Of course Edison was describing his attempts to invent wonderful things. I'm only trying to find a way to make my track look realistic. But I seem well on my way to finding 10,000 ways of not making my track look realistic.
I suppose I could give up ... but I expect to live with this layout for decades so I'd really like to get this part right.
Part of the problem has been lack of correct materials. I drove around Saturday trying to find Matte Medium ... it's so prevalent in Model Railroad books that I thought I could find it somewhere local at one of the various "hobby" stores, but nada. There are a few other suggested ingredients, but that one was key. Oh well -- I have to fly to visit a customer Tuesday and I'll drop by Caboose Hobbies along the way. Then make another attempt at track scenery later this week.
For what it's worth I did make some progress. I've figured out the measurements, including slope grades, for the track sides and found a really good mix of ballast. And I have a test sample track-with-roadbed-and-subroadbed just waiting for experimentation when I get back from my business trip.
On the plus side I also finally -- and I do mean finally -- got the darn Kato RDC to work with the Digitrax DN143K2 decoder. I bought this for my son for some event -- one I can no longer remember -- in 2005 and first tried to add the DN122K2 decoder (DN143K2 predecessor) back in early 2006. It was a miserable failure. From time to time I've tried again, sometimes destroying the decoder in the process. This is a really nasty installation because the internal electrical connections are so finicky, but yes, today I called my son over, handed him the throttle, and said "see if this works". It worked great, with all the lighting functions, and he spent the next two hours operating trains. Chalk that up to one more experience point with decoders.
Speaking of decoders, I've also been fighting with a DN163A0 for the BNSF Atlas dash 8 -- the first N scale freight locomotive that I bought on that fateful day back in 2002. The lights come on bright and perfect, in the appropriate direction, but the motor just sits there. As part of the debugging process I finally opened up the NCE decoder tesk kit I bought from Mike last year, as an upgrade from the free decoder test kit Digitrax provides with their starter kits. It was a useful exercise. At this point the problem is isolated to the connection between the motor and the decoder. The motor is fine, the decoder is fine. I want to get this off of my work table so would like to resolve it tomorrow.
One other bit of fun -- the Amtrak Superliner cars frequently derail going over one Peco switch, but none of the other Peco or Atlas switches. Occasionally, but not very often, other cars derail on this switch. Naturally this switch is in an inconvenient spot, right next to the box and far from any of the layout sides, so I have to crawl in-and-out frequently during the diagnostic process. The NMRA N scale gauge has been helpful, but not conclusive. I've found that the Superliner cars have wheels that are slightly narrower than the standard, which is why they derail more often than most. As to why the switch causes this I still haven't found the problem. At first I thought it was an overly-wide flangeway between the frog and the guard rail, but I'm not sure that is any wider than other Peco switches. Now I'm focusing on the points, but still nothing conclusive. Another learning experience that will hopefully help later on.
My goal for tomorrow is to clean off the work desk of projects and be fully ready for restarting on the track ballast problem when I get back from the business trip later this week.
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