Diesel Locomotives small lettering

Re: Don Wirth's SLSF 204

Don, this is great! Would you mind telling us how you did it so we can follow in your footsteps? Especially would like to know about the lettering and paint color. Thanks. Rick Mc.

 

Mike,

I am trying to check the site daily or every other day so I can remember my password!

Chris has asked for some photos and I will try to get some posted in the next day or so. I have backdated to 1947 so the pictures will look a little different from my 1975-1978 sessions. Nothing quite like an ABBA set of F3s . . . . . .

Rick

 

I posted this over on the Real Frisco side--the real and the modelling seem to get mixed up a bit--
http://forum.atlasrr.com/discussion/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=36022&SearchTerms=sound,baldwin

It shows a couple of ways to install sound in a VO-1000.

 

My apologies for the link in my post. It appears that it is no longer available. Perhaps one of these days I'll get a digital picture upload of my installation on a VO1000. I have one completed, the other was going to be started tonight, but when I opened up the decoder packaging, one of the wires was not connected to the decoder. ESU will be getting a call tomorrow.

Good news: Though the turn-around time was a little long...about 3 weeks, they sent a new decoder to me free of charge and it is now installed and working well. Though I think the turn-around had something to do with it's proximity to Christmas.

 

Does anyone know of a way to get the Genesis F3 units (with DCC/Sound factory installed) to run slower at speed step 1?

Is it a matter of breaking in the engine, installing a new decoder, or some other maintenance on the drive mechanism, or is it just never going to match the Stewart drives in my VO1000s for slow speed running?

 

Do you have access to a computer that has Decoder Pro on it? You can adjust some of the speed Control variables (CV's) to adjust how the motor reacts to throttle settings. This is much easier to do than explain. I would need a little more information on your decoder before I could help any further.
Bob Wintle
Parsons, Ks.

 

I may, I'm not sure what the computer at the club layout has. I do not personally have the cables to hook up my computer to my Digitrax system at home. I am also not sure if Decoder Pro is compatible with a Mac, but I'm pretty sure JMRI would work.

The decoder in the engine is the stock MRC decoder that comes included in the Athearn Genesis engines...or did when the engines were released in ?2006? (I think that was the Frisco release date). The only speed control CVs that I know of are:
2 Start Voltage 0-32 currently 3
3 Acceleration 0-32 currently 25
4 Decelleration 0-32 currently 15
5 Top Voltage 0-32 currently 32
6 Mid Voltage 0-1 currently 0 (1 being the factory default parabolic speed curve and 0 being a straight line curve)

 

Not to go off topic, you CAN run JMRI/DecoderPro on a Mac:
http://jmri.sourceforge.net/install/MacOSX.html

Even if you don't have the cables to hook it to a Digitrax system, you can still run it and use it to save your CV settings. I believe our own Paul Bender is involved with JMRI, so he can probably help more.

As far as the MRC decoders, some people are so unhappy with them they rip them out and replace them. That's a bitter pill to swallow, so I hope you get them to run better.

 

There is a version of Decoder Pro or more correctly JMRI for the Mac. You will need a USB Locobuffer a USB cable and a loconet cable to hook your computer to your programming track.
I am not familur with the MRC decoders. I did look them up on my decoder pro and the one you need to play with is listed. The first thing that jumped out at me was the question Do you have the decoder set to 128 steps? If not changing it over from 14 steps will help. Also try different settings on your start voltage setting and your accelleration settings can also help.
As the other reply to this question implied getting rid of the MRC decoder may be the best choice. I noted on their website that they have discontinued one of their diesel sound decoders. I am not sure if that is the same one you have or not. If you do change I would recommend the Soundtraxx Tsunami. I would also suggest purchasing it from www.litchfieldstation.com
Bob

 

Thanks for the Mac info.

As for the engines, I have experimented with the CVs for start voltage, mid voltage, acceleration, deceleration, and it is set for 128 speed steps. The Model Railroader review also shows the F3s at a minimum continuous speed around 7mph. I was wondering if anyone knew if a different decoder would produce different results, or if it was a matter of the drive mechanism itself not able to move any slower. I read their review on the SD45 as well, and it, too, had a high start speed, so I'm thinking its the drive. If anyone has any ideas on how to get the engine to go slower, I would greatly appreciate the input.