[SF Gal]

St Candice, I like that! Well, this patron Saint of lost Locomotive causes is getting pretty tired of fiddling with this old stuff, let me tell you. As the next two culprits made me sigh at the oldness of the products and their lack of proper engineering....wondering how they ever worked well in the first place????

First up is this NYCentral old AHM Tempo out of Yugoslavia Where the truck wheel grabbed the power thru the axil connecting the bearing and no wipers at all. Compound that with front left truck caught one rail and the right rear truck caught the other and it is no wonder the motor can't find power to turn. But somehow it did as the open communtcator of the motor saw brushes heavy used. Cleaned it all up and got it running somewhat with dieelectric grease at the axils. What a piece of JUNK! I will probably use it for parts as it has a nice clear plastic piece for the windows. Those small screws are useful too.
Next up is another, somewhat newer, AHM from Hong Kong...

This unit I found out was missing a upper contact between the motor and chassie, Cleaned all the truck contacts and gears, lubed, made a wire to the upper contact of the motor and that motor runs very good. Nicely engineered loco too.
Cleaned up well. I am thinking of using my Mr. Bill Santa Fe F7 on this chassie, swapping bodies, if you will. We will see if I can.
I also found out the plastic I was using for a cab hood in my last post didn't bond using plastic cement so I had to remake the roof in correct styrene. I then painted it to match the colors of the loco. Now all I need is some train horns to mount on the top. I think it came out pretty good for missing a top......

Getting closer to working on some new, out of the box, ready for DCC stuff....I think that NYC engine was the last of the really junk, hopefully.

So I cleaned the F7A up and ran it on a DC test track, worked really smooth.
So I put it on the DCC layout and fired up my 16 year old NCE Procab for the first time in 10 years!
Can you say OMG! So I went thru my loco list and #39 wasn't listed. I tried #0039, #039 and nothing.
Hmmmm...As far as the Digitrax DH123 decoder in the F7A unit, I have no clue why it isnt working.
I will try reprogramming it after I re-read my NCE directions...it's been a long time since I messed with it!
I might have to buy a new DH123 decoder, if they still make them?!?!

I found out if I just put in 39, the engine works with the decoder! Gosh, I can be so blonde sometimes!
I am getting a clearer picture of what I have and what I can use on my layout. I have some track work to do on my layout I found out after running some DCC locomotives. 12+ years not running on the layout and zero maintanence has taken its toll...it sure needs a good cleaning....but more on all those subjects soon.

A Work in Progress!....Stay tuned!...

 

[Chops]

Planned obsolescence? Particularly these AHM critters. They work fine for a few hours out of the box, and deteriorate quickly with use. I won't touch them anymore. Made to fail. Now, we shall hear from all those who will say that there AHM piece(s) are humming along nicely after forty years. I dunno. I never had that kind of luck. Split gears, shot traction tires, peculiar conductivity problems that evaded identification, motors coming loose in their attachement points; I never had any luck with them.

 

[SF Gal]

Some more putzing around with locomotives today, as it was 90F+ outside and I didn't feel like getting sweaty.
I do still have about 8 or so DC locomotives to checkout, so cool basement time it is. I was able to do laundry too.
I also had some time to place some cows, horses, tractor, and hay bales/rolls on my farm at the far back corner of the layout. In order to get back there, I had to move the town I have dubbed, "Hatchville"...giggle

"Hatchville" is really light and detaches pretty easy with one mini light plug. I just place it on the coffee table...

Here is a closeup on some of the Farm details....

Now this is in the far corner behind a full town of buildings so I am not too concerned about much.
I make the left side a orchard and the other side a animal farm with a imagined tunnel linking the barn with the corner pasture. The backdrop will enforce that perspective in the future.
While "futzin", I found some long McHenry couplers I had in my DCC junk box and was able to add a freebie caboose to my layout after I changed out the wheels to steel...

Besides ALL that....I unboxed all my DCC locomotives and fired up the Procab to make sure all the locomotives responded to command...all 8 locomotives worked like I turned them off and boxed them up yesterday...WooHoo!

I still have to clean up the contacts and clean, relube the drivetrains. You can read about my concerns about my DCC system in the thread I started called...
Never saw a NCE notification!
All and all it was a productive day on the Santa Fe Big "L"....I got all my laundry done too!!!

A Work in Progress!....Stay tuned!...

 

[Longvallon]

Very nice little station. Well done !

 

[SF Gal]

Very nice little station. Well done !

Merci CPL57 pour les aimables paroles.
The building is still a work in progress.
It is a candidate be showcased in this forums All Scale - Accessories Contest #2 - on July 4th 2022
By the way, I enjoy your funny little train videos!

 

[Longvallon]

By the way, I enjoy your funny little train videos!

Merci beaucoup Madame !

 

[Gramps]

Very nice little station. Well done !
I noticed that right away because of the curved platform. Very well done and very prototypical.
View attachment 584745

 

[SF Gal]

A productive day as I cleaned up the basement wreck room, adding new skirting to the facia, vacuuming the carpet. I also vacuumed the layout after I went through and took an eraser and an old bottle of Lifelike liquid track cleaner to most of the rails, moving rolling stock onto clean rails and cleaning, moving and cleaning.

