I’m already getting sick and tired of fixing things. I was ready to start ballasting the yard tracks, when I discovered 2 switches have broken springs. They are Peco with the small tiny fragile springs. I must have damaged them when I was doing some filing on the solder joints.
And earlier this week I decided to replace all the DS64s because of the power up issues.
All of this constant break and fixing things, and defective products are starting to ruin my enthusiasm and fun.
Well Micheal, there is a learning curve, factory defects, are own mistakes and things wear out. Model Rail Roading is a hands on hobby. I all so like simple, I think your DS 64’s have something to do with switching. My self, I throw all turnouts by hand, run one power district and no reversing loops.
Boy, when I got started I had Plastic Axle’s sets (They Wrap), Cheap Life Like Pan Cake Motor(They Burn Out) used Turnouts (got them working good finally). Then when I found out better engines, I bought used one off E Bay. So I had to learn how to fix them! One night I got so mad, I threw a Tyco Tank car as hard as I could, I was ready to quite! With the people here help I slowly started to learn and got things right.
Far as factory defects, well that still bugs me but it as well is part of the hobby and other hobby’s as well. Thanks to learning how to fix used stuff I was buying, I learned how to fix the new stuff as well. Nothing like fixing a new $600.00 Engine the day you get it.
Maybe you aren’t quite carefull enough of the delicate parts. For ex. you mention breaking the spring on Peco switches, I have over 100 Peco switches on the layout (the rest are scratchbuilt) and have not had any problem with the Peco switches breaking down.
This is true of a lot of the parts used in HO or N. They are delicate and you have to watch what you are doing when working on them.
You mentioned DCC wireless, I have both (NCE) on my layout, and have no problems with the wiring as long as I keep track of what I am doing, which requires drawing wireing diagrams. In short, the care you put in building and maintaining will go a long way in keeping the trains rolling.
One of the reasons I went with Kato Unitrack on the new layout. Easy to put in place and with a little effort (painting ties, weathering rail) results in a very good look.
One thing that caught my eye was your statement that you’re soldering turnouts into place.
I never solder a turnout. Stop to consider that a turnout is the only piece of trackwork with moving parts – if anything is ever going to break and need replacement it will invariably be a turnout.
If they’re not soldered into place, they’re much easier to remove.
I’ve never ran into a case yet where a turnout did not function properly because it was not soldered into place.
This is based on my experience of building a large HO scale club layout containing nearly a hundred turnouts and a home HO scale layout containing 10 or 15 turnouts, nearly all Peco or Atlas.
don´t let the bug fixing take away the fun out of the hobby. You are building a superb layout. Fiddling around and tweaking is a natural, and the bigger the layout, the more you will have to do. Just reserve some time for that purpose - even the big railroads need to maintain their lines!
In the past 47 years, I have built a number of different layouts - from Z scale all the way up to a railroad in my garden. Z scale required the most maintenance, followed by the garden layout. The layout with the least “down time” was a Marklin HO gauge layout. Although not being fully prototypical with the 3rd rail and deep pizza cutter flanges, that system cannot be beaten in terms of reliability. Just run a track cleaning car now and then - that´s it!
I am into OO gauge, British outline modeling, using DC/DCC and had to learn to accept bug fixing as a given. Does not spoil the hobby for me.
I don’t let anything that fails ruin my enthusiasm for the hobby.
If constant breaking and fixing ruined my enthusiasm for something, I wouldn’t own a motorized vehicle or a home, but I can’t live without one, so I deal. They always need something in the way or maintenance or repairs, even if just gas and oil for a vehicle or maintenance on the Heating system!
If it’s any consolation, the prototypes have constant problems with virtually every engine and car they bring on line…for the first few months. Connections and seams that work loose, leak, etc. Even after strict inspection and testing at the plant, manufacturers often have to keep representatives in the field for months, correcting problems on new equipment sold to carriers.
Besides, part of every rail operation, is constant maintenance…and it’s a part of every modelling operation as well. Get used to it…
I haven’t had many problems, and never with a single turnout of any kind, purchased or made by myself.
