Those are pretty cool little guys Johnny.
Pete, Thanks for the loco stop/CV advice regarding the runaways. I do need to defeat DC function and have been meaning to do that. It doesn’t happen often but when it does, it gets exciting right quick!
I fantasized about dipping my built Walthers stops in AC or acrylic to make 'em stouter. I know when folks hit 'em with their hand they don’t hold up very well. (ground throw “trauma”.)
Like others I used a pile of gravel at the end of this siding.
HEY look what the camera found. I’ll have to reset the gate.
Some time ago I bought 3 metal Hayes bumping posts. They looked great after I weathered them and attached them to the rail.
Some time passed before I ran my trains but when I did there was a bad short problem. After weeks of searching and good help from the forum the problem was the bumping posts. Who in their right mind would attache metal from one rail to the other.
Happy railroading
Bob
Bob
Great point bob.
Found another one
I’ve used stacked ties mostly for my classification yard, but I did try my hand at making my own out of scrap rail and some brass plating I found at the crafts store. Just make sure you insullate your piece of rail that’s is soldered to or its short out city.
to avoid the possibility of shorts when using metal bumpers, it shouldnt be much trouble to cut a thin gap in one of hte siding rails an inch or so from the bumper?
[quote user=“EM-1”]
You are so right.
I was so frustrared trying to find the casuse of my short that when I learned that it was the track bumpers I couldn’t get them off fast enough. Should have taken time to think things through.
Happy railroading
Bob
Yes, the recommended practice is to cut a thin gap (the width of a narrow dremel disc wheel or at the most a sixteenth of an inch and fill it with a piece of non conductive styrene, gap filling CA glue, etc.
Just like when a gap is cut and filled for separating electrical blocks or power districts for DCC.
I once left a metal tape measure laying against the rail ends at the very end of the line out of sight. I only found it after a ton of “troubleshooting” everything else!
No, but my layout (well, currently a bunch of unfinished/barely started modules is much more like it) is set in NorthEast Philly in the early 21st Century (w/ less entropy of industries then occured in the real world, of course), and consequently I have been there numerous times (I live in an undisclosed location on Long Island NY, only about 1.75 hours away if there’s no traffic), and not just for the railfanning.
I’m kind of partial to the wheelstops as well. CN uses them in yellow. You can get nice ones in brass from Miniatures by Eric. Their product number is S1:
Bob, I sympathize with your plight at the time, but when I bought Tomar metal bumping posts their instructions stated clearly that the bumping post track section needed to have at least one insulated rail joiner. This also, I think, is common sense.
Hey, Who bothers to read directions ?
Happy Railroading
Bob
I’m guilty too.
I use the Walthers bumpers in some locations…
…and the ever-reliable pile o’ dirt in others…
…and some places rely on the operator to exercise care…
Wayne