The Wreck room. Once I get a good backdrop in, it's gonna really be a nice lounge.
Future plans include finishing the abandoned ceiling track you see to the upper left and selling all my 1990 Kato N scale train locomotives and rolling stock, on display, on the right wall.....

I also got a chance to take some photos and enter them in the All scale Accessories Contest 2 that ends this Monday!
My phone camera isn't the best but it's really all I got. This was a fav photo....

I took a few other ones that were not contest related....

The elevated road to the bridge over the Mississippi to St. Louis....

The town bustled with income from Route 66 traffic and is slow to adapt to modern times though the mayor got government money for new fangled street lights and signs. Town folk are concerned the I 55 interstate is causing decreased visitors.

I suppose I better work on cleaning my craft bench, it is such a mess....that will be another 90F degree hot day, in a cool basement, on the Santa Fe BIG "L"....

Work in Progress!....Stay tuned!...

 

[Magic]

Looking good SF a very nice layout as well as the wreck room.
You do some very fine work. Being blond and all.

Magic

 

[BigGRacing]

Your layout is huge when we see the entire set up, I thought it was a lot smaller until this morning.
It looks awesome!

 

[Gramps]

The layout looks great, I also didn't realize how large it is.

 

[Longvallon]

Awesome layout ! A masterpiece. Congrats.
Is there a track plan somewhere ? Thanks.

 

[SF Gal]

....You do some very fine work. Being blond and all.
Magic

This gal doesnt have all the answers (being blonde and all! giggle 😏 ) as the layout was even longer and was cut down to gain some basement storage space. The layout had a dedicated double mainline and one of the loops at Hatchville was removed. The other end had a reverse track that was also eliminated during the downsize and still is not yet finally connected. Progress is happening but being old is no fun...so I am a bit slow.

Awesome layout ! A masterpiece. Congrats.
Is there a track plan somewhere ? Thanks.

Hardly a Masterpiece...but thanks. The whole thing was concieved in my late 40's and built when I had evergy in my early 50's. Now, being retired, I see all its flaws in design and implementation. We ARE our worst critics!
The track plan is loosely based on the picture in my first post of this thread....

I hope to add the second loop back in a elevated track over Hatchville or possibly under the yard, just thinking of possibilities. The layout is so big, I doubt I will ever finish it to my satifaction, in my lifetime, but I am trying. I only been working on it again for a little over a year including downsizing the length of the layout, adding scenery in the yard and building Hatchville, documented in this thread. Many thanks for all the kind comments and for following along.

 

[OilValleyRy]

Looks like you’re prepping to have the Queen over for tea. A house as tidy as a hotel is luxurious but so hard to maintain.

So what are the dimensions or wall lengths? I’m in agreement with BigG.

I thought it was a lot smaller until this morning.

Giggity

 

[SF Gal]

Looks like you’re prepping to have the Queen over for tea.
A house as tidy as a hotel is luxurious but so hard to maintain.
So what are the dimensions or wall lengths?

The Wreck room is not too bad to maintain, I do not mind cleaning and finding places for stuff and putting things away.
As far as the dimensions, from the wall to the edge of the yard is 14 feet and the shelf out to Santa Fe from the wall is just shy of 19 feet....at one time it was 30 feet but I shortened it to add storage and work space.

 

[Stejones82]

Great room, excellent work. You are an inspiration. I MUST get that track plan finished. The perfect arrangement is out there, I just know it. Or at least one that will achieve most/many of my objectives.

If only that 'little white ball' didn't need so much chasing this time of year! No-Rain has put an end to mowing!

 

[SF Gal]

After working on all those old technically challenged locomotives, I finally bit the bullet and used a lot of money I saved from doing side jobs to purchase a few things from Midwest Model Railroad Store.
I have a thread about my purchase experience, if you are curious, it left me a sour taste about the website but all in all I am happy. Click here to read about my purchase.
Here is the 1st DCC locomotive with sound I ever owned....

It is a Atlas Sd24 low nose and it is very detailed...it is "AWESOME"!!!!
I also purchased a few Athearn Roundhouse tanker cars as the price was right and it offsets all the boxcars I am running on the layout.

I just like the black and orange paint scheme.
Here is the video I made of it running the layout after cleaning the tracks.....
https://flic.kr/p/2nwgw5P

Today was a special day to be able to afford a Locomotive with sound was pretty fun!

Not just another day on the Santa Fe BIG "L"....

Work in Progress!....Stay tuned!...

 

[Gramps]

Looks/sounds great.

 

[Stejones82]

Nice SFG!! When I purchased my first "talkie" - (BLI H. Mikado) I was a bit put off. But now that I have three sound locos, I guess I am an official convert. I do use the appropriate CV to set the sound master volume at about 1/3 full. Others here have commented that sound does not scale real well. For instance, on your LO, standing in St. Louis and you can hear the loco up in Chi-town?? <Grin>

Keep on enjoying!

 

[Mixed Freight]

Here is the 1st DCC locomotive with sound I ever owned....
It is a Atlas Sd24 low nose and it is very detailed...it is "AWESOME"!!!!
I also purchased a few Athearn Roundhouse tanker cars as the price was right and it offsets all the boxcars I am running on the layout.
I just like the black and orange paint scheme.
Today was a special day to be able to afford a Locomotive with sound was pretty fun!

Uh-oh, SF Gal........... buying quality, modern equipment is highly addictive.
You could be in big trouble now!