In the (Wednesday) Evening

With trains running there is some definite momentum. Fixed three more items from the problem log today and made progress on the never-ending concrete-tie project.

The first item was to fix Loconet cables. Without going into details, Digitrax Loconet cables are 6-wire phone cables that users typically make themselves. When I was doing this back in 2007 I didn't realize that it was important that the wire orientation, left-to-right, be the same on both ends of the plugs. If you ignore this requirement Loconet itself still works, but later when you try to use RailSync it will fail. So, today I surveyed the Loconet cables on the layout and corrected the plug ends where needed.

The second item was to move one of the UR91s (the Digitrax one-way radio transmitter, of which I have two) from the top of "the Box" to a spot along the fascia on the east side of the room. This required setting up the Loconet cable. In addition, I have 8 vanilla Digitrax UP5 panels at various points in the layout and two UR91s, all of which are powered by a single Digitrax PS12 power supply (up to 10 such devices are supported on one power supply). This requires a single 18 gauge (or so) wire connecting all the devices to provide a "return" path for the current that comes in via Loconet. This return wire is labeled UP5 -- and I made sure that the labeling is now extended to the entire layout.

The third item was the Amtrak P42 locomotive problem mentioned yesterday -- where it "clicked" from time to time during normal running. Turned out this was a piece of debris that got lodged up high in the gears above one truck. The bad news is that in the process of debugging this I broke a piece of plastic, so now the loco runs great but if you pick it up from the track the truck is apt to fall off. So, one problem fixed, but a new item to order and install a replacement part for the same locomotive.

For the concrete ties I found that I still don't have the colors right, even after adding dullcoat. Sigh. I also tried a few more methods to "sand" down the fake wood grain without good result. I think I need a visit to an art supply store to seek out more options here.