Grainy Concrete

More progress. One of the goals of the week was to address three of the issues on the problem log. Already two are done.

The new DT402D (two-way radio) throttle was having an issue where at times it would seem to lose communication with the base, so we'd have a runaway train. I read the manual and made two changes. First, there is a throttle setting for maximum battery conservation -- that comes set by default and I turned it off. Second, the manual said that if you hit the Loco key once you dispatch (lose control of) the locomotive. Odd -- I'm not sure if that was the same behavior on the DT400R throttle -- but on that one it wouldn't have mattered while running wireless because changing locomotives required plugging in. So I now know to avoid that. Not sure if the problem is solved, but I now have it in "monitoring" state.

The other issue was to resurrect the Kato Amtrak P42 Genesis locomotives that I bought in 2002. Back in late 2002 or early 2003 I tried a method of track cleaning that someone recommended -- using metal polish. VERY BAD IDEA. It left a partially-insulated coating on the track and on the wheels of the engines that were unfortunate enough to be used for this experiment. I then compounded the mistake by installing decoders in the P42s in 2006 without first verifying that they were working fine with DCC. Now I had two non-working locomotives and didn't know whether the problem was DCC related. I set them in my project box where they stayed until last night.

I brought out the old Digitrax Zephyr, the Digitrax low-end starter set, which I bought in 2005 and used until I upgraded to the Radio Super Chief (now replaced by the duplex version) in 2007. I kept the Zephyr because it could be used for my son's HO set and also used for testing locomotives at the work desk, which is what I used it for last night. When I put the P42s on the programming track the decoder could barely be read for one and not at all for the other. Then I tried putting them upside down in one of the N-scale foam cradles I have (a must for any N-scaler) and tested again, this time with electric alligator clips connected directly to the wheels. Much better connectivity -- both decoders were easily read and I could actually get the motors to spin in track mode. So, using this, I took a wheel-cleaning brush (also a must for any N-scaler) and used that while the moter was running, then followed with rubbing alcohol and a q-tip to clean off any left over gunk. Afterwards both ran beautifully on the track, although one of them developed a "click" after two laps that I'll try to look into today. It was fun -- for the first time in about 7 years we ran the Amtrak superliner, and the first time ever with the MHCs that I bought in the interim.

This method definitely goes into the engine cleaning arsenal.

Otherwise, I also worked on the main task for the week, making the Peco track look like it has modern concrete ties. I put 4 layers of paint on the ties hoping to cover up the fake wood grain and found that even then some of the wood grain shows through. Rats. (Hence the title of this post.) Probably will need to somehow sand off the wood grain. Will be looking at that today.

Otherwise it looks pretty good -- I need to make the color a little more grey, but before I do that I want to add rust to the rail sides and the rail clips and spray some dullcoat on it today and see how it looks after some weathering.

For the rest of the week I will continue to focus primarily on the concrete ties, but in between will continue to address the issues on the problem log.