USA Trains SD70MAC and Kadee Couplers

You recently reviewed the USA Trains SD70, but I Ioaned my copy to a friend, who hasn’t returned it, the May Issue, I believe. Did you install Kadee couplers? If so, which one?

Thank you,

Ken Thompson
Ballwin, MO

Hi Ken, your friend should know that it’s cheaper to buy his own subscription than it is to compromise a good friendship, especially since a year with us only costs him (or anyone else) $24 in the United States. It’s hard to take a friend to lunch for that little money. Meanwhile, to your question: I removed USA Trains’ proprietary swing arm system completely and used the central threaded hole to mount a Kadee #836 medium offset shank coupler. I have run this locomotive quite a bit (it’s a real visitor-pleaser) and this coupler solution seems to be just fine through all sorts of track geometry. — John

B&O F3s and Their Dynamic Brakes

In reference to the Proto 1000 upgraded F3 review on page 20 of the June 2006 issue of your excellent publication, I would like to add a few corrections/additions. The author is correct when he states that the B&O models are missing the steam generator equipment. He implies that the unit should have the dynamic brake grilles on the roof. According to the F3 article in Railway Prototype Cyclopedia vol 6, page 48, B&O units 82-88 and 82A-88A do not have dynamic brakes. Also the units should have the enclosed (passenger) pilot, not the freight pilot as shown.

Joe Altnether
Mesa, AZ

See Joe? That’s why we’re glad you’re one of our readers! I dug and dug for those exact pieces of information, looking at photos by the ton, reading rosters, and generally going nuts, only to get it only one third right. Since then, I found that B&O didn’t consider dynamics to be needed with passenger trains, at least at that time, but they spent the money they saved on the dynamics coming up with fancy, closed passenger pilots about which the riding public didn’t care. — John

Setting the High Point to Rest

One small error popped up in your otherwise excellent review of the Green Cove Depot offered by KingMill. That was the comment that the N&W Abingdon Branch offered the highest location in the east served by a passenger train.

Unfortunately that distinction belongs to the narrow gauge East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad/Linville River system, just a few short miles south of the A branch in TN and NC, better known as the Tweetsie. Much of the LR system was above the 3,500 foot mark of White Top on the Abingdon Branch. It peaked out at Linville Gap, NC at the lofty elevation of 4,045 feet. An Eastern Continental Divide marker at that location shows the elevation at 4,042 feet, so we can trust the government over competing advertising departments.

The N&W people have been claiming that “highest point” distinction for years, but the Tweetsie sure had them beat. Now if you say highest “standard gauge” you would be correct. Oh, and the Abington Branch was built as the Virginia-Carolina Railway, which was taken over by the N&W in 1919. That’s where the Virginia Creeper moniker comes from.

Johnny Graybeal
President, ET&WNC RR Historical Society and author of the Along the ET&WNC book series

Hi Johnny, this is what makes this magazine so much fun to do. Nothing “unfortunate” about the Tweetsie; it was a wonderful little narrow gauge railroad. Last I heard, their dandy little Ten-Wheeler is still operable. The “Tweetsie” has the good fortune of being supported by an active historical society. You can visit the society at www.mindspring.com/~cfordart/etwnc/histsociety.html or www.urbaneagle.com/slim/etwnc.html. — Ed.

Starter Sets with DCC and Sound Redux

I am surprised by your answer to Schell Hammel’s question about economical train sets equipped with DCC and sound, in which you said “I know of no train set offered now with DCC and a sound-equipped locomotive.” You are clearly forgetting the largest and oldest model train manufacturer in the world: Märklin. Please reference the 2006 HO Märklin catalog or Märklin USA web site (www.marklin.com). In the catalog you will find seven basic starter sets with the digital (DCC to the rest of the world) components included in the set (engines have digital chips installed, and the digital controller is included), and a further four sets with digital components and engines with sound, including an American starter set (New York Central). There are an additional three starter sets with engines already equipped for digital, but without the digital components included. The price range is pleasantly surprising.

Further, with the Märklin digital system there is never a question of what components are compatible. Märklin markets their complete program of simple, yet highly sophisticated digital products through every Märklin dealer (dealers are available through the Märklin web site). The only research the consumer must do is find a dealer that understands your needs and the Märklin products. All current Märklin engines are equipped for the digital system, and most are equipped with sound.

Yes, Märklin operates exclusively on its own system, but that wasn’t the question, and Märklin has the simplest operating system (I feel so sorry for everyone starting in DCC who is trying to figure out what system to use, and what components are compatible. I don’t want to research electronics. I want to play with trains, and Märklin allows me to do this).

Richard Deremer
Huntington, NY

Thanks for bringing this up, Richard. In truth, I pondered on this and left Märklin out, but not because of quality. I’ve visited their plant in Germany and cannot remember seeing such a robustly organized manufactory in any industry. Small wonder their products have such vaunted quality. No, my reason is in the exact words you stated, “Märklin operates exclusively on its own system.” We have another word for that: Proprietary. It is a very solid, reliable, and enjoyable proprietary, but it does not conform to the NMRA standards of DCC, and so it isn’t entitled to be called that. The question was about sound/DCC starter sets, and so the solution set is still empty. To be fair, Trix — the two-rail North American version of Märklin products — does offer DCC decoder-equipped models, including the stunningly delightful die-cast Big Boy with DCC and Sound. — Ed.

