[Accrs-ho] Thursday, June 15 update

[Wayne Toigo]

Greetings!

Logan and I had a very productive day today. We were able to address all the items he had reported from last Friday. We have some work to do to fix all the items, but we are making progress. Here are some notes.


  *   The most important item is: Until further notice, Oildale is closed to all operations. The turnout leading from the "Freight" mainline into Oildale (on the right side of the Dispatch panel) has been disabled and trains cannot be routed into Oildale. The panel switch still indicates that the turnout can be operated, but the Tortoise throwing the points has been disabled.

A significant problem has been discovered with the turnout which is causing shorting. It's going to take some effort to repair, and only occurs when the turnout is thrown into Oildale. So for now, no transitions into Oildale until this gets fixed. Interurban operation is ok.


  *   We've identified three places on the layout where power drops enough that single locomotives could stall, stutter, or temporarily lose DCC power (causing loss of headlights, sound, etc.). It appears that multiple locomotive consists can "push" themselves through these areas, but power will still be interrupted. (That's why many of us are seeing headlamp and sound dropouts from time to time across the layout). In two cases, we know what needs to be done. We're still diagnosing the third.



  *   We did manage to fix the large power dropout area near the Freight Yard. There is another intermittent problem in that same area that needs to be fixed.



  *   I've tested and repaired all the NCE ProCab cables. The ones in the cabinet are good with good connectors on each end.


The most important accomplishment today was diagnosing and identifying the problems. Thanks very much to Logan for his assistance today. I'll keep you updated on our progress as we get closer to the Fair.

And remember, "Fair Time is Fun Time!"

-Wayne
ACCRS HO Assistant Trainmaster

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mail.accrs.org/archives/accrs-ho/attachments/20240516/41c24458/attachment.htm>