July 29, 2025
Tom Pearson and Harold Berenzweiq came over for a second time to help with EasyDCC and DecoderPro not talking. Replacing the 9 year old serial to USB interface solved the problem of them not talking. This visit they discovered a loose wire in the toggle switches that control the programming track. Everything is now working as it should.
A second problem that has been festering for over a year is not being able to use the older EasyDCC 904 throttle and the newer OpPro at the same time. Separate cables ran to the 900 and 904 receivers. We ran a makeshift cable and found the original imbedded in the wall had a bad connector. Now both type of throttles work.
The connector has been replaced but it would seem the cable is actually defective. A new cable will be run up to the ceiling. Hindsight shows cables should have been tested before being foamed into the wall.
Two new locos (to the layout) were run and only a couple problems picking points. However, the white glue that was added to decrease frog drop was found to be high in many places. Three towns have now been gone thru with a NMRA flange gauge. The best way to remove some glue is to let a little water sit on the frog for about 5 minutes and then run the gauge thru toward the frog points (running the other way pops glue out completely.)
A friend did all the switches. In retrospect, only the #8’s and 3-way switches should have been done. There is little to no wheel drop in the #5 and 6 Fast Track built switches.
