Monday was a public holiday in Brisbane. So it was a catch up day. I was made an offer for some styrene that a friend was getting rid of, which he gave me first choice of, so I had to do an inventory of my stash. There were some packets that that I already had, some packets that I wanted and some packets that I needed. There was also some packets that I would never use. So I got back to him. The transfer didn’t eventuate.
At the Buy and Sell last Sunday, I picked up a second hand Procab throttle for a good price. I plugged it in and the keys strokes were very sluggish, if they worked at all. You had to almost push your hands through the front of the throttle to get them to register the key press. So I pulled it apart, and washed the rubbery membrane in soapy water and then cleaned the circuit board with cotton buds dipped in metho. I then gave it another test and the difference was chalk and cheese. Now I’m on the lookout for a new radio board to make it portable.
I picked up a Weico white metal car for $5 at the buy and sell. That was after the guy in front of me bought 4 (the one I got was a duplicate) and the guy that told me where these delights were had bought about 8 others. The ford ambulance that I got was placed on the layout at the scene of an accident. I might have to scratch build a gurney to place behind the ambulance.
Another pick up at the Club last Sunday was a decoder from the Club shop. It was to replace a burnt out decoder in a Powerline 48 class. So I started to remove the old decoder and replace it with the new NCE DASR decoder. I gave it a test and it is running. So the 48 class goes back onto the layout to its stock train and the 442 loco that had deputised for the 48 goes back into the spare pool. However, I had an issue with that 442 loco. I had wired up the front cab light OK, on function 1, but the rear cab light on function 2 would not function. I could not work out why it would not light up, then I got thinking. Maybe it was on another function number, I hypothesized. I tried function 3, 4 and then it lit up on function 5. Then I had to try and find a manual for a Lenz decoder. I eventually found some CV’s to read and potentially what values to change them to. So I did that and after a couple of days of trial and error, it now working on function 2.
Over the last weekend I saw Rohan running his DEB set on the Southern Highlands layout in Glen Innes. Although I could not attend that event, I was extremely happy to see the Herbert family in attendance there, particularly Warren and Kathleen. Rohan had a dummy loco hauling his DEB set. I have a couple of dummy locos hanging around the layout and that gave me an idea. My issue is the siding that I house the DEB set on at Grafton Yard, does not currently have room for the dummy loco as well. So I did some work and made room. I have set up a consist between the front power car and the rear dummy power car. I think I will needs to put the front power car on the programming track and check out its CV 21 and CV 22 settings. What I cannot do on my DEB set is get the head lights working when I run the set in reverse, controlled by the rear dummy power car. It needs to respond to at least the headlight and horn settings, as well as potentially the marker lights. I will look at the various functions and work out the settings required. I really do not want to have to control the DEB set from the front power car in reverse. That is difficult for people running on the layout to work out what one of the two power cars is the real one, what is the dummy.
My second delivery for magnets arrived, along with some SPDT switches. Boy those magnets have some stick. I am now wondering if I should use these to lock the roof down, I will surely rip something apart when I try to remove the roof. I will have to do some more thinking here.
On Thursday I decided to conduct a citizenship ceremony and a couple of dozen citizens appeared to move into the Cassino district in various locations on the layout.
Good tip Craig, on the Procab repair. Thanks
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