Dressing Up

 Hi there,  as i mentioned  last post the detaling  bug has bitten here is 2 HUMBLE S trucks  ive been working  on .This detailing   is very very  addictive, even if im not that got at it . 1st two photos   is how the s trucks   looked   and   the others   are how they turned out and   the last ine us a comparison   of how   i got them   to look versus  how   i got them

Bits and pieces

Hi there  been a while  I've  moved and got a 4.5 month  old son now.  But I've  still been  doing  abit 1st i got a mate to put a kadee on the front of my c36 and i bought  a trainorama  c32  and have done some detailing  just adding  buffers at present  but more to come the bug had bitten.

Problematic C35 No More

Hi there, 

I finally got my Austrains 3501 up and running. I bought the loco in October 2013 and at first I put a NCE D14SR decoder in.  It ran ok but still cut out, then the rod got caught and burnt out the decoder. Next I got a TCS DPX2, which made it run a bit better but it still stalled at low speed, and I love shunting so I couldn't have that.  I put up with it for a few months then I did some research into "TCS Keep Alive Decoders" and I decided to choose a KAT22 TCS decoder.  When I got around to putting in the decoder in, I broke some wires off and took the unreliable tender pickups off.  It sat around for about nine months.  Then my mate had some time and he put the decoder in with a better, more reliable tender pick ups and this is the result.

VIDEO OF THE KEEP ALIVE AT WORK

OLD  FACTORY PICK UPS

 NEW PICKUPS

Till next time,

Cheers Oscar

The temporary layout

  As the tittle suggests  I have built a temporary layout as  I have a 2.5yr old and one on the way, I have decided it was the best option, I'm using a NCE powercab.  Using pretty much all 2nd had stuff and as its the 1st time for me its a good practise  for the real thing . The following  photos  show  how I did the wiring : droppers on every bit of track ( besides the points) and everything goes into terminal blocks for ease of diagnosing problems

My daughter running my powerline (2012) 48  she knows which buttons are for directions and the emergence stop button and I have the hand of god 

this little layout isn't much but I have leant a lot and keeps me and my daughter happy for the moment  will probably chance it around a bit at a latter date as you can tell I was always gong to change it as the is no road bed

till next time 

Cheers Oscar

TCS KAT22

 First and foremost  it's been over 16 months since my last post.  I have moved once and in the process of moving again. Baby number two is on the way....

About 9 months ago I bought a Austrains C36. I put a TCS DPX2 decoder in it and it wasn't a great runner soI left it and put up with it. 3 months later I brought 2 TCS KAT22 (with inbuilt keep alive) decoders  one for my C36 and C35,   

a mate put it it in for me and also fitted one pick up per bogie (one picks up from the left one from the right -will fit all wheel pick ups latter). The difference in performance is amazing no longer do I have to run it very quickly, now it will just creep over dead frog points and everything and light will no longer flicker and it will only go about a inch with out power  so it my have a bind 

Here is two views  of the 36 running. First video is on speed step 1 of 128 and the second video is on speed step 1 of 28

 Till next time

Cheers Oscar