Checking the barge track

Loading the barge and checking the track work. Everything seemed to be fine. I loaded 17 cars but it was very tight. Considering that I only put two 50’ cars on there I should plan for less, just in case more 50 footers showed up.

Sea wall Installed

Now that most of the scenery is complete behind the barge area, I started working on the barge area. The first part was to take out the temporary barge and fit the sea walls in with the car float apron.

On to new and exciting issues

I have decided to delve into the various keep alive circuits that are available. I got one of each type except ESU, wince I don’t have any idea what could fit into my locos. I may try ESU later, but they are on th expensive side.

Now I must learn what I need to know about how to install these in my locos.

Radio throttles were a success Now on to keep alive

Finally after all these years I had a good radio day.

Now I must go on to new challenges. I think I’ll try and figure out this “keep alive” or whatever it is called these days. I ordered a few different types of keep alive capacitors for trying out on various situations. They come in many sizes and power levels. Now to figure out how they work and if they can be interchanged with other brands of decoders.

Radio Issues Fixed....One can only hope

I think I actually solved the problem. Mike Pennie came to help, but we were only just moving the antenna’s around. This was not working.

I got on the NCE group site and got a few troubleshooting ideas.

Short version of the story is it was a plug in transmitter for my XM radio in the basement. I’m now connecting in 4-5 seconds in the train room. With the transmitter plugged in it jump to 10 seconds to never.

Longer version was turning off all the breakers in the basement and turning on the layout and powering up every breaker one at a time and going into the train room and testing. One breaker in the middle was the culprit so I turned it off and tested everything else. I looked up at my XM radio and it said no signal, which leads me to the long forgotten transmitter. I checked that receptacle and is was powered down. I unplugged the transmitter and closed the breaker and tested and I was still good.

I originally had the RB02 and two repeaters. Now the repeaters are disconnected.

Now I’ll try not to hold my breath until after Tuesday‘s op session.