Decoder Replacement

Hi folks. Today I was able to get to a small project that I had on my list. I have a Proto 2000 Alco S3 that had been converted to DCC a number of years ago, however when I serviced this locomotive last year, I noticed that the shell was not sitting on the chassis correctly. Upon further inspection , I was able to determine that the 8 pin plug (NEM652) that inserted to the receiving plug on the locomotive had additional height that was not allowing the shell to close all the way. The decoder installed was a Digitrax DZ125PS https://www.digitrax.com/products/retired/mobile-decoders/dz125ps/ . I opted to change this out with a newer DZ126PS https://www.digitrax.com/products/mobile-decoders/dz126ps/ that I had on hand. The difference being is that the DZ126 PS has a plug on the wiring harness that was flatter with no raised areas where the wires were soldiered on. After the decoder was replaced, I placed the locomotive on my programming track and using JMRI , was able to duplicate all CV settings that were on the old DZ125. Afterwards the locomotive was test run and as expected ran superbly. I will be repurposing the DZ125 decoder into a Bachmann On30 that currently has the old poorly performing standard Bachmann decoder. Have a great weekend folks. Till next time...

Proto 2000 Alco S3

Old Digitrax DZ125PS decoder (note extended height of plug going into socket)

New DZ126PS - Note plug into socket is lower profile

Freight Car Friday

Hi folks. 2 more cars that I picked up at the show in Springfield last month. These are fairly new releases from the Atlas Trainman series. I had 2 of the exact same gondolas (same road name -different #'s)  back from the second run of these in Nov 2006 when they Train Man series first started.  They were road #'s 1132 and 1161 - I sold them off, back during my change over to On30 approx. 8-9 years ago. Now that I am back in HO as well as On30 , I decided to buy 2 more. So far the only change I made was to replace the couplers with Kadee #148's. Those of you familiar with the Train Man series know that this is the budget priced lined from Atlas - cars from this line have less detail parts with a lot being of the molded on variety - still nice cars, and probably better than highly detailed ones for operating sessions where cars get handled (read less damage) frequently. Till next time...

Maine Central # 1104

Maine Central #1134

One of the original 2 cars ( since sold off) on my old MEC layout. This one is # 1161

Freight Car Friday

Hi Folks - picked up 2 new Kadee PS-1 50 foot boxcars (both with cushioned underframes) at last months Big E show in Springfield. I have always liked the Kadee freight cars and think that they are pretty much top of the line - in RTR HO scale freight cars.The Bangor and Aroostook car was from Toms Trains and the D&H car was from the Kadee booth. It was marked as having minor paint imperfections and was listed at 20$ ( still factory sealed). I had to look hard to find the paint imperfection - tiny blue overspray on one corner that meets the roof line - so in my mind I got a great deal -thanks Kadee! As an aside, the gents from Kadee were staying at the same hotel as us and we sat with them for breakfast one morning and had a nice chat. Happy Friday all....

Bangor and Aroostook # 6024

D&H #50058

W2DCC Services

Hi All: Lately I had been thinking a lot about offering a decoder Installation and Programming service for local area modelers. I decided to take the plunge and see what happens. The idea is to offer a service that will do installations and programming for HO and N Scale decoder installations. I will be offering both sound and non sound installations for HO scale and non sound ( board replacement only ) installations for N scale. I have almost completed a pricing matrix  and of course there will be limitations on the services that I offer i.e will not be accepting old poorly running DC locomotives or locomotives that would need repair, etc. The service will be called W2DCC Services and I can be contacted at w2dccservices@mail.com  
To that end, I have been busy transforming my small workshop , adding a dedicated DCC work area with test tracks and work surface. A small netbook computer that I acquired a couple years back is being used exclusively for JMRI decoder pro and is able to run the software just fine. This is used with a Digitrax PR3 ( coupled to a DCC Specialties PowerPax) in stand alone mode connected to both a HO and N scale test track. At the recent Big e show that I attended last month in Springfield Mass, I acquired a ESU decoder tester, and the plan is to also acquire the ESU LOC Programmer as well. In order to facilitate testing in the future, I also plan to add a small panel below the test tracks that will allow me to switch (via a rotatory switch) from DC, DCC, Programming, and LOK Programmer. Here a couple of pictures of the new DCC work area. Till next time...

DCC work area

DCC work area 2

WOW

One of the items that I purchased at my recent trip to the Big e Train show in Springfield , Mass was a Train Control Systems (TCS) WOW Sound Kit for a recently purchased Canadian National 0-8-0 (Proto 2000 HO Scale). This kit comes complete with a Motherboard (P2K-MB1), Steam Decoder (WOW 121), and a speaker kit (UNIV-SH3-C). I followed the excellent installations instructions on the TCS website pretty much to a tee, and as a result, the installation was a snap.
.https://tcsdcc.com/installation/ho-scale/1522
 And the sound - you really have to believe it - its amazing, as well as TCS' excellent motor control complete with built in keep alive (no more stalling on dirty track or unpowered frogs). The only thing remaining , is to fine tune the bell and whistle sections ( dozens of choices each - simply by changing a CV.  I had 2 of these Proto 2000 Canadian National 0-8-0's back when they were first released by Hobby Craft Canada in the summer of 2000. I had them for about 10-11 years and then sold them off when I converted over to On30. Since I have started acquiring HO scale items again in the last couple of years, I always kinda regretted getting rid of these, so I went and was able to purchase one from a fellow member of our On30 group ( thanks Gary!!) With this models excellent running qualities, its hard to believe these models are now 20 years old!!!. With the addition of the WOW Sound kit, this model is first class all the way!!! Till next time.

Tender with TCS Keep Alive Motherboard and WOW Steam 121 decoder installed. I used a min plug (purple wires) for speaker installation