After watching some TV, I went back downstairs for a final run before bed. In a short period of time I was greeted with a very hostile squeal. Think nails on the chalkboard times 1000. I applied lubrication to all the externally accessible gears and bearings to no avail. As much […]

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Now that I have so much new track, I have been having much joy running one little train around headed up by my little 10 ton Bachmann Shay. If one is fun then certainly two would be funner. I have had a Bachmann Climax, another small logging engine, on the shelf for about […]

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I started several projects this weekend and finished almost nothing. It was not a great weekend for forward progress. One small project that I did complete (mostly) was the installation of Universal Throttle Connector Plate for my DCC system. Up to now I just had the throttle plugged directly into the control […]

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This article will describe how I install Tortoise machines and the Switch-It decoder so that I can control turnouts from the same DCC hand held controller that I use to control the engines.
The switch machine moves the switch turnout by level action through the roadbed with piano wire. The first step is to mark […]

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I typically use something like a 14 AWG wire to carry the electrical current from the Digital Command Control (DCC) system throughout the train layout. The DCC systems frequently output 2-5 amps of 18 volt or so AC and the heavy wire is necessary to prevent the power from dropping after a few feet […]

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