The Puget Sound Garden Railway Society will host the 26th National Garden Railway Convention here from August 1-8. Watch this video and then check out their website for complete details. It’s not too late to see some of the great layouts of the Pacific Northwest…and in perfect weather! 26th National Garden Railway Convention, August 1-8, 2010
Bill posted some photographs from his recent trip to Stevens Pass.
Save the date Saturday, November 6, 2010 for OLY-OPS 2010. Early registration for people who have participated in the past will begin in August. Make plans now!We hope to have one new layout and new scenery and progress on all the other layouts!
Watch for more information around the 1st of August. Please feel free to call me at 360-352-5386.
Continuing this sporadically produced screed …
This is perhaps the most persistent myth in all of digital command control. Somehow, the word has gotten out that all of the all-rail-frog (i.e., Shinohara™) switches are unusable and that older insulated (dead) frog switches, such as the Atlas Custom Line™ must have their frog castings powered. Prospective DCC converts at my old shop often voiced this concern. The modeler was reluctant to take the leap into DCC for fear he would have to rip out and replace all his old turnouts. I don’t want to put too fine a point on this, but …rubbish!
This myth stems from two characteristics of the commercial all rail switch: First, since the points are connected together with all metal tie bars and a pivot bar, both point rails carry the same polarity as whichever stock rail the points are touching. This means that the frog also has that polarity. From these characteristics, a fear has developed that loco and/or car wheels will short out the command station when rolling through the points. Not possible! If both the wheelsets and the switch points are built to NMRA standards there will be a substantial air gap between the wheels and the open point rail. If you experience shorts, check the wheelset back-to-back and the point-to-stock rail clearance using your NMRA standards gauge. One of these is seriously out of tolerance.
Second, because the frog polarity changes with the point position, the open end of the frog rails must be insulated from the inner rails of the attached track. Two insulated rail joiners are the easy fix. The outer rails of the diverging tracks need not be insulated from the stock rails of the switch. Regular metal joiners may be used there. If you do not insulate the inner rails, you will have a short! It is also necessary to assure good electrical contact between the points and the stock rails. Keep the inside surface of the stock rail clean (use a Bright-Boy) and make sure the point closes completely and firmly. Be sure no bits of ballast or glue interfere.
Lastly, the Custom Line switches need not have their frogs powered unless you are using really small, two- or three-axle locos. Occasionally one of these frogs is installed one- or two-thousandths of an inch higher than the metal rails. A few strokes with a fine cut mill file laid flat on the frog will cure this.
More later.
The PNR election results are in and Walt Huston, acting president, has been elected president and Dave Liesse has been elected Vice-President.
More details as they become available.
The 2010 election results are in. Congratulations to Dennis Hill, re-elected 4D superintendent and to JJ Johnston, re-elected to the Board of Directors.
The ballot count was done the evening of July 9th at Al Carter’s home. Tabulation was done by Bobj Berger, with callers Max Maginness, MMR #315 and Al Carter. All are NMRA-PNR-4D members in good standing.
58 ballots were received before the deadline. 11 were deemed ineligible as no member name or number were provided, including no return address or other information.
Vote Totals:
Dennis Hill: 46
Write-in 0
JJ Johnson:46
Write-in: 0
Again: congratulations and good luck in the coming year!
Welcome to the new NMRA logo and, in many ways, the new NMRA. On its face this wheel-on-rail symbol represents the oldest of the NMRA’s objectives: interoperability. Yet, it also represents the future. It’s a symbol of our willingness to keep pace with the changes all around us. Changes in our world, in our lives, in our hobby. While it honors the achievements of the past 75 years, it commits us to the continuation of those achievements in the next 75.
Most important, our new logo is a symbol of the NMRA’s commitment to you. As your wants and needs evolve, so will we, with expanded content on our website, easier accessibility to the information in our Library and programs designed to position us well for another seven-and-a-half decades.
NMRA now replaces National Model Railroad Association and becomes our brand, just as NFL, AARP, and CBS have become brands in their respective fields. We’ve even renamed our magazine NMRA Magazine to further reinforce that brand. And our website, www.nmra.org, will become your “portal to more fun in scale model railroading.”
So as we move into tomorrow, think of our new NMRA logo as a symbol of our promise to you – and our promises to each other – that we’ll all keep the hobby of scale model railroading alive, vibrant … and ready for the future.
July 13 we had a great turnout for Bob Jensen’s clinic on Structures, from kits. Bob brought some of his structures that he plans on using on his own layout and a warehouse that he has built for the Bremerton Northern Model Railroad Club’s new layout. Bob does wonderful work and discussed how to pick the kind of structures you might want to use on you layout. Also discussed were different tools, adhesives, and what to use for weathering. Bob also stressed that you also need lots and lots of PATIENCE!
Dennis Hill and Bob Jensen tied in the ‘Model of the Month’.
The next Clinic will be held on August 10 and will be presented by Pete Rowe on ‘Scratch Build Structures’. Hope to see you all there.
Hello, everyone!
This is the first installment of a sporadic series about Digital Command Control. My intent is to be a “myth buster” and to present DCC in a non-technical, anti-geek-speak manner. Since the G-I is now in blog format, others are welcome to join in with questions, tips, and ideas for making DCC easy to understand and use. (Please note the use of “easy!”) For erudite discussions of the advanced uses of DCC, please go to the NMRA’s DCC Special Interest Group website: http://jdb.psu.edu/nmra/dccsig.html.
Onward! To kick this off, I will address two persistent myths: DCC is complicated and DCC is expensive.
DCC is a complex, feature-rich control system that has a vast and expanding repertoire of capabilities. Most systems come with a manual which, if read thoroughly by the newcomer, can be rather daunting. My advice: read only the “Getting Started” part of the manual and the Basic Programming section which deals with CV’s 1 through 6. Then simply replace your power pack with the DCC system. If you have two or more power packs and control your blocks with block selector toggle switches, replace one pack and throw all the selectors to the position controlled by that pack. Presto! You now have a DCC railroad. More on this in a later article.
For most home railroads, a basic system is all the DCC you’ll ever need. These systems have a 1.5 to 3.5-amp capacity and range from about $80 to $180. Unless you’re running large O scale locos, this will be sufficient. Basic decoders, good for N, HO and most S locos, run about $19 each. So, unless you’re running a one-horse logging show or switching pike, installing DCC can actually cost less than a comparable DC system. Remember, you have to factor in all the power packs, all the selector toggles, all the control panels, and that “spider-on-LSD” web of under-table wiring.
If you are using twin-coil solenoid switch machines, you can take the control wiring directly off of the track power buss. The track power is basically a 16-volt signal, which the solenoids will “see” as AC.
More later. Let’s hear from you all! And remember: when hooking up your system and programming your locos, read and follow the instructions! Comments are welcomed below!
There has been a lot of new activity this month but no awards generated. Some of the problem is that I was on travel most of May and, at the National level, a lot of effort is being directed toward the Milwaukee Convention and the NMRA Board of Directors meeting.
For those of you going to Milwaukee, at least one PNR member, Ed Schaenzer, First Division Superintendent, will be honored. Ed will be present his Master Model Railroader plaque at t the awards banquet.
A lot of the hard work that many of you have put in over the past several years is now beginning to be recognized. There are more of your fellow modelers out looking for potential AP candidates. We have several recent additions to the AP fold as a result of simple visits for Golden Spike review or as an outcome of a visit to “come see what I have” or “come on over for an operating session on____”.