My latest loco. Kato E8 in BN livery.

poliss · My latest loco. Kato E8 in BN livery.

Kato EMD E8 in Burlington Northern livery. Lovely smooth runner. I will be converting it to DCC sound.

upnick

Great looking loco Poliss

good luck converting it to DCC sound

poliss

Decoder arrived today. Will consider fitting it tomorrow, depends how my migraine is.

poliss

Decoder instructions say I need a 27 ohm resistor for testing. Anyone know what the Maplin number would be? Looked myself but still no idea.

Teleman

Should be m27r but what at that price i hope they fit it as well

poliss

It's for the test track to prevent the decoder blowing if it's not fitted properly.
http://www.modelrectifier.com/resources/trainsound/0001645.pdf

Teleman

Best to fit one then , If you have trouble finding one let me know i must have one here as i have thousands of resistors in stock smilebox

poliss

It's lucky for me that you know what resistors are which. I wouldn't have a clue how to find them.

poliss

Went to Maplins and bought the resistors today. I suppose I should fit the decoder tomorrow.
*can't find a shaking like a jelly emoticon*

Teleman

Don't worry thumbup

whats the worst thing that you could do ? Blackout the whole of Newcastle

poliss

It's possible I could rent the fabric of the Pooliverse.

*the eyeballs--the eyeballs--the eyeballs in the sky*

poliss

Bit the bullet and installed it. My chassis was slightly different and I had to desolder the rear LED. Will that make a difference? Hope I haven't fried the board with the soldering iron. Fried my fingers.

Need to test it now, but which way does the resistor go? Colours look like, red, brown, black, red, brown. Diagram is at http://www.modelrectifier.com/resources/trainsound/0001645.pdf

Teleman

Resistors can go anyway round ,

poliss

Thanks Pete, I'm off to try it now.

poliss

It's installated finally. Resistors were useless. Nothing moved when I had them in the circuit. Tried with old DCC locos to make sure. Soooo, I took a risk and tried without the resistors. Light came on, sounds were sounding. Loco didn't move as much as an inch. Not a sausage!
Wanted to check the diagram on the MRC website as the paper instructions weren't very clear. Had to wait for hours as puter was occupied by others. Finally got to look, I'd put the motor contacts through the wrong hole!!!!!
Put them through the right hole, tested again and........and.......

poliss

She works beautifully.

Teleman

I wonder if they sold you the wrong value resistor ? Those colours you gave don't make sence

they them on here
http://www.samengstrom.com/nxl/10..._resistor_color_code_page.en.html
btw i put this link in the electric section a while back

upnick

poliss

I'll make a vid if the daylight is bright enough Nick. Sound is a bit tinny because the speaker is so small and there's no tender 'sounbox' like in the Big Boy.

upnick

Good idea Poliss the daylight is bad here most days as well for taking pics angry9

......... a lot of N scale locos sound tinny its one of the things fitting sound to a small scale no room for a box to deepen the sound.

Look forward to the vid

poliss

Well I've done the video, but it needs some serious editing. Could have sworn I pressed the pause button and WHY do the womenfolk decide to use the electric carpet sweeper when you're trying to record your DCC sound locos??? Didn't even notice I'd used some bad words when my UP Big Boy fell off at the double slip. <G>

upnick

Even older tom

That's the fun bit, Pol... all the editing.

The sad bit is that the GOOD shots are the ones with the crap sound... well known fact

poliss

Editing software crashed. Have to start again.

poliss

Quaility isn't great. That's cos I'm using a borrowed camera and free software.

Cameraman isn't very good either. Hands shake too much (even when resting on solid wood) and he can't see the little viewscreen even with a magnifying visor on. lol

Note the use of the 'Ethel' behind the E8. This is because the E8 has Kato couplers and the Pennsy is the only model I have that will couple to it. Same with the Big Boy, that's why it's not pulling anything.

Joe

I Like the video,
I also really like the layout as a whole the trackplan is 1st class

Even older tom

Loco sound is definitely a worthwhile addition - it adds such a lot to the fun of running trains. Great stuff.

I can't remember anyone asking this before Pol, but will Big Boy negotiate the tighter curves or is it forever stuck on the outside track?

poliss

I forgot and accidentally put her on the inside loop. She went around without problems till she got to the double slip where the extra bit of turn derailed her (video edited at that part.)

Would need a longer layout so I could add a bigger gap between the circuits as the overhang is too much on the Big Boy and her extremities would knock off anything on the outside track. (Emergency stop button came in very handy there.)

upnick

Hi Poliss,

Great vid

like the idea of both locos with sound on running together ...... with the coupling on the E8 does it have a trip pin ? as it may run with MT couplers all you need to do is convert one of the coach ends so she can have a rake behind her.

poliss

Nope, just plain solid couplers. Not even sure how they uncouple with other kato models. They don't appear to be magnetic.

poliss

Wouldn't be so bad if the couplers were like the ones on this page.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~raicho/mcorner/mtconver/katocoup.htm
The coupling box on mine is the same, so Rapido couplers won't fit.

upnick

Though you had some Kato U.P. coaches Poliss ? i have run them with the big boy coupler no problems & the Kato coupler the coaches come with

poliss

My UP coaches are Con-Cor made by Kato and are fitted with Rapido couplers.

upnick

Hi Poliss,

Here is one of my Kato Con Cor coaches i converted easily all it needs is the lug trimming off and swap over the trucks ... yes they are black trucks but a coat of U.P. harbour mist grey or the right ones in grey at a later date will match in with the U.P. yellow of the coach.

Do your trucks look like this now ?

The lug circled that need razor sawing off to allow the MT truck to fit .... sorry its out of focus.

Fitted with the MT truck

You might be able to see the silverheaded screw forward of the outer wheelset to allow adjustment of coupling closeness, a motor shim under the truck is sometimes needed to get the coach height spot on.

poliss

What's the number of the MT truck Nick?

bando1_de

Hi pol,
MT-Commonwealth passenger trucks are available as 2-axle trucks and 3-axle trucks. Above links take you to MT's respective catalog pages...

Cheers,
Erhard

poliss

$9.50 a pair!!!! They're having a laugh aren't they? That's more than I paid for the coaches. Looks like a long Ebay search for me.

upnick

poliss

No rush Nick. I'm in the middle of working out how to install a decoder in my Skoda. Already taken the capacitor out. (Actually it fell of when I opened her up.)

poliss

This is more my kind of price.

http://tinyurl.com/ddw4ov

I don't suppose there are replacement trucks for European stock?

upnick