I know I'm not alone. My employer sent me home for at least two weeks that started on Tuesday, laptop in hand, doing some training from home rather than potentially infecting my co-workers or bring the virus home to my family. Quarantined, even if you're quarantined to the same room as your model railroad and your music collection, is still not freedom. Good luck to all of you out there. Just heard yesterday that my Uncle Rick in Maine is on a ventilator with Covid-19. (Update, Uncle Rick's just been joined in the same hospital by my Uncle John who's also on a ventilator.) I'm praying for him and all those afflicted with this virus, and I hope you do as well. We will get through this together.
Anyway, I've been teleworking in my office, and it just felt good to run trains around the layout while working. (Side Note!: In terms of keeping locomotives trouble free, one key is to run them for about a half hour of continuous use every month. Dust, dirt and lack of lubrication make engines irritable - my advice is to make sure to take them out and RUN THEM!) Everything was going well, but then late yesterday I discovered that my coal drag was literally dragging. PC 2415 was being drug around the layout, unpowered. Sometimes DCC encoders lose their mind, and I guess that was the case with this one, but I also noticed that the rear lights weren't working on that loco. Time to open her up! At lunchtime today I replaced the "grain-of-wheat" incandescent with an LED. Bam, she's up and running again. The picture below is 2415 leading the coal drag up toward White Haven. After seeing this photo, I really do want to put a set of MU hoses on the locomotive eventually. (Update, found a set on ebay - maybe I can get them on next weekend).
Then I started thinking what other locomotives in my fleet have nagging issues. LV 625, for instance (third in the consist above) needed a different set of couplers. The ones I had on it looked nice - low profile, they're probably more a realistic size (height from top to bottom of the coupler), but when I lashed that locomotive with others in a consist, inevitably the train would separate at the front of 625. It was so bad that when I did run that loco, I'd automatically place it at the front end because I knew the front coupler would release. I decided it was time to do something about it - two Kadee whisker couplers installed in about 10 minutes and it's coupling is ultra reliable now! I love the paint scheme on that one - it had to get fixed.
I also thought about the annoyances I was having with my sole remaining C630 - Reading 5304. It would run great as long as I didn't go through a couple of my switches with the long end forward. Derail city! It's exactly the same geometry as the C628's I have and I don't have any problems with those 4, so I started playing with wheel sets on that 630, and low and behold, in some orientations (pitching the wheelset while swiveling), the dynamic brake cylinders would bump up against the cast frame. I'd only hand-set the cylinders, so I pulled them all off and ran 5304 by itself. Worked well through every switch no matter what end was forward. Glued the cylinders back and set them low to avoid the frame, and I think we're good to go! Coronavirus days are good for something I guess.
I thought my C630 was good to go, but no. Still had nagging issues with derailing through some of my switches. Got my Dremel out and laid waste to the back-side pockets that support the dynamic brake cylinders. They don't look any different from the side, but I did slope the plastic so there would be much less contact with the cast frame back there. After about an hour's work, she's finally negotiating all of my switches at full speed regardless of direction - what a relief. I thought maybe I might have to sell that locomotive if I couldn't get it right.
I also had problems today running both of my SD45's. They'd periodically stop or slow down markedly. Set them out and ran the heck out of them and hit some of the rail points with Rail-Zip. I also reset the coupler heights on both of them using my height gauge. I also noticed that my U25B was not set for proper coupler height and ended up replacing the couplers on that one. Two days of locomotive maintenance, but NOW we're cooking. I do have a problematic Reading GP30 that still needs attention..... Maybe next week.
Yeah, and I did get to that GP30 early the next week. Turns out while backing down a grade into a switch the coupler extension would grab and derail the locomotive. I took a look the the rear coupler pocket and reworked how the coupler was secured in the pocket and removed a plastic coupler pocket cover altogether. Now runs without derailing, and I've now done work on nearly the entire locomotive fleet (non D&H) in less than a week, but every locomotive is now fully capable of being lashed together to haul freight. That makes me want to weather the ones that haven't been weathered yet. If I can, that will be an unexpected bonus of the coronavirus.
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