Jim,? You are correct.? One of our older members (all scale club) had one and offered it for sale, but another member bought it immediately for a song.? He lives close by so I'm sure I could have borrowed it.? However originally I had been looking for dirty track or a under the layout wiring issue.? It's like anything many of us get into--the clothes washer overflows so you check out the pipe and find out later that the backhoe in the backyard you hired to dig up the broken pipe has now crashed into your patio--one of those things!?

I'm getting better fatigue wise, but I'm just not used to not being able to play the part of a monkey when it's needed!?? I came back after a meeting last night, and the ballast is secure, so tonight I'll clean up the excess.? Then I can replace the roundhouse and it's interior details, then bring back the power.? My mainline looks like a 50's deadline of steam engines, so that will come last.?

One thing I'm sure most of us have dealt with, is make sure you wet the ballast thoroughly before you put down your scenery glue.? More than once we discover that the application really didn't soak in all the way, so you end up with a crust that eventually breaks revealing loose ballast.?

Bob Werre
PhotoTraxx

Bob.? It sounds like you could use one of those horizontal layout access thingies that Micro Mark sells.

Jim Martin

On Tue, Sep 4, 2018 at 4:52 PM, Bob Werre <bob@...> wrote:

Gentlemen,

All day long I've been fighting stiff muscles I apparently haven't used in awhile.? I've also been trying to recover from a long nasty summer cold, so that might be part of this too.? Since I replaced the drive on my turntable some weeks back, I decided to get used to eyeballing the alignment to the various stall tracks. In the past I had a fairly expensive situation with a indexing drive, well, that stopped indexing!

So I also thought it would be a good time to clean all those stall tracks and figure out why one didn't seem to carry electrons anymore!? So one by one, I emptied all six stalls of the roundhouse and then 5 of the six outdoor tracks.? I then removed the roundhouse itself in preparation for the cleaning crew!

The stall that didn't work was the farthest from the layout edge--about 5-6 ft.? well beyond my short arms.? I traced wires up to the area from underneath, cussed at my wiring at bit but determined it was probably okay underneath.? It finally came down to the point where I couldn't determine where the wires were soldered to the rails.? So I crawl up on the layout on a couple o kneeling pads with a paint scraper a removed ballast (yard mix from Arizona Rock) only to find no wiring connected to the rails. I crawled back down and found a note indicating I had made a change in alligning the two far tracks a couple of years ago, so I must have just forgotten to solder them, but I did manage to ballast it!??? Well since I needed to do it now, I also decided that I could fudge the track just a bit more and make things look and operate better.? Note:? I've never used sweeps or spine alignment tools, but I use 'fudge-a-bit' fairly often!? To get this done, required drilling holes, running some wire, and then laying some new flex track, then ballasting and gluing on my knees and sometimes face down across my roundhouse footprint.? Hopefully the glue will be all dry and solid by tonite.? I'm getting too old for this sort of thing as I know the vacuuming and rail cleaning has yet to be done.


Bob Werre on labor day!

Gentlemen,

All day long I've been fighting stiff muscles I apparently haven't used in awhile.? I've also been trying to recover from a long nasty summer cold, so that might be part of this too.? Since I replaced the drive on my turntable some weeks back, I decided to get used to eyeballing the alignment to the various stall tracks. In the past I had a fairly expensive situation with a indexing drive, well, that stopped indexing!

So I also thought it would be a good time to clean all those stall tracks and figure out why one didn't seem to carry electrons anymore!? So one by one, I emptied all six stalls of the roundhouse and then 5 of the six outdoor tracks.? I then removed the roundhouse itself in preparation for the cleaning crew!

The stall that didn't work was the farthest from the layout edge--about 5-6 ft.? well beyond my short arms.? I traced wires up to the area from underneath, cussed at my wiring at bit but determined it was probably okay underneath.? It finally came down to the point where I couldn't determine where the wires were soldered to the rails.? So I crawl up on the layout on a couple o kneeling pads with a paint scraper a removed ballast (yard mix from Arizona Rock) only to find no wiring connected to the rails. I crawled back down and found a note indicating I had made a change in alligning the two far tracks a couple of years ago, so I must have just forgotten to solder them, but I did manage to ballast it!??? Well since I needed to do it now, I also decided that I could fudge the track just a bit more and make things look and operate better.? Note:? I've never used sweeps or spine alignment tools, but I use 'fudge-a-bit' fairly often!? To get this done, required drilling holes, running some wire, and then laying some new flex track, then ballasting and gluing on my knees and sometimes face down across my roundhouse footprint.? Hopefully the glue will be all dry and solid by tonite.? I'm getting too old for this sort of thing as I know the vacuuming and rail cleaning has yet to be done.


Bob Werre on labor day!

My under the track uncoupler works on all cars. Even delays standard O & S together using Kadees with out any modifications. Plus it only uncouplers cars when you want it to.

Paul Vaughn?

On Tue, Sep 4, 2018 at 10:09 AM, Bob Werre

<bob@...> wrote:

I follow what Dick does for much of my operations in general practice, I do find that when I've positioned a under the tie magnet, then tested it, it still might not work for all cars.? I have a BTS, coal mine with three tracks.? The trackage is tight and turnouts are on curves.? The hoppers are mostly 2 bay but gons are standard 40'.? I thought I had adjusted the magnets to function properly, but random cars will not uncouple every time, all the time.? I find the same thing applies to my electro-magnets too.? So I can only assume it's the coupler or how much slop is in the wheelsets.? Also a tiny grade will effect how things work too.? At decision time, I thought it important to have passing sidings lower than the mainline, so in a case or two I used thinner base material and smaller rail sizes.? Looks good but you have a bit of a grade for a few inches, so even though the uncoupler magnet might be level, cars are still shoving downgrade.?

I've only seen one of these, but the folks at Rix Products produced a handheld uncoupler device sort of shaped like the letter 'h'.? You stick it between the cars and it's attached magnet will open the knuckles.? Works well, except that those of us who us HO couplers find our cars couple a bit too close, so it's possible to knock off a ladder or brake wheel if you snag it.?

Generally speaking most of our local operating guys use wooden picks, assuming your arms can do the job.? Kadee also sells a 'knuckle sping pick' that also is able to be used as a uncoupler pick, but it's no better than the wooden pole pick.? At a distance one has to rely on some kind of ramp or help from a distant helping hand.?

Bob Werre

I have always used the delayed-action feature.? I use under-the-track permanent magnets -- except where my pre-planning wasn't very good. Therefore, I have a few locations where I use the visible HO magnets.

I do not use electrically-operated magnets.

I have no magnetic axles on my lighter-weight cars.? I have replaced all of them with non-magnetic wheelsets, primarily from NWSL.

I find the delayed-action feature is great for yard shuffling.? You can position cars anywhere along a yard track with just one magnet for each track.? I identify the locations of hidden magnets with little piles of tie plates (3 or 4) glued in place on the ballast beside the track.

For anyone who is an operations fan and can't reach every track with a hand tool, magnetically-actuated Kadees are a must (in my humble opinion).

Dick Karnes

==================

On Sunday, August 26, 2018, 8:50:52 AM PDT, Bill Lane <bill@...> wrote:

Does anyone here actually use the Kadee delayed uncoupling on a regular basis? I have been cutting the couple wires off for years. Whoever is the next owner of my trains will have to replace 600++ coupler wires if they want the delayed uncoupling.

?

Thank You,
Bill Lane