Catskill Mountain Railroad 45 tonner #42

   

Just in case you haven't updated to Windows 10, I understand that Microsoft (MS) is sending out popups that show you a date and time it will automatically update your computer to Windows 10. It appears you have but two choices, "update now", or "OK". They say that if you click on either one, you will get updated either right away, or at the chosen time. If you don't want to upgrade, there is another less obvious link in that message that will allow you to change to update time, and I understand you can choose "never" as an option. The advice is that if it starts the upgrade, don't stop it, just wait until it finishes and then roll it back to 7 or 8.

I've upgraded months ago and I'm happy with it.... Not happy with MS though. I needed to update my Weather Channel desktop app, and normally I could just update at Download.com, CNET or automatically at the Weather Channel site. This time it instructs me to go to the MS store and download it. I tried, but I have to log in and so I was forced to register an account. Big mistake. Once you open an account with MS, you are committed to that for everything MS.One account fits all, so they say. Now, I'm the only one that uses my computer, so I don't need a password to log on when it wakes up, that is until I now find I have to use my MS account email address and password to log onto my computer. I forgot what password I used, and I couldn't find it until I logged on with the correct password. After about 42 attempts, I finally guessed right, and went to MS and canceled the account. That made no difference, and now I couldn't make any changes to either the email address or password I used since it was no longer a valid account according to MS. Apparently, MS made the change, but neglected to tell my computer. After battling this for a while, I finally was able to do a "restore" back a few days, and things went back to normal. A real scare since MS forced me to use a password on startup and after a sleep, just like they're forcing people to upgrade to Windows 10 by tricking them.

Oh, BTW, my Weather Channel desktop app never did update, and it won't run the way it is. So much for that.

Just a warning, MS can paint you into a corner and you won't see it coming.

'New Westbrook' is a re-build of my small New England switching layout 'Westbrook' which was built a couple of years ago.

As the images seem to have disappeared from my original thread, here are a couple of pics


   


   


The large silo structure remains along with the warehouse, reduced in size. The run around has gone, however, one track now is used as a spur to receive clay slurry cars for the paper mill.


For comparison, here is the new track plan (old track plan below)

Mal

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Absolutely Awesome <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgDipA1LSEI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgDipA1LSEI</a><!-- m --> I really like the weathering,and attention to detail.

Hello!

Sometimes good things came like ketchup out of the bottle. At first a long time nothing comes and then sucessive all together.
So here too, i have searched several years for a GP in Santa Fe zebra stripe livery. By lucky accident i found a pair of Athearn Genesis GP9s in evilbay.de. Both were "buy immediately" and the price was very o.k. Both were sound equipped with OEM Tsnunamis.


They were like new, nothing broken, nothing bend, nothing missing. The only bugbear was the irregular running and lots of stalling of both locos. And the also interrupted sound was not the real McCoy. Not all of the Genesis locos have those problems with current pick up, but often this "mystery" failures are present although the wheels were clean. So here with this locos, one was far worse than the other one.

My improvements:


Remove shell.




Have a look under the hood.




Remove trucks and demount them.





Solder additional wipers. Two locos = four trucks = eight wheelsets = sixteen wheels = sixteen wipers. Getting serial.





One of the trucks of each loco got a special treatment by removing the two moulded on half round pieces.





As replacement on one end of each loco the pivot pin got a package of shims to restore the original height of the half rounds.

As a result both locos run smoothly and now with an uninterrupted sound. One of the failure points may be oil or grease in the axle bearings which have a secondary function of current pick up, causing conductivity interruptions. The additional wipers give a better conductivity. Also the 3-point suspension of the main frame to the trucks will improve a better pick up.

Adjusting CVs and sound is another extensive chapter.

my two cents

Cheers Lutz

edit: misspelling

It feels like a new toy after a sound decoder has been installed

IMG_4896 by faraway52, on Flickr
IMG_4897 by faraway52, on Flickr

I read a lot about sugar cube speakers. They have their origins in todays modern iPhones etc.
This my very first sugar cube installed in Atlas U23B with a Tsunami sound decoder. The sugar cube is made of the speaker (top 1/3) and the baffle (bottom 2/3). The sound is excellent and the small size opens a lot of new mounting option.

I asked for a "new technology" of speakers when I bought my first sound decoder several years ago. The speakers looked like they did when I was a teenager and the small ones sounded as lousy as they did many years ago. I think the sugar cubes are really technology step forward! It makes a difference when big business of smart phones pushes research.

IMG_4894 by faraway52, on Flickr

This is a temporary test mount with tape. I will glue the speaker in place after a test periode.

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at 9:09 / 1:57:54

All Scale Rails Issue #8 May / June 2016

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Bonnie & Kevin
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