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Dale's Depot

Daley Train Log
Page 44

Saturday November 21, 2009 Lethbridge, Alberta

1:00 PM

The weather is cool and windy - an excellent reason for working on the model trains. The last two hours have been devoted to track cleaning as well as nailing down the remainder of the spur lines.

The next step is to check all systems for quality control. This consists of three types of considerations. One is the operation of the locomotives. The second is the operation of the rolling stock (i.e. cars). The third is looking for problems when travelling over the track, and particularly the switches. This must take into account the direction of travel.

Locomotives

I will begin with the 4 diesel locomotives that have Tsunami AT1000 sound decoders installed:

• CN1720 - GP7 Diesel. GR-15a. Diesel. Green & gold.
• CN7847 - Alco RS-3. Diesel. Green & gold.
• CN9408 - Alco FA-2. Diesel. Green & gold.
• CN6707 - Alco FA-2. Diesel. Yellow, black & green.

Mainline Track Routes

• East Bound outer loop (clockwise): Coaldale - Jasper - Black Diamond - Prairie Rose - Coaldale
• West Bound outer loop (counter-clockwise): Coaldale - Prairie Rose - Black Diamond - Jasper - Coaldale
• East Bound inner loop (clockwise): Coaldale - Jasper - Black Diamond - Lone Pine - Prairie Dog - Queenston - Prairie Rose - Coaldale
• West Bound inner loop (counter-clockwise): Coaldale -Prairie Rose - Queenston - Prairie Dog - Lone Pine - Black Diamond - Jasper - Coaldale.

Each route will be traversed at least 5 times with each locomotive and a detailed record of all difficulties will be kept.

CN1720, a GP7, ran flawlessly in both directions on the outer loop with a speed setting of 28 steps and at speeds of 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 & 12.

CN7847, an Alco RS-3, ran flawlessly in both directions on the outer loop with a speed setting of 28 steps and at speeds of 2, 8, 10 & 12. At speeds of 4 and 6 there was a brief stall at switch 8 (behind Black Diamond) but when I repeated this trial it ran smoothly.

Conclusions:

• Both units CN1720 and CN7847 work fine at all speeds.
  
  
• The outer mainline appears to be solid although I will keep an eye on the area near switch 8 when travelling east.

This is my first real test of the layout and I am quite pleased with the initial results.