Revenge of the Dr Yellow

[alpineaustralia]

I wanted to share a funny experience that I recently had with the Dr Yellow that I am currently having trouble with (see DCC and Electrical).

 

One Saturday afternoon, I decided to take my little 5 year old boy and check out one of the local N scale clubs in Sydney that had an exhibition layout at the AMRA exhibit at Hurstville recently.

 

I had recently bought 923 Dr Yellow (see attachment) for my son and had just installed the decoder.  It was my son's pride and joy and had did not want to be away from it, so it seemed like a good idea to take it with us to the club and see if we could give it a bit of a run on a large layout.

 

The club has a rather large and impressive layout which is ever expanding and really is quite something to see. 

 

The layout is divided into a number of blocks and is centrally controlled by a very large digitrax "box".  Even though it is DCC, I am told that underneath the layout, the wiring looks like a bowl of spaghetti.

 

I am not sure whether this is typical of clubs (as this is the first DCC club I have ever seen) but they run a system with hand held controllers that you unplug and re-plug into jacks positioned at various points around the layout.  As your train moves along and around corners and out of sight, you unplug your controller and move to another jack closer or in advance of your train and re-plug the controller in to continue controlling your train. . It effectively means you don’t have control of your train for a few seconds at a time while you unplug and re-plug in your controller.  Most (if not all) of the club members run freight which moves relatively slowly and so this is not a big problem.

 

Then club members were incredibly generous an offered to allow Dr Yellow to run on their layout.  They lent me one of their controller and away we went. 

 

Well, you would be aware that the function of a Dr Yellow is to carry out a diagnostic of the track and the wires of a shinkansen route.  On this day, Dr Yellow effectively performed the same function. 

 

At one particular spot, Dr Yellow would stop and trip a short circuit.  Finally some of the club members came over to see what the problem was.  Sure enough, the junction of a particular block was wired such that it created a short circuit whenever a powered train crossed this one little spot.  The club members had not picked it up because their freight trains had enough momentum to push the train through this extremely small spot every time and so it wasn’t a problem until some one with a Dr Yellow came along. 

 

Next, at one particular switch, Dr Yellow would stop and trip a short circuit.  Again some of the club members came over to see what the problem was and again it was problem that wasn’t a problem if you don’t run a Dr Yellow. 

 

No doubt becoming sick of my unsolicited "diagnostic analysis", the guys finally pointed me to a long section of track that had few or no points and no problems with it.  I cranked it up and Dr Yellow flew along.  It was a sight to behold! In scale terms, it was the equivalent to about 3.5kms of track and it must have been travelling at scale speed as well.

 

The layout made the train look so realistic. It is amazing what a great layout can do to your enjoyment of this hobby.

 

Everything was going great as the track turned a corner into a part of the layout that I couldn't see.  I unplugged my controller and moved to another jack closer to the section of  track that my trains had just hurtled into.

 

As I turned the corner, I saw up ahead a column of 15 to 20 freight cars being peacefully pulled along by a slow moving American freight locomotive with Dr Yellow bearing down of them. 

 

The next few milliseconds seemed to pass in slow motion…

 

I tried to plug my controller into the nearest jack - fumbling hopelessly like Fredo with his gun when his father is shot in the Godfather II – but to no avail. 

 

Normally I would describe a train wreck as one train careering into another.  However, more accurately, Dr Yellow ploughed – and when I say ploughed, I mean it in the literal sense - into the column of trains ahead.  With its speed and duck bill shovel nose, Dr Yellow worked its way through the entire column, flipping each car in front of it (including the loco) neatly on its side like a long row of hamburger patties, to emerge triumphantly on the other side, unashamedly unscathed.

 

Needless to say, I could not say the same thing about me.  I rushed to the scene of the crime, desparately apologising to the stunned and speechless club member, all to the sound of my 5 year old son shouting as loud as he could, repeatedly "Did you see that daddy? Did you see that? It went POOM! right through the other train!"

 

The club members were really good about it but we quickly packed up and made our way out of there.  Needless to say I have been too embarrassed to show up at the club again.

[Bernard]

Well you and you son won't ever forget that experience! But besides that, what a great club to allow you and your son to run trains. (plus now I know why the front of the Dr Yellow is shaped like that, it's a train catcher :D)

[CaptOblivious]

Alpine, I am not laughing at your expense, but I am laughing. That is a great story. Lord knows I've done similar things on my much tinier layouts, and sometimes...well...it can be a little fun to watch the carnage...

 

And if they can't take having someone come in and demonstrate that their wiring is deficient---unwittingly! It's not like you were being an ass about it---well, perhaps they don't deserve your company :D

 

So, I'm guessing the Dr.Yellow wasn't acting up too bad that day?

[Bernard]

Well you and you son won't ever forget that experience! But besides that, what a great club to allow you and your son to run trains. (plus now I know why the front of the Dr Yellow is shaped like that, it's a train catcher :D)

 

Oh, and Alpine at least your son didn't say, "Again!"

[Martijn Meerts]

The most common misconception people have about DCC is that it gives you a lot less wiring. Sure, as long as you don't have to many turnouts, signals and don't divide the layout into blocks, the wires will be quite neat. But once you start with blocks and controlling everything using DCC, you almost need to be an electrician =)

[alpineaustralia]

And if they can't take having someone come in and demonstrate that their wiring is deficient---unwittingly! It's not like you were being an ass about it---well, perhaps they don't deserve your company

 

Actually the club members were really good about (albeit shocked by the good Doctor's antics).

 

I have recently bought some American freight with a view to occassionally visiting the club and running a slightly less controversial train set up.