Buuuuutttt…I have had unwelcome glitches now and then that have left me kind of angry and frustrated. I have to stop myself from blowing up. A very few times I have walked away, shutting off the lights behind me to join the missus upstairs watching TV. A cooler head and some recharged batteries can turn an almost dangerous and expensive circumstance into something more pleasant the next day.
Other times, I manage to control my frustration and take a deep breath, and tell myself that it is only one thing that has gone wonky…and that I can find it and fix it. Usually these are electrical issues…a weak solder at a rail that parts finally and you have a hairline break that doesn’t let power past the joint any longer. Train runs, train stops. Whaattt nowwww!!? With DCC, often a power down and up again restores the brains behind the unit…or mine. Halfway through a cold last week, I was trying to programme the long address into my repaired Q2. Wouldn’t take despite what I thought were the right steps. My fatigue and lack of alertness had me pressing 'Exit" instead of “Y” on the DT400 when it prompted on the display that it was offering to convert the bits in CV29 for me. No wonder the Q wouldn’t respond when I entered the new address and tried to acquire it on the throttle. [D)]
You may have defective or weakened Pecos, but I must say that the ones I have have all been very reliable. Or you may be installing them in such a way that their integrity becomes compromised. If so, expect the others to fail ere long. []
If you don’t mind some gentle advice, figure out what is going wrong and deal with it. These problems should go away with that approach, and your confidence and enjoyment will return concomitantly.
Thanks guys for the encouragement. If it wasn’t for this forum, getting help, advice, encouragement, etc. I would have probably started the layout got frustrated and quit.
But you guys keep me in line. At least I’m not the only one with problems. I know it’s part of the hobby. I just seem to expect more from all this expensive brand new stuff.
It could have been worse with the turnouts, at least they weren’t ballasted yet. Should be fairly easy to replace. They are not defective, it was my own fault breaking the little springs.
Now the DS64s, see my thread in the DCC forum. Basically when I power on the system, sometimes all the switches get thrown. I called Digitrax and they are aware of the issue and there is no fix.
So I’m giving away the DS64s and getting the NCE snap-its.
KISS is always a good idea. Be that in the design and execution of your layout or in showing affection to your SO so that you are allowed to keep buying more trains.
Anyway, there is a certain delicacy to this hobby, especially in the smaller scales. Sure those vintage die-cast Lionels could plummet to teh floor with nary a scratch, but HO and N scale isn;t quite that tough. Good question to ask yourself, particualrly if you are over 30 or so - how many of the toys from your childhood are still around? If your answer is “I broke them all” this may not be the ideal hobby for you.
We all run into unexpected things here and there - sometimes of our own doing, sometimes things just happen. For example, I have about 7 RS-3’s now - all bought used knowign some were in less than ideal condition. Between them I can probably get 4, maybe 5 runners, even the best of which needs some additional details to make it look right. It’s a rather daunting task when I look at the stack of boxes, but one at a time, I’ll get them together.
I also just committed myself to truly making progress - a fellow modeler who lives just a few blocks away is getting restarted on his layout, I’ve helped him out int he past. Now we are goign to do a round robin sort of thing, monday nights at his place, tuesdays at mine. So now I will have to be prepared with a punchlist of things to do and the materials required prior to Tuesday. Good thing is my layout will finally get moving along. Another good thing, he’s way better at scenery than I am, while I’m the wiring guy. So I may not have a Pink Prairie layout for too long.
There is a silver lining as well Micheal. After you start fixing things, when it happens again is will seem simple.
I am back up and running, using a simple E-Z command while the DT 400 is in for repair.
One thing I did see in your WPF photos. You need to get some ties under your gaps in the pictures that you posted. Good looking station and Gas Turbine as well.
You would think a layout that’s 50 years old would not need maintenance by that point. But you would be wrong. Things just break.
There’s a point where your maintenance time = your efforts to expand the layout. That is the time to stop expanding.
Luckily some advances in MRR has simplified things somewhat. And the reliability of components is increasing every day. Things like tortoises, and Solid State electronics have really helped.
Another reason I don’t solder unless absolutely necessary.
And I have never understood the stationary decoders for changing turnouts. What is so hard about reaching over a flipping the switch.
Other than Athearn Genesis Locomotives of the 200x years (mostly due to MRC electronics) I don’t seem to have the breakdown factor that others seem to experience.
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