Friday, June 09, 2006

Some thoughts on DCC and electrical

During the winter we have put down some track in our yard. The wiring is temporary as we wanted to run trains as soon as possible, But now it is time to do the more permanent wiring.
I have tested the shortproofing systembulbs similar to the 1156-bulbs Joe Fugate and others use and find that it works.
You can see a demonstration of his technique here:

We have bought our bulbs at BILTEMA – 12V/25W – part number 35-15325
We run our trains with Digitrax DCC.

Here is a schematic plan of the Phoenix Union Station - Mobest Yard - Glendale industrial District area - if you click on the plan, you can view it a larger verson:


I have postet a question on Joe Fugates forum on how many blocks and bulbs I need.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Sound

Some weeks ago I did my first sound-decoder installation by fitting a Soundtraxx DSD-100LC generic diesel sound decoder in a Life Like Proto 1000 F3B unit.




To make this first installation simpler, I bought an enclosure for the 25mm speaker. There was not enough room over the speaker to use the extension tube.

I made solder pads from bits of PC-card, and even soldered connectors as I want to have jumper wires between the units inn the ABB. This way more wheels will pick up power from the tracks.

Eivind is the proad owner of this set. The chassis comes from LifeLike, but the bodies is Intermountain F7 in Santa Fe’s warbonnet paint scheeme. They looks nice.











Now there is more locos demanding sound. But first we have to lay down more tracks so they have a place to run. As you’ll se in this picture, the B-unit was put in service immediately.