The Atlantic and Southern Build Thread Continued, Part 3

[coors2u]

Scheww, Tom I for one am glad you decided to continue. I have kept up with this thread for day one. It is like a great novel and to think It would just go away with out some fantastic ending would be a disaster. I know I don't post as much as I used to but I am here in the shadows watching and waiting for the next updates. I know it is a ton of work to post all that you do. Thanks for all the time and effort that you do to share it with us. For me It keeps the dream of building a layout of my own someday.


Dustin

[ACL1504]

Impressive work Tom. I'm glad you can figure all that out because I probably couldn't. Glad you're short problem is fixed.

Curt,

Thank you and sorry you missed all the fun yesterday.

The short was fixed but I need to lengthen the one "Wye" leg so the long passenger trains can turn without the temp. short.

Tom

[ACL1504]

FINALLY SOME SUCCESS.

The separation of the levels was a success. The new DB220 Digitrax booster was programmed and installed.

Just in time for a Saturday session!

Rollin,

Yes, it was and ran fine. You need to come on down one Saturday and meet some of the forum members.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Trying to figure out wiring is a real pain in the ass.  Happy to see you got it figured out.  Oh, and you do a real near wiring job.

Steve,

I fought the short for two weeks and then it dawned on me what the problem was. Very simple and yet I missed it.

Appreciate the compliment on the wiring job but I could have been a little neater.




Tom

[ACL1504]

Glad to see you back at it Uncle Tommie!

Cousin Brucie,

Thank you my friend, appreciate the support.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Scheww, Tom I for one am glad you decided to continue. I have kept up with this thread for day one. It is like a great novel and to think It would just go away with out some fantastic ending would be a disaster. I know I don't post as much as I used to but I am here in the shadows watching and waiting for the next updates. I know it is a ton of work to post all that you do. Thanks for all the time and effort that you do to share it with us. For me It keeps the dream of building a layout of my own someday.


Dustin

Dustin,

Hey, very happy to see you drop in. It's been a long time. I appreciate the kind words of support and encouragement. I'm back with some renewed vigor in working on the layout.

I will continue to post the details of the build but do plan on dialing it back just a little.

I hope you and your family are doing well.

Again, thank you Dustin for stopping by and posting a comment to the A&S RR thread.

Tom

[Jim Donovan]

Tom;

I appreciate all the time you put into posting your progress, I for one know there is no way I would have figured out how to fix your short issue. Glad to see you back at it, you are very good at explaining and teaching.

PS I also love the Saturday updates.

Jim D

[ACL1504]

Tom;

I appreciate all the time you put into posting your progress, I for one know there is no way I would have figured out how to fix your short issue. Glad to see you back at it, you are very good at explaining and teaching.

PS I also love the Saturday updates.

Jim D

Jim,

I appreciate the encouraging words of support. It does require much more time than just building the layout but sharing what I've been doing is another factor of fun by itself.

Bill does a great job with the Saturday Report and he very much enjoys doing it.

Tom

[ACL1504]

This past Saturday I told the Judge I wasn't going to mention or cover this next topic in the build thread. I decided to do so in hopes  it may help someone else with a similar problem.

The ACL Champion consists of an ABA E8 motive power, one REA reefer and eleven passenger cars. Lengthwise that equates to two inches shy of 14 feet.

When I fixed the short I place the PSX-AR on the short leg of the reversing wye. That reversing wye was only eight feet in length. No problem for freight trains. In fact, if the passenger cars weren't lighted with LEDs the eight feet would not be an issue. All eleven of the passenger cars are lit so the reversing wye needed to be lengthened.

That task was accomplished but I didn't take pictures as I went.

The next photo shows a #8 turnout up against the diesels. This is the location of the original turnout. The turnout was removed and to the right of the second A unit is where the old gap was for this end on the wye.

I extended the reversing wye another 8 feet to the left. The new 16 foot length of the reversing wye is now long enough to hold the entire 13' 10" train.



More in a few.

[ACL1504]

The super glue bottle in the next photo is where the back gap is cut for the reversing wye.



The following photo is the best I could get in the space to show the length of the ACL Champion. Two of the passenger cars are to the right and out of the photo.



The lesson here is to have the reversing wye several inches longer than your longest lighted passenger train.

[GPdemayo]

Good fix Tom.....don't forget, if the Champion gets behind schedule and it needs to get to Tahope on time.....I'm available for a speedy passage. 

[ACL1504]

Greg,

You are our Champion for Speed. Or is the Speed Champion? Just saying.

Tom

[PRR Modeler]

One thing I appreciate about your layout construction Tom is that if there is a issue you don't try to force the fix, you take some time, think about it, then fix it like it should be. By the way, that is a darn long train

[ACL1504]

One thing I appreciate about your layout construction Tom is that if there is a issue you don't try to force the fix, you take some time, think about it, then fix it like it should be. By the way, that is a darn long train

Curt,

Thanks for the compliment my friend. One thing I've learned through the years is to step back, asses what is wrong and then fix it later. In my younger years I pretty much did the opposite.

The train is long, in fact, to long for this layout. I'll have more on this in the following couple of posts.

Tom

[ACL1504]

I spent several hours today working on the ACL Champion passenger train.

I removed all the trucks and the wheels from the trucks. I used an electronics cleaner to clean all journal boxes. I used a #11 blade to scrape off all the crud on the wheels. I used 70% Isopropyl Alcohol on a cotton Q-tip to clean the wheel surfaces and the axle points.

I got the cleaner from Radio Shack. Yes, we still have an independant store here in Orlando.



I removed any McHenry couplers I found (2) and replaced them with the proper Kadee couplers. I then reset all the Kadee coupler gladhands to the proper height and angle.

More in a few.