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 Posted - April 11 2011 : 11:04:16 AM
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Well, after my club member ran his Marklin blimp at the Timonium show this past weekend, blistering around the track and drawing all kinds of attention, I decided I HAD to move ahead with my Tyco Turbo Train DCC project. Fishing them out last night, I selected a Santa Fe unit, I have two, one ran better than the other, so it's now my star headliner in a suped up streamliner project.  Found my Digitrax DH123D Decoder I'd bought at another show, put them all in a bag and brought them to work today. This morning, I scraped the brush holders of varnish, and soldered gray and orange wires to them, and got some desolder braid ( copper ), and soldered that to the two pick-up shoes to give a softer and broader contact patch. I'm putting plastic wire jacket I stripped off 24 gauge wire on the shoe springs to isolate them from the pick-up shoes. Then I need to isolate the rear of the pick-up shoe from the brush tube, which it normally pivots on. That will be my lunchtime project. If that's successful, I"ll solder the red and black Decoder wires to the pick-up shoes. That should complete the project at that point ( other than the final test phase, running it at my club's layout, can do that Tuesday night at the meeting ). This thing out to be a real hoot at shows, will work better when no one else is on the main line, so I can shoot it around fast as I want to.   Been wanting to do this for some time now, and after watching the kids flock to our club's layout when that Marklin speedster was running, this ought to REALLY grab'em, it should be twice as fast as his. Scale 600 mph? Maybe 3 times. Anyway, it's progressing, so hopefully I can report tonight that it's done and ready for final testing tomorrow. I HOPE so! Pictures to follow tonight if successful.
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - April 11 2011 : 2:24:16 PM
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Afternoon update - I got almost all the conversion work done, the major headache now is isolating the pick-up shoes, I think I have that one figured out, but the tension springs are in the way some, I'm thinking of using springs up front and don't use the ones in back that came on it. Will have to see what I can substitute to make it work. But the Decoder is installed and soldered in, just BARELY fits inside the shell, I have to tilt it up to get it to clear the rear. Maybe next time I could use an N gauge decoder. Not sure how many amps this slot motor pulls. But hopefully I can get it ready to take to the club meeting tomorrow night and try it out on the club layout. 
Well, all for now, back to work!
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - April 11 2011 : 8:18:28 PM
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Here's a pic of the mods I did to the Santa Fe turbo. Only thing left is to figure out how to spring the shoes without using the old wire springs. Will probably be the trickiest part of this conversion. I've figured out everything else so far. I did have to remove some of the copper braid I soldered to the shoes, it lifted the chassis off the track too much in the front. I left a tiny bit to act as a second contact point. We'll see how it works in practice.
I may can insulate the spring fingers and still use the originals, but that will be tricky as well. I'll work on it tonight.
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - April 11 2011 : 10:50:32 PM
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Well, I got the original spring legs insulated enough to work, I hope. I'll try it tomorrow night if possible. Hope it works like I want it to.
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - April 12 2011 : 5:14:55 PM
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| Looks like a cool project. Have you done anything to help with traction? I've always found that unless you're running on steel track, the spring tension from the shoes tends to lift the engine up off the track just enough to kill the traction. A little spring adjustment or weight should fix that. I'm interested to know how this turns out.
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Posted - April 12 2011 : 7:13:49 PM
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Cool project AMC!
Don't the Turbo Train use magnets to hold it to the Tyco steel track?
It probably won't work on nickel silver track,unless you use weights mounted low.
Carl T.
President of the Cape James Terminal RR.
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Posted - April 12 2011 : 10:55:33 PM
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quote:Looks like a cool project. Have you done anything to help with traction?... I'm interested to know how this turns out.
Originally posted by DaCheez - April 12 2011 : 5:14:55 PM
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Yes, I may have to weight it some. The spring mods didn't work, I was getting intermittent shorting, so I didn't take it tonight, didn't want to risk blowing up the decoder. I may try to use regular slot car shoes and modify them with some insulator material, rather than cut up these originals. I haven't tried it on non-steel track yet, it was working fine on Bachmann E-Z-Track, which is also steel. Didn't think about flex-track being nickel, or the light weight. Thanks for mentioning that, guys. I think some weight adjustment will also be in order. Soon as I figure out the shoe pick