[Accrs-ho] HO electrical update for June 16

[Wayne Toigo]

Greetings!

(And yes, I saw that my last update was improperly titled as "Thursday" when it should have been "Wednesday, June 15". My bad.)

The good news is that the problems with the Oildale turnout have been fixed! Oildale is back open and ready. (In fact, better than ever.) The conditions causing shorting were fixed and all operations are now performing normally. Thanks to Gary L. for his assist in this repair.

Several places that were causing power dropouts have been fixed. Most of this is caused by dirty or poor electrical contact around the turnout's points. We've seen this before and, unfortunately, it will be a continuing problem with our aging layout. For now, you should be able to make it around the layout with less dropouts. But this condition will reoccur, so please let me know if you see areas causing power drops. The long-term fix is to replace the problem turnouts with new ones.

Additionally, you might consider adding a "Current Keeper" or "Keep Alive" circuit to your DCC locomotives. This circuit provides power to the decoder through a short power drop. This can help preserve your headlight and sound state, and keep the locomotive running through an area with dirty track or limited electrical pickup. Perhaps we can have a Training Class on installing these circuits in the future.

At this time, we have no major electrical problems on the layout. I am still addressing several smaller issues, including the items reported in the Port area.

-Wayne
ACCRS HO Assistant Trainmaster

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