Arriving on a siding today from M.B. Klein is the new Atlas N-Scale S-2 with DCC and ESU LokSound. The one I ordered is lettered for the Boston & Maine, but will soon get a new paint job and lettering for the DC&S. This locomotive is quite impressive with great detail and crisp lettering. The metal body shell gives a little heft and helps with tracking a pulling power. It had no problem pulling the short trains (6-10 cars) up a maximum 2% grade on my layout. Now for the most exciting part for me. This is the first N-scale sound equipped locomotive that I have owned and it just blew me away. Bells, horns, prime mover, break squeal, radio chatter, couplers, etc. All of these sounds, plus several others, are easily trigger from the DCC controller. You even have the option of changing the horn to one of the user selectable options. Overall, this is a great little diesel switcher at a respectable price for what you get. Keep more things like this coming Atlas.
Pennsylvania H30 Hoppers
I recently acquired a triplet of the new Pennsylvania Railroad H30 covered hoppers produced by Fox Valley Models in N-scale. The PRR began producing these unique cars in 1935 in response to a demand for a 70-ton capacity covered hopper (AAR Type LO) for transporting such commodities as pulverized coal, soda ash, lime, cement, sand, sodium nitrate, feldspar, and dolomite. Over the next 11 years (until 1946), over 1300 of these units were produced. These cars lasted well into the 1970's and were used under the Penn Central and Conrail flags. Latter, some of these cars were expanded in length (the original being approximately 40') and capacity to become the H32 class. Fox Valley has done an excellent job of reproducing this prototype in N-scale. The detail is quite impressive, having fine end ladders, separate hatch covers, roof walks and brake details. The models roll well on FVM metal wheels and has body mounted knuckle couplers. Models are available in two different PRR paint schemes (early and late) as well as Penn Central, N&W, and Conrail; each available in several road numbers. I have chosen to use the early Tuscan Red on my layout because it fits best with my 1952 era. These models have been missing for a long time from N-scale, but the wait has been well worth the final results. Already owning a few B&O wagon top boxcars and waiting on my wagon top caboose; I can't wait to see what else Fox Valley produces that fits in with the era and locale of my model railroad. I am sure that these models will not last long on hobby shop shelves or in online inventories.
Computer Control
Having a little time to get to the local hobby shop (M.B. Klein) today, I was able to pick up a few items. The first of these items connected into my railroad was the Digitrax PR3Xtra. I bought this to allow me to simplify some of my decoder programming through JMRI, but the first feature I played with was the computer interface. So, with my laptop, iPad, and iPhone in hand, I headed to the railroad room ready to spend some significant time getting things setup and running. Boy was I wrong! After only about 15 minutes of connecting a few cables, verifying settings and downloading the mobile app (WiThrottle), I was up and running trains from my computer and both my mobile devices. This app and interface are very easy to use. Select the loco address and move the slider on the throttle. That is about it. All 28 loco functions are available to the user and if you pay for the premium version of the app, two throttles can be accessed simultaneously. The price of the PR3 is less than another wireless throttle, so with my iPhone or a couple of my kids old iPod touches around, this could be a good investment. I will get back for another post about the PR3 when I can stop playing with the throttle and wifi control of trains.
Reflections on 2014 and Goals for 2015
As I think back to what has been accomplished on the Deer Creek and Susquehanna Railroad during the past year, I realize that the layout has not progressed as far as I thought it would have by now. However, many lessons have been learned and significant changes have been made during that time. Early in the year, the first operating session with HARM took place. One of the valuable things learned from this is that a conversion from a two-throttle DC system to DCC was inevitable. This did mean putting some of my older DC only locomotives on the display shelf for now, but that can be a project for another day. On the other hand, I was able to purchase a few newer DCC locomotives as well as install decoders in some other locomotives that had previously been in storage. So far, the conversion to DCC has been well worth the expense and work. The other major lesson learned has been the need for a defined operating system for the railroad. I have begun to use a program called Switchlist to keep track of rolling stock, cargos, and trains. It is also used to generate train orders for our operating sessions. This, coupled with a timetable and assigned jobs has made operations much more enjoyable. I even print orders for myself to use between official sessions. It is still a work in progress to balance cargos and train sizes, but it is much better than not using a system or generating all of that information by hand.
As I look toward 2015 and think of all the tasks that need to be completed on the railroad, a few immediately come to mind. First of all, more scenery needs to be completed. I am getting tired of much of the railroad having benchwork and plywood showing. However, some of this can only happen after the second item is completed; the last few major structures for railroad industries. I don't want to create too much scenery and then have to tear some of it out to place a structure properly. Lastly, there are some electronics projects that I would like to complete soon. This includes wiring all of the turnout frogs and installing some short circuit protection and auto-reversing modules for the various sections of the layout. I would also like to setup JMRI for my layout, but that is much further down the priority list. Overall, 2015 should be a busy and productive year on the Deer Creek and Susquehanna Railroad.
Converting to DCC
After much deliberation, reading, researching, talking with club members, etc., I finally made the plunge into DCC. It took a little bit of work to run some new bus wires around the layout and disconnect the original DC throttles. I decided to go with a Digitrax Zephyr Xtra throttle, command station, and booster all-in-one for ease of setup and low cost. This should be plenty of power for my moderate N-scale layout and the number of locomotives I intend to run at one time. Most of my newer locomotives were either already equipped with dual-mode decoders or were easily converted with plug-in decoders. Some of my other locomotives will be converted to DCC has time and money allow. For now, I am using my current DC handheld throttles as "Jump Throttles" on the Zephyr and this works fine. I do anticipate adding a wireless throttle or two to the system when needed or at least a receiver so that others can bring their throttle to use on my layout. So far, I have enjoyed this change to DCC and think that it will bring many years of enjoyment.
