers both types) with a few Shinohara.
The track is Peco flex track with brown ties.

I'm familiar with the issue. I just don't see track layouts where the electro frogs are used. The Piko layout I have has isolated frog that actually makes a contract when you switch it. Marklin, Fleischmann and other Europena brands do the same as I understand. Peco, Atlas and other American brands do different things. So I wasn't going to add this functionality, as I tried to keep it simple and small.

You should get a patent first. That is if it is a unique design.  Then, sell it to Atlas or Hornby or any other manufacturer.

There isn't anything revolutionary about this, Marklin has turnouts that have the electronics built in, and as I understand Zimo accessory decoders for example can be programmed to do this. Al these companies have their internal engineering team, if they wanted something similar, they could do that easily. I mean it's a size of a loco DCC decoder with less functionality.

[joeqsmith]

My Lionel 2-6-2.  Like my old Marx, these are not worth a lot.  If you want to repair one, you may find a whole new engine is cheaper than that one part you need.      

I found two Lionel tinder cars in my stash but both were plastic in rough condition.  More so than my other bits.   

[andy3055]

The 3 rail system!

[joeqsmith]

Much newer plastic design from the 70s.   I don't recall how I melted it, but it doesn't look like a soldering iron mishap.  My trains had a rough life....

[joeqsmith]

Pull testing the Lionel 1666 after service.  The value in these trains is a reminder of a different time in my life.   When I handle these old relics, I wonder about the kids that came before me who had their fun with them. 

[andy3055]

If you use a fiberglass pen, you can clean the wheels very well.

[floobydust]

I wonder how much current the loco's use? Including the headlight and smoke generator.

O-scale train set I had, it was powered by a Louis Marx 1209 toy transformer. LV AC variac, no circuit breaker or fuse that I remember. It seems to have been a Marx train set, I'm not sure.
Made quite a few sparks on the tracks. Tried cleaning them with steel wool, uncle's idea. That lit up and started burning. Scared the shit out of me.
Then the figure-8 crossover shorted out intermittently and the track got red hot and smoked. The train set from hell lol. A manly model train, that's for sure.

Years later went N then HO and that was plastic baby in comparison.

[joeqsmith]

I had two different controllers.  One was a small cube.  It would run hot and smell.  If it was shorted, inside it had a thermal circuit breaker that would cycle.  First time I tripped it and lost all power, I was scared I had just ruined the train.

The other controller was older and much larger.  It had a light bulb for short circuit protection. 

Google search, looks like a lot more than I would have guessed.  Big layouts, lots of lamps....
https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/what-is-a-good-estimate-of-the-max-amperage-that-would-support-most-o-gauge-trains

[tszaboo]

I wonder how much current the loco's use? Including the headlight and smoke generator.

O-scale train set I had, it was powered by a Louis Marx 1209 toy transformer. LV AC variac, no circuit breaker or fuse that I remember. It seems to have been a Marx train set, I'm not sure.
Made quite a few sparks on the tracks. Tried cleaning them with steel wool, uncle's idea. That lit up and started burning. Scared the shit out of me.
Then the figure-8 crossover shorted out intermittently and the track got red hot and smoked. The train set from hell lol. A manly model train, that's for sure.

Years later went N then HO and that was plastic baby in comparison.

H0 is typically less than 1A on full speed. I don't know the smoke generators because I'm not interested in old locos.

[andy3055]

Those older motors may be taking a bit more than that. Also, the moving parts are heavier than that of newer models, adding to the load.

[floobydust]

I had two different controllers.  One was a small cube.  It would run hot and smell.  If it was shorted, inside it had a thermal circuit breaker that would cycle.  First time I tripped it and lost all power, I was scared I had just ruined the train.

The other controller was older and much larger.  It had a light bulb for short circuit protection. 

Google search, looks like a lot more than I would have guessed.  Big layouts, lots of lamps....
https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/what-is-a-good-estimate-of-the-max-amperage-that-would-support-most-o-gauge-trains

O-gauge is I think a brushed universal motor? No magnets that I can recall, and I thought AC.  In that thread they were saying up to 4A typical.

[joeqsmith]

Mine are brushed with wound stator and rotor (no permanent magnets).   I have been running them with a DC supply but the old controllers were 0-18VAC to run the motors.  In other words mine will run with AC or DC.  I did not measure the current when I was running them but can tell you that my supply was limited to 5A and they broke traction before folding back.  I started out testing with my 2A supply and it would fold back.   So for my engines, somewhere between there.   

[floobydust]

I noticed the old Lionels have no reverse? most were from the era before diodes and it's a mechanical thing to flip the field coil around, or add a bridge rectifier.
Or the third rail was used for that hmmm.

[joeqsmith]

All of mine had reverse.  Some had a bumper that would change the state of the switch (and rotate a little man on top) but most had the E-unit you show.  This includes all of the engines I have ran pull tests on. 

The two Marx engines have forward and reverse.  That Lionel has forward, neutral, reverse, neutral.  It can also be locked into the last state as your drawing shows.