Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Bachrus rolling saddles

 .Today I took delivery of my Bachrus Rolling Saddles.

These locomotive rolling stands, enable you to work on your locomotive , while not requiring a whole layout. You can run in a locomotive when new, use it to set up DCC decoders etc.
I bought mine from www.sprog-dcc.co.uk.  A basic set of 4 stands , enough for a loco with 4 driven axles will set you back just under 50 GBP. While not cheap, they are very well made and can be used for other gauges too (the type I have can be used for HO to S scale).
For 6 axle locos you can order an additional set of 2 stands (which I've done ), and there are also stands for steam engine tenders with non driven axles etc.
It will get a bit pricey when you need to run in articulated locomotives such as a Big boy, but this tool is very useful, and I'd recommend it to anyone with a larger locomotive fleet, or does regular maintenance or modification work to their locomotives.
Here it is in action using my Atlas GP38-2. It enabled me to properly tune in the ESU decoder inside this locomotive. One thing I've found already is that particularly at higher speeds, the volume of the current speaker isn't high enough , the mechanism is louder. Something I would not have found until it was run on a bigger layout....

Thursday, June 6, 2013

grass lands

Here another progress shot of the grass area I'm working on.
This is purely to demonstrate how a few different shades and textures mixed create a more realistic appearance.
More has since been added, but as it is still wet of glue, I'll wait with taking a picture of it.


Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Sound at Wolter Springs

Here's a quick video, of the first run of my Atlas GP38-2 on my Wolter Springs module, after it was equipped with an ESU Loksound Select decoder. It was originally intended for an SW1500, but I couldn't quite get it to fit properly so I used it for this loco instead. Therefore the engine you hear is an 8 cylinder 645E non turbo charged, not quite enough cylinders for a GP38-2, but I will load up a different sound set in the future. For now this will do.
Also visible is some of the new grass scenery I'm currently applying.