Dear John,
We had a blast at the Friday meeting. Lots of friends showed up for
our introduction to the new "L" AF 2-8-2. We had purchased one for the
obvious reasons, but Bob Greegrove brought his along with the "L" TMCC
system which we have not had the opportunity to evaluate. Even the cab
had a few details cast on to the backhead and a two man crew. The 2-8-2
is light years ahead of anything made by "L" in S. Although some of the
detail is oversized (handrails, stanchions, bell cord, and of course the
wheel flanges) the overall look is excellent. Other nice touches, are
the different configuration for the B&O and NYC. It is strange that
they would so concerned about this aspect of the prototype and then
offer both as passenger sets. I am not saying that 2-8-2s never pulled
passenger trains on the B&O and NYC, it is just I am sure it was rare
and only when no passenger power would have been available. Mike
Ferraro did think the tender was too wide. I measured and it comes out
to 10' 4" which may be correct for this tender. The blackened flanges
on the drivers hides the flange depth and at a few feet away the
oversize cannot be detected. Someone suggested turning the drivers
down, but the back to back would still be 0.100" too wide. But, this is
a big improvement over other "L" AF engines which had a much narrower
back to back and gave fits to our first run switches. On our 5' X 9'
S-Trax display layout, the 2-8-2 ran fine on both the outer loop (27.5"
radius as measured by the outside of the roadbed) and the inner loop
(20" radius) having no problems with our #3 switches even at full speed.
The operation on TMCC is much better than traditional AC. A warning
in the manual about operating on DC will cook the electronics was seen
before disaster occurred as we usually try all motive products on DC.
For traditional AC, a 9 volt battery is needed in the tender to keep
the sound circuit charged during low speed (read voltage) operation.
But, installing the battery without breaking wires to the volume pott
is a real a challenge. I am happy we had Bob's here so Mike could
figure out how to resolder the two wires that broke. This is a definite
downside as the batteries do not last that long. I wonder why a battery
charging circuit was not added to the mass of tender electronics. Once
the tender shell is off, it is easy to see why a much smaller standard
USRA 2-8-2 tender was not used. The sound was good. I think most were
surprised by the brake squeal when the engine stopped. The crew chatter
made us wonder if radios were ever used by the B&O and NYC in their
2-8-2s. We did have to re-boot the sound several times and we still do
not know why this is needed. All of a sudden, the chuff just
disappeared. The whistle and bell would still work, but not the chuff.
The smoke was intermittent, sometime tons came out (blowing smoke rings
too) and other times, just a tiny puff appearing to stream out. It did
not seem to depend of either the engine speed or the amount of smoke fluid.
Overall, I think they did a nice job on this project and wish they
would have been this detail aware when they re-introduced the Baldwin
switcher.
RE: Track Planning Guide - Vic has taken all of the images of the
display layout. Guy will be back again on Sunday and I hope to finish
up placing the images. The layout renditions are pretty much all done.
I am waiting for Will's latest version on the type. Any chance we will
see you in 2 weeks to finish this up?
Good luck on the job front.
Don
John Prior wrote:
>Don
>Did many turn up Friday and they help you finish the Display Layout?
>
>I dread to ask, but have and/or Vic moved forward on the TPG?
>
>There you are, two nagging questions!
>
>Regards to all
>
>John
>
>
>
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