Merry Christmas.

I’ve been thinking about trying some contact cleaner myself, maybe on the modules. That way if it doesn’t pan out I have it isolated. By the way, I just checked the WD-40 SDS and it contains--are you ready for this-10-20% isopropyl alcohol, so you’re still using it!

We have a whole house electronic air filter and I run a dehumidifier in the basement 24/7 so it stays pretty clean down there. A lot of the dust and dirt comes from unfinished ceilings and bare concrete floors.

Yes, that’s what No-Ox-Id is, a conductive grease, but I won’t jump on that bandwagon, no grease on my layout.

@@TheDCCGuy You can actually just apply it to the tracks and wheels and clean all the carrier grease off it after about 8 hours. It works great, I've used it on the wheels of steam engines that have traction tires (just not on those drivers in particular). No dirt after that.

@@TheDCCGuy I have been using INOX MX3 for over 40 years, and I have models on my layouts that have never needed wheel cleaning since using it. I apply INOX to the track about every 2 months, no need for wheel cleaning.

That's a great idea for the wiring color visual boxcar. So simple but really helpful. Thanks for sharing this tip.

Good to hear Ron. I still have my tube of No-Ox-Id left over from my aluminum house wire experiences so I guess I am primed if not yet convinced. My concern is that too many folks will jump on the bandwagon and apply way too much with the results being slipping drive wheels and attraction of dirt, dust, and cat hair to the rails. Let me know in a year👍

@@TheDCCGuy Yes, as I tried to say emphatically in the video, a thin, almost microscopic layer is all you need, all you want.

Good shout thanks man :)

Yes, there are always things I could add to these videos but I am trying to keep them under 30 minutes.

I think I said that I only use it and bright boys in extremely dirt circumstances and then always followup with a clean cloth to get the goo off-discovered that 30 years ago.

I don’t have an index, however they are organized in topical playlists on my channel page. It would be great if some ambitious viewer with more time than I took it on themself to do an index but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Ah yes the good old kill switch. What I like is the dead man switch that everybody has to keep depressed to keep power on. Build one into each throttle and if you let up on it, your train will come to a dead halt!

What does CRC stand for?

Will do.

Sorry, I saw your other posts in my email feed but for some reason they were not coming up in my comments management section until this one. It gets real complicated when you jack up the amperage and voltage like this as all the components need to be ramped up accordingly. In the original version they are designed for typical HO scale amps and volts So you’ll need to replace all components with those rated for the amps your motors pull and the voltages they require. I did another video (#31) on what goes into a stay alive device and gave some suggestions in it for modifying the circuit, so take a look at it. Many G scalers have gone to battery power using “Dead Rail” systems that use wireless tx/rx for communications and decoder interfaces and the battery for power.

You can manually run them across the cloth on the rails just like for the locos. If the gunk is caked in then you need to go over them with the blade of a pen knife. I replace all plastic wheels with nickel plated ones from Intermountain and then keep them clean with the cloth method.

That is an Atlas Alco RS3 and a one of a kind paint job I did about 30 years ago. The models are still made by Atlas and also readily available on ebay. They did at least one run in that paint scheme but a different number although it is rare as a result and only comes up occasionally for sale.

I thought those were rated for 18” curves but check your instructions. 4-8-4 locos can be sensitive to curves because of the rigid wheelbase of the 4 sets of drivers. Manufacturers often will build in a lot of lateral slop into the or not put flanges on some of the driver wheels to avoid this issue.

I have several in HO scale so let me dig one out and see what goes.

OK, there don’t appear to be any big clips but there may be some small ones just creating a friction grip. I just slid a small flat screwdriver under the top step next to the pilot and pried it up gently. Do this at each end and that should free it and allow the shell to slide off. Go slow and don’t force it, once you get the initial grip to release it becomes just a matter of wiggling it up off the cast chassis.

It all depends p the decoder. Many will just reset to step “0” and come to an abrupt halt until the next update command arrives. Some decoders on the other hand may have built in memory and will return to the last command they received. The frequency of updates varies with command station and the amount of data traffic on the bus. The more locos you have running the more data there is. It is a very complicated data communication protocol that we take for granted as long as it is working. Here are the specifics: C: Frequency Of Packet Transmission Packets sent to Digital Decoders should be repeated as frequently as possible, as a packet may have been lost due to noise or poor electrical conductivity between wheels and rails. Power may also be removed from the rails between the Packet End Bit and the Preamble of the next packet to allow for alternative command control formats. A Digital Decoder shall be able to act upon multiple packets addressed to it, provided the time between the packet end bit of the first packet and the packet start bit of the second packet are separated by at least 5 milliseconds. If a decoder receives a bit sequence with a missing or invalid data byte start bit, a missing or invalid packet end bit, or an incorrect error detection byte, it must recognize the next valid preamble sequence as the beginning of a new packet. Alternative command control formats are specifically allowed between the packet end bit and the start of the next preamble. Manufacturers of decoders are encouraged to provide automatic conversion for a variety of power signals and command control formats in addition to the NMRA digital signal (per S-9.1), provided that automatic conversion to these alternate power signals can be disabled. If automatic conversion is enabled, Digital Decoders must remain in digital mode and not convert to using any alternate power signal so long as the time between Packet Start Bits is less than or equal to 30 milliseconds in duration. If automatic conversion is disabled, Digital Decoders must remain in digital mode regardless of the timing of Packet Start Bits. It shall be possible to configure Digital Command Stations to transmit at least one complete packet every 30 milliseconds as measured from the time between packet start bits.

No, but remember that as wire diameter decreases resistance goes up. The way to counter this is to keep those small diameter wires as short as possible.

@@TheDCCGuy thanks. I'll keep that in mind.

I have no idea what you have changed in the process so your best bet is to open your manual and look for factory reset, then do it. That should get you back to operations just like when it came out of the box.

@@TheDCCGuy thanks for the information

That’s what I have always read. However in my opinion it is the other dirt, grease, dust, cat hair, oil, glue, paint, foam scatter, static grass that causes most of the big issues. Interesting a lot of household dust is dead human skin cells that just naturally sough off over time-they gotta go somewhere!

They’re called keep alives. There also are systems called dead rails that use batteries in the locos but space as always is the issue as you need a battery and decoder/receiver. They are very popular with garden railway types and O scalers.

@@TheDCCGuy Or current extenders and other names used by the various manufacturers, There doesn't yet seem to be an accepted generic name for these capacitor systems that provide power for short time periods.

I only get to put in so many links like those and so I have to pick and choose.

@@TheDCCGuy I understand that for linking videos but in the description above the comments even if you refer to some video numbers. You have over 40 great videos in your wiring section so for a beginner it might be hard to find a good basic one or one with a general overview. They appear to be listed in date order rather than a logical order one would do things in.

Yeah, and don't use kitty litter for ballast!

I would like to give this 20 thumbs up and I do not use anything but nickel silver wheels on everything, no coated wheel sets.

As I said in the video I avoid toxic organics as much as possible. Read the label on your contact cleaner.