Flatcars From Accurail!!... Not Anytime Soon

The author recently emailed Accurail (original website and new website) concerning the possibility of their adding flatcars to their line of products. He received a comprehensive reply today from one of the production managers thanking him for the email and giving apologies. He stated that flatcars were the most requested item and there had been discussions about manufacturing them. 

Unfortunately their head toolmaker (one of the Accurail owners) passed away earlier this year and there is absolutely no way they could afford to hire a full time toolmaker at present.

So, there you have it. That is the reason there are no flatcars in their lineup. It will probably be a while before we see new tooling from them at all. 

It is the author's belief that the Accurail line of products, most importantly at their price point, allows the new hopeful young model railroader to enter the hobby at an affordable level. As most, if not all, of you know, at the current price of new rolling stock ($40 and up) and passenger cars (anywhere from $45 to $120 or more) it is a difficult (read as expensive) hobby the get into. 

Let's hope (with the recent closing of manufacturers, brick and mortar hobby shops, etc.) Accurail continues to produce their products and we continue to get younger modelers into the fold.

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Scale Trains Helping With Hurricane Helene Relief

Scale Trains has implemented help for Hurricane Helene Relief and is partnering with various organizations for North Eastern Tennessee and other locations help. If you wish to contribute or help, read about it here.

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From Model Train Stuff

We're Still Here For You Continuing to Serve Despite Hurricane Helene

Dear Valued Customers, We hope this message finds you safe and well. As you may know, our physical location in the Asheville, North Carolina area was recently impacted by Hurricane Helene, and the aftermath has created significant challenges for our team. Beyond the operational disruptions of power outages and flooding, many of our employees are facing incredibly difficult personal circumstances—some are without power, cell service, food, clean water, and basic necessities. Despite these overwhelming challenges, our team is doing everything they can to get back to work and continue fulfilling your orders. However, due to these extraordinary conditions, we kindly ask for your patience as shipping times for certain orders may be longer than usual. Rest assured, we are working closely with our partner warehouses outside of North Carolina to ensure that orders are processed and dispatched as quickly as possible. Even through these challenging times, our goal remains to serve your model railroading needs with the dedication and care you’ve come to expect from us. Now more than ever, your continued support is crucial. Every purchase you make helps to provide much-needed resources for our employees and their families during this tough time. Your loyalty makes a real difference, and we are deeply grateful. We are committed to delivering the quality products and service you’ve come to expect, even as we navigate these unprecedented hardships, and we'll have more updates to come in the near future. Thank you for standing by us and supporting our incredible team as they work through this crisis. Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns. Our customer service team is available, and they can be reached at 828-341-2295. Stay safe, and thank you for being part of our community. Warm regards, The Model Train Stuff Team

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Loksound Equipped Engine Refuses To Move But Sound Is Fine

This problem has plagued users for a long while now and is almost constantly an issue brought up on the LokSound groups.io forum. Guaranteed you'll see it brought up about every two or three days.

There are several reasons this could happen and the majority of them are easily remedied. There is a list of things that need to be checked and these are mentioned whenever the problem pops up. 

• Make sure Drive Hold is not on
• Insure the Independent Brake is not on
• Insure the Automatic (Train) Brake is not on
• To learn how to implement the Train brake read this
• Make sure CV19 is set to 0 (not in advanced consist)

If group members think of other things that need to be checked, email the author and he'll add them to this list. 

Now For The Insidious One
Recently, the author came across this problem in a couple of his locomotives and it always occurred when initially programming the decoder. It didn't matter if the engine was programmed from scratch or was a copy of a previously programmed engine with just the engine number changed. It happened in both instances and was always for a v5 decoder (that's what the author has) so, both 21 pin and micro decoders developed the problem.

Re-burning the unchanged original downloaded file from ESU (pure factory reset not a reset to previosly programmed values) would clear up the problem so what did the author change that caused this? 

Today it was decided he was going to take the time and trace the cause. One sheet at a time utilizing the Drivers Cab to test running or not after changes and then go changed setting by changed setting on the particular sheet if the problem occurred.

This took some time. Brake Settings, Driving Characteristics, the various Function Sheets, all were fine. Motor Settings, WAIT!!! the engine refused to move!!! Now change by change until the author got to Motor Overload Protection. Long story short finally, checking the Enable motor current limiter would prevent the engine from moving!  See figure 1.

 

Fig1 Motor current limiter

Think! Why? This was an older HO KATO AC4400CW purchased at a swap meet and it had the same changes made to a new one that was working. This makes perfect sense. The older motor needs more current than the new model and the protection wouldn't let it move because it was above the set limit.

Uncheck the Enable motor current limiter box, test, engine moves! Problem solved.

Don't forget this one after checking Drive Hold and all the different brakes don't fix the problem. Also remember that if after all of these checks are done and the engine still does not move, you probably have a blown drive circuit in the decoder and it requires a trip to Colorado for a fix. Remember that the ESU office has moved. It's no longer in Pennsylvania. 

I hope this helps and I know it demonstrates what lengths you sometimes have to go through to isolate problems. Good luck!

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Digitrax Closed on Thursday 9/26 Due to Hurricane Helene

From Digitrax - Sept. 25, 2024

Digitrax will be closed tomorrow (9/26/2024) as Hurricane Helene heads our way. We're putting our team's safety first with the storm coming in. We aim to reopen on Friday if it's safe. Thanks for your understanding, and we will let you know if anything changes!

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