Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO)

[steinjr]

Progress has been slow (as usual). Have been doing a little switching, but haven't felt up to working on the layout lately - been too dang tired at the end of the day and on weekends.

Hopefully things will slow down a bit at work and with housing coop business soon, with the full onset of winter, so I will get home earlier and be less tired in the evenings.

Weighing down the front of the Consolidation tender did help fix the derailing issues. Still need to do something about power pickup on the rear tender wheels. Or possibly get off my butt and do the ground throws and powering the frogs properly - in retrospect, I probably should have gone for the insulfrog turnouts. A lesson learned for a later layout some day.

My old MRC Prodigy (not advance - just the plain old Prodigy) DCC command station seems to be acting up - pressing the "forward" button doesn't always result in the engine(s - have tried three different ones) picking up that a forward command has been given. Works sometime, but not always. Doesn't seem like a consistent error. If I reset power on the DCC command station, it tends to start up again with engines going forward. Have opened up the throttle to look for dirt, loose wires or poor connectivity, but can't see anything obvious - could be inside the little push button, I guess.

Probably about time to retire the old command station anyways - it has always had an annoying tendency to not catch it when I switch to another engine on the selector, so the wrong engine takes off as I turn the throttle knob. Probably time to invest in an NCE Power Cab or something like that - looks like a sensible user interface. Have hinted strongly to the wife about what I would like for Xmas :-)

Also broke down and took the next step down the slippery slope - ordered a sound equipped engine - a BLI Paragon2 NW2, found one painted in Great Northern colors at MB Klein at a somewhat acceptable price. Should be here in about two weeks time or so - might make a nice Xmas present - I know my youngest kid (and I) will go slightly ape over a sound equipped engine :-)

Managed to resist the temptation of ordering another dozen boxcars. I still have a couple of kits I should build first.

Hopefully I will be able to report before Christmastime that I am moving again on the layout.

Smile,
Stein

[steinjr]

Happened upon a nice little inexpensive gantry crane from Faller in my local hobby shop on Thursday afternoon, and couldn't resist picking up a kit. I assembled the kit last night, and now I am wondering whether to just forget about the one story red freight house I had planned to have along the aisle in the warehouse district (left in picture):



And instead go with an extended team track - which will help open up the front of the layout and improve reach in the upper left corner of my track plan:



A little closer view of that new gantry crane:



Anyways, I'll keep it like this for now. I also got an email saying that my BLI NW2 with sound has shipped from M.B Klein in New York. Even moving at the speed of the US postal service, it ought to be here before Christmas. I am really looking forward to doing some switching with that NW2 (and hopefully a new DCC controller, if Mrs Santa feels I have been a reasonably nice man this year) :-)

Grin,
Stein

[steinjr]

Yay - I finally received my BLI NW2 with sound, shipped from MB Klein on November 29th! The mail people must have built a sailing ship before using it to ship the mail across the ocean :-)

Surprising loud and clear sounds from an engine that size - a small video from a test run my youngest kid and I did tonight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PhSEgWPCVg

I could get to like running sound equipped engines :-)

Grin,
Stein

[torikoos]

You get used to sound loco's very quick, which could get costly if you have a few to convert, but it is worth it! :-)

Koos

[faraway]

... shipped from MB Klein on November 29th!...

Stein, could you trace the parcel online? Mine is usually in less than one week in Germany shipped with USPS. Immediately followed by the black hole named central customs. After one or two weeks it appears again and is shipped to the local customs. They take it gratefully, prepare carefully a letter to inform me to pick it up. It takes another week until I got that letter and can pick it up... Where is your black hole :?:

[steinjr]

... shipped from MB Klein on November 29th!...

Stein, could you trace the parcel online? Mine is usually in less than one week in Germany shipped with USPS. Immediately followed by the black hole named central customs. After one or two weeks it appears again and is shipped to the local customs. They take it gratefully, prepare carefully a letter to inform me to pick it up. It takes another week until I got that letter and can pick it up... Where is your black hole :?:

Normally takes about a week for me too - which is why I was surprised. Tracking says:

International Dispatch, December 04, 2010, 1:23 pm, ISC CHICAGO IL (USPS)
Electronic Shipping Info Received, December 06, 2010
Arrived Abroad, January 03, 2011, 5:40 pm, NORWAY
Into Foreign Customs, January 03, 2011, 5:40 pm, NORWAY
Out of Foreign Customs, January 04, 2011, 9:48 am, NORWAY
Attempted Delivery Abroad, January 05, 2011, 8:50 am, NORWAY

The hole appears to be between Chicago and arrival in Norway somewhere. There has been some bad snow storms in the midwest lately - probably a large part of the explanation there.

Doesn't matter - it got here in the end. Now I only are waiting for the Carsten's people to start sending me the next round of MRC - I renewed for a couple of years like in november something, and still nothing. Guess I'd better send em an email and ask what's up.

Smile,
Stein




Smile,
Stein

[Bob C]

Really looks and sounds good, Stein...glad your patience was so well rewarded...also loved Truls & his bike ! Bob C.

[Svein]

Looking good, Stein, and sounds great too! I'm seriously thinking of converting all my engines to sound, but I'm not sure if I have the guts to go ahead and do the necessary modifications on the more expensive ones. Also, it might be difficult to find the correct sounds, but I've heard of some who recorded their own sound and had it programmed into the decoder.

Svein

[FCIN]

Surprising loud and clear sounds from an engine that size

Stein;
I've had one of the BLI NW-2's for a few months now and have to say that it is the finest running locomotive I have. Slow speed operation is great - never stalls and the sound features are great. All sorts of settings (three different horns, etc.). I did cut the sound volume on mine to about half of its factory setting as it was much too loud! If you can hear the engine idling from a scale 400/500 yards, it's too loud. I've also found that I get the most realistic response from this loco when set to 28 speed steps.
Enjoy!