Mistakes I've learned from

[Bernard]

I was thinking back to my first layout and all the mistakes that I made, (and there were a ton) and yet it might have been my most important layout that I built. I look back on it as a total learning experience. The number one think I learned was the importance of having wires accessible. The layout was 4'x16' with a plywood top that sat on 2 old solid wood cabinet tables. This was the time of DC operation where you need a lot of wire to control switches, the trains, lighting, etc. Since I needed to work under the table, the 2 tables were always in the way.

What did I learn from this experience; leave the area under your next layout open & clear, have the electrical wires fed through pre-drilled holes in the support beams, solder all connections and label your wires as to what they connect to.

Are there any mistakes that you've made and have learned from that you would care to share?

[CaptOblivious]

Paint the interiors of tunnels before you seal them off such that you can't reach inside with a paint brush.

[Guest ___]

I was thinking back to my first layout and all the mistakes that I made, (and there were a ton) and yet it might have been my most important layout that I built. I look back on it as a total learning experience. The number one think I learned was the importance of having wires accessible. The layout was 4'x16' with a plywood top that sat on 2 old solid wood cabinet tables. This was the time of DC operation where you need a lot of wire to control switches, the trains, lighting, etc. Since I needed to work under the table, the 2 tables were always in the way.

What did I learn from this experience; leave the area under your next layout open & clear, have the electrical wires fed through pre-drilled holes in the support beams, solder all connections and label your wires as to what they connect to.

Are there any mistakes that you've made and have learned from that you would care to share?

 

Yeah, N-scale's a bigger pain in the ass than HO ever was  ;D

[alpineaustralia]

Geez, where do I start. I guess my favourite and most basic was forgetting to isolate the bottom pick up rails on a shinkansen and fried a decoder in a nano-second - complete with puff of smoke, burn mark and that smell that you never forget.

 

 

 

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[CaptOblivious]

Geez, where do I start. I guess my favourite and most basic was forgetting to isolate the bottom pick up rails on a shinkansen and fried a decoder in a nano-second - complete with puff of smoke, burn mark and that smell that you never forget.

 

Here's another: Some of those Kato decoders have the pickups spaced right at 9mm. I was having troubles with the cab-car decoders working, so I would put them directly on the track to test. Great idea, until I bumped one ever so slightly and…puff of smoke. :(

[Guest ___]

Cleaning a 2% grade of track with Rail Zip ten minuets before an open house.

[Bernard]

Mistake #2 on the "Ozzie" (that is what I call my 1st layout named after my father) As I said the layout was 4'x16' and I was over zealous and coming up with what I thought were great ideas but wasn't looking at all the "cons" of the ideas. The layout was in the middle of a room but there a great deal of walkway around the table. This is where I also learned about how the dimensions can effect your reach to the middle of the layout. In order to work on the middle I had to get on a step ladder and reach across, not only are you putting pressure of the layout but it's very uncomfortable. That layout would have been better if I had taken a foot off the width and made it 3'x16'.

[Guest ___]

 

Working for the eagle is no way to pay for college OR model trains.  :P

[alpineaustralia]

Here's another: Some of those Kato decoders have the pickups spaced right at 9mm. I was having troubles with the cab-car decoders working, so I would put them directly on the track to test. Great idea, until I bumped one ever so slightly and…puff of smoke.

 

Hey - great minds think a like Capt. Ive also fried a Kato decoder doing exactly the same thing.

I dont feel so stupid now. Or more accuratley, I dont feel so elite. 

[Bernard]

We could have a contest here as to who has fried the most decoders.  :D

I think I've lost count, I just hope Digitrax customer service has too.  ::)

[alpineaustralia]

Matey - I think I am in the running for a Xmas card from them this year. I just put a massive order for a hole bunch of decoders to see me through for a while. No doubt, they'll get them back from shortly

[Bernard]

Alpine - Just a Xmas card! That's nothing, I'm expecting a letter from Digitrax saying, "Bernard, we haven't heard from you lately, are you alright? We miss you, Your friends in Customer Service."

(this is going to be one of those, "you only had to walk only 5 miles to school, that was nothing! In my day...responses :D :D)

[Guest ___]

I actually use to get letters like that from a company (KEH Camera Exchange) I bought camera gear from in Florida.

[alpineaustralia]

Bernard - are you suggesting you might be starting a decoder lead recovery of the US economy.

Sometimes when I think of how much I have spent on these trains, it feels like I am single handedly keeping the Japanese economy a float!

[Bernard]

Alpine - We wouldn't want Japan to go out of business.  ;D

Actually when you think about it, I make a bet the decoders are made in China as most products are today. I have a feeling companies like Digitrax put into the cost of the decoder the amount of returns they are going to have. And now I have to print up another return form to Digitrax, old "Spanky" (Nagoya 7000 Panorama) blew another decoder.

[Bernard]

Mistake #3 on the Ozzie: My father owned a fabric store so I figured the best way to save time and money would be to take a green felt type of fabric that looked a lot like grass and cover the entire layout with it before putting down the tracks. It looked great except except it was hard to build any additional scenery on the fabric (it didn't respond well to glues) and I would get the occasional snag from the cloth into the wheels of the trucks of the trains. I later wound up replacing the entire cloth.

[alpineaustralia]

Funny. I tend not to blow up decoders these days. They tend to just mysteriously give amd refuse to work on me.

I just did an install of a DN 163KOa into a Kato EF 81. It worked this morning. This afternoon it didnt work any longer and one of the lights refused to turn on. Then the other light flickered like mad for 2 minutes and then it didnt respond to anything after that.

 

Like the rest of us eventually, the decoder is going back to its maker !

[Bernard]

Alpine - I went to install a decoder into a Kato Urbanliner. The train tested well, but when I tested the decoder it failed. I went to the LHS up here and I must be one of their few N scale modelers, 90% of the store is HO, I couldn't find one solder type decoder in the store for N scale, plus a lot of other supplies I needed. Mistake: always have extra decoders on hand.

[alpineaustralia]

Couldnt agree more. I ususally install a new decoder and send the malfunctioning one back for repeai and keep it as a spare when it returns