Adventures with a 9v battery and some bad soldering

[andruec]

It's the size of a double bed. I don't think it's all that ambitious. I only started laying track a week ago and had to pause because I was waiting for more curves. What you see in the video is probably only seven or eight hours work. I only took delivery of the baseboard at the beginning of the month.

So despite only spending an hour or two on it now and again (I'm still a working stiff) in three weeks or so I've assembled three baseboards and laid a third of my track. If I have any concerns it's about how quickly this is going. This is supposed to give me something to do for the next few years yet it's looking like all track will be laid, powered and maybe even ballasted before spring.

If I can do that then it'll be great. It means next winter is the start of scenery building and hopefully that will take several years. Mind you work will grind to a halt once the weather improves as it'll be back to golf at every opportunity but still - I'd say things are going really well so far.

[yelrow]

It was the inclines i was referring to. Mine is 9 foot long, and i need all of that to get the height. Rest looks fine.h

[andruec]

It was the inclines i was referring to. Mine is 9 foot long, and i need all of that to get the height. Rest looks fine.h

Ah, yes. I was going to create a separate thread for that

That's why I have to have four of them. 1.5 metres gets me up to a mezzanine which has the track at 32mm then another 1.5 metres to get the track up to 52mm. I'm using 12mm plywood for the elevated boards so that gives me 40mm clearance underneath the sidings/Withering Heights(*) board. I was really lucky there actually. I was trawling Amazon and found some timbers that are 30x40mm. So on one side they prop up my mezzanine and on another side they prop up the sidings. Pretty much perfect for my purposes as they will give nearly 10mm clearance.

Still got to decide how to fix those. They won't be permanently fixed to the bottom baseboard but I don't know if just PVA fixing them to the board they support will suffice.

(*)It's a pun, not a spelling mistake

[yelrow]

incline rise, 1 inch in 40 inches, is the advised rule of thumb, that i use. Hence my question about length of layout.

[andruec]

Yes. I'm rising 30mm in 1,500mm which is 2%. I did a test today by mocking up half the incline and using my 9v battery. The Queen Elizabeth climbed the slope quite easily. A slight drop in speed but not much. My HST on the other hand appeared to struggle a bit but it ran slower to start with - even without any coaches it's slower than the QE pulling her full set. The HST has three coaches and a trailing unpowered unit and is a heavier pull.

At the end of the test I checked the battery and the multimeter claimed 8.5v, so not even a fresh battery. I reckon that suggests there will be no problems with my incline but thank you for the reminder

[yelrow]

i have 4 Triang TT locos, buzzing up and down a steeper one, 1 in 30, but doubt whether any modern stuff would manage.

[andruec]

Ah, Triang

I got the QE because it was the closest I could find to the Triang Princess Elizabeth that my Dad gave me as a nipper. I don't think anyone has ever done a PE in N. It wasn't easy finding the QE as it's been discontinued.

[andruec]

I've done some work on my layout and in the process of creating another video I decided to try a different loco. This one already has a DCC decoder in it. It did work with the 9v but was pernickety and at first I thought I had some duff connections. Eventually it gave up climbing one of my new inclines completely. As soon as I went back to a loco that is only DCC ready things looked a lot better.

Is this to be expected? From what I understand about DCC it makes sense. DCC runs at a higher nominal voltage and uses PCM to adjust the speed so presumably 9v is just too low.

Anyway for what it's worth here is part two of 9v battery adventures. And, yes, I know the coaches are all mixed up but I didn't have time to dig out the correct livery. Although longer I think this train weighs slightly less because the blood and custard coaches are lighter than the modern ones.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/kxvVi3wN2bhhH3QQ7

[yelrow]

Some locos climb well. Many dont. I would look to reduce your incline a bit, as it would be a shame to finish it, and find only a third of your fleet , will take it. All my inclines and Helix, are DC, basically, as my experience is far greater, in DC. Have never built a DCC one. Also, modern locos are far lighter and cheaply built, with smaller motors, unless you buy the better brands such as Trix, Marklin, Fleischmann, MTH, etc. There have been many disappointed builders over the years, who, having built inclines find their fleet, reject them, or will only pull the odd coach or two up them. My approach, has been to mock one up, then test with a variety of locos. Did that with the helix, and it was the number of wheels, that actually stopped several. I am afraid, i dont watch videos, but offer these views, for what they are worth. Could well be, some on here, who have DCC, inclines, can address those concerns for you.

[Walkingthedog]

Of course an incline with a curve can be problematic.