There are just some engines that like to spend more time in the roundhouse than on the mainline. Engines #34 and #43 are two of these.
#43 is familiar to several as the engine that wants to take off at times like a jack rabbit. (Which is really nice for switching.) It is the only dual decoder installation I have. It has a Digitrax DH142 motor controller and a Soundtraxx DSX sound decoder. This was done because this engine was over heating the Soundtraxx plug-n-play decoder. It still has a tendency to over heat the 1.5 amp Digitax decoder but it will reset and continue for the rest of the session after the first over heating incident. (Go figure.) After doing some reading about the Digitrax decoders I found that having the analog option enable (which is the default, and I didn't even know it existed) can cause this jack rabbit feature. So I disabled the analog option and now we will see if that corrects the problem.
Also since this engine has a DSX sound decoder that will accept a cam input I decided to install a cam. But hopefully I have learned from previous mistakes. As you can see from the pictures below I recorded the position of all of the side rods and controls for both sides to hopefully make reassembly easier.
#43 is familiar to several as the engine that wants to take off at times like a jack rabbit. (Which is really nice for switching.) It is the only dual decoder installation I have. It has a Digitrax DH142 motor controller and a Soundtraxx DSX sound decoder. This was done because this engine was over heating the Soundtraxx plug-n-play decoder. It still has a tendency to over heat the 1.5 amp Digitax decoder but it will reset and continue for the rest of the session after the first over heating incident. (Go figure.) After doing some reading about the Digitrax decoders I found that having the analog option enable (which is the default, and I didn't even know it existed) can cause this jack rabbit feature. So I disabled the analog option and now we will see if that corrects the problem.
Also since this engine has a DSX sound decoder that will accept a cam input I decided to install a cam. But hopefully I have learned from previous mistakes. As you can see from the pictures below I recorded the position of all of the side rods and controls for both sides to hopefully make reassembly easier.
Fireman's side.
Engineer's side.
Cam installed on the main engineer's side driver and the wiper soldering pad installed under the engine.Tomorrow I should be able to finish up this cam installation.
#34 has two issues. The first is it is uncoupling coming into Flat Top from White Hall. I look at the tender coupler and it showed it to be a little high. So I replaced it with an over shank version which should eliminate the uncoupling issue. The other issue #34 has is erratic chuffing even though it has a cam. This is because all of the drivers have insulated tires and so the cam is only picking up from one wheel. I am still trying to decide how to connect the cam wheel to the other two electrically. So for now we will have to put up with the erratic chuffing. (Or switch it back to auto chuffing.)
After working on #43 and #34 I started the staging process. It still amazes me that even after 90 sessions I still from time to time need new BOLs. And that is the case today. I needed about five more BOLs. I guess the random demand process is really random!
After staging I plan to move on to road construction and while waiting for that plaster to dry, decaling.
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