Project Railroad Pluses

In your Project Railroad article it was a great idea for you to advise modelers to not detail or paint walls viewers won’t see, and you did mention that sometimes you can leave off that wall or use a piece of styrene or cardboard. Going one further, when putting buildings together the modeler can leave off the joining walls between buildings — or cut off the wall not showing when joining two uneven-height buildings — thus saving extra walls for other buildings or shallow fronts along backdrops. Many buildings built before WW II had different styles of additions, so a bunch of non-matching walls look even better for a kitbash than a kit.

Second, I love that you guys really promote Trainplayer/TrackLayer, because everybody who models trains should buy this thing. In the history of model railroading, there has been a big step missing between the drawing out of the trackplan and theactual building of the layout — the testing phase, to see if the layout will provide the interest and operation the builder is looking for. Up until now, only years of experience would help steer a modeler toward the best layout he could make. I think every modeler has found out at least once in their lives the hard truth that what looks really great on paper tends to disappoint slightly or greatly once it’s built. A friend of mine, now nearing completion of the tracklaying on his 6 x 13 foot N layout, wistfully admitted, “it’s not as big as I was thinking it would be.”

With TrackLayer, a modeler can run his planned layout to see if it actually works, without the considerable expense of having to build it first. How many cars fit where, how complicated switching or engine changes are, how long trains can be without chasing their caboose can now be determined on the computer. Seeing scale-sized trains running around on your plan is very instructional.

Automobile builders and aircraft manufacturers use computers to figure out how their design will work, now model railroaders can too. Tracklayer is a program every modeler should buy, from beginner to expert, just as they would buy how-to books on track planning, scenery, wiring, and all the rest. I believe it should eventually be considered a must-have, like a scale ruler or track cleaner. The time and money saved from having to rebuild trackage or making a new layout because the original plan was flawed will far outweigh the cost of the computer program. I’d also like to see model railroad construction books include a section on using TrackLayer to help refine or redo layout plans. This concept is as revolutionary as Kato’s needlepoint axle power pickup system.

Al Skinner
Bellingham, WA

You are exactly right, Al. It’s like the old carpenter’s adage, “Measure twice, cut once.” In military circles, I’ve heard it said that, “Great execution starts with a great plan.” The important issue is that planning is an organization process, and we’ve been waiting for the computer world to come in and help us organize this. Look at what happened in engineering with CAD/CAM software. Unfortunately, this software does not support the Mac, which we use around here because we’re into publishing. I think that to become the universal tool, it requires that solution. — Ed.

More on “DCC Turnouts”

I thought that I would add my two cents to your comments on “DCC” turnouts. Of course, there should be no difference between DC and DCC turnouts. However, there are differences between the marketing of those turnouts. Essentially, there are two types of turnouts — all live and power routing. The original Shinohara turnouts, marketed by Lambert in code 100 and code 70, were power routing. When Walthers took over their marketing in code 83, they were still power routing. A disadvantage of the power-routing turnout is that, if the closure rail does not make good contact with the stock rail, there will be no current in the closure rail. This can be corrected by wiring to the closure rails (and frog), for which the Tortoise motor provides the necessary contacts. Walthers (Shinohara) “DCC” turnouts are all live. The advantage of the all-live turnouts is that their wiring is simplified, i.e., no wiring to the closure rails is needed because it is built in. Also, the space between stock rail and the closure rail is somewhat greater on the Walthers (Shinohara) “DCC” turnouts in order to lessen the possibility of shorts. However, a possible disadvantage of the all-live turnout is the length of the insulated frog on the Walthers “DCC” turnouts. That length is 1-1/4 inches on a #6 turnout, 2 inches on a #8, and 2-1/2 inches on a #8 curved turnout. On modern models with all-wheel pickup this would not be a problem, but on older models this could be.

Peco has for some time marketed turnouts; however, they were not to NMRA standards (instead of having a frog angle similar to prototype turnouts, they were of circular design, i.e., small, medium, and large radius). They came in code 100 and, more recently, code 75. They had both “insulfrog” and “electrofrog” which are equivalent to all live and power routing, respectively. They have very recently come out with code 83 turnouts meeting NMRA standards, which they advertise as being suitable for DC or DCC. Again, they have both “insulfrog” and “electrofrog.”

On my own layout (still under construction), I have used Peco code 100 turnouts for all hidden trackage (I like the simple way in which their switch machines can be mounted) and code 83 Walthers/Shinohara turnouts elsewhere. I am now using their so-called “DCC” turnouts, mainly because of the simplified wiring and the reduced possibility of electrical shorts. I am, however, still operating analog DC rather than DCC (I’ve got too much invested in DC locomotives). I should also mention that I am modeling the Pacific Electric interurban, for which I am using Peco code 75 small radius turnouts. Looks quite good.

Jim Case
Cedar City, UT

You did well, Jim. I wasn’t going to get into all this as a reply to someone else’s letter, but you did a right good job of laying it out for us. One other problem is the internal wiring of each switch. Wires or strips of metal make contact between various rails on the underside of the switch, often where it’s hard to see. The switch works fine until there’s a wreck with a track short involved. The 5-amp DCC system protects itself and shuts down. The locomotive decoder doesn’t have any current across it, so it isn’t harmed (usually). However, you suddenly discover that the dead spot has grown from just the frog to include one or more of the closure rails. Why? One of those tiny wires underneath was never designed to handle 5 amps! After that, it’s not at all unusual to find jumper wires soldered in place. Of course, they’re easier to jumper before they’re installed. Something to think about. — Ed.