Tuesday January 15, 2008 7:00 PM Lethbridge, Alberta
I spent a full two hours at Trains and Such in Calgary. Much of the time was spent with Dave Bedard, the store's DCC & Sound consultant. Now to see if I can make sense of the notes I made at the time.
- The first item on my list was to buy some pieces of end track. No problem. I had a few packages in my hand when I made an off-hand comment about the yellow wheel stops that CN used. I mentioned that I understood that the company that made these for model trains had ceased production. Dave said that they had some of those in stock - he thought by a different company. They were exactly what I had been looking for for the last few years. Now to see if I have any yellow paint.
- The next item on my list was to ask about the soldering gun that one should use for placing decoders in locomotives. He uses a Weller 35 watt (this is the critical feature) with the smallest possible removable tip. He also mentioned something about different colors for the handle. The yellow handled one is fine, the other is more expensive. The solder is rosen core (NOT acid core). Rosen core is for anything electrical. I just checked my solder gun - it is rated at 100- 140 watts. I'm glad I asked before I began trying to insert my first decoder into a locomotive.
- Dave then began talking about building a baffel box for mounting the small speaker for a sound decoder. I now understand this and bought the necessary plastic for making these.
- While we were discussing sound decoders I mentioned that when I changed the loco number on my locomotive (CN 6700) from 3 to 6700 I lost the values for all the preset functions. He suggested trying setting the value of CV29 to 34. It is worth a try.
- Then we got onto something that was really interesting. He mentioned that Digitrax makes a piece of hardware called the PR2 for programming decoders. Apparently one connects this to a computer and to a piece of programming track and then one can easily program the decoder. More amazing, one can download sounds (free) off the internet that correspond to the particular type of diesel or steam locomotive that one is using. I just located a web site for this: http://www.digitrax.com/prd_compint_pr2.php. This also requires the PS12 power supply.
- Finally, still on decoders, he explained the coding system used by Digitrax.
- the first letter indicates the type of product (D = Decoder)
- the second letter indicates the scale (H = HO)
- the first digit indicates the number of amps (1 = 1 amp)
- the second digit indicates the number of light outputs (2 = 2 lights)
- the third digit indicates the generation number minus 1 (1 = 2nd generation)
- the next letter indicates the plug type (K = Kato)
- the letter S indicates short leads.
- I then asked about the Digitrax DS64 decoder for controlling 4 turnouts. They were out of stock on these at the moment, but had some on order. I asked if he thought I would need a separate power pack if I had 3 or 4 of these on my layout. He felt that the MRC power source for my DCC, which has a connection for accessories, should be fine.
- I then asked about manual throws for turnouts. They were out of stock on these as well. But while we were talking about manual operations in a model rail yard, we began discussing manual coupling and uncoupling. I asked him how that worked. He said that a simple bamboo skewer for satays could be inserted between two couplers and twisted and this would spring the two cars apart. Amazing. He also uses these for telephone poles. He uses railway ties for the cross pieces. I continue to learn...
I just tried one of those satay skewers for uncoupling cars and it working like a charm! Now I have a stack of uncoupling magnets that I no longer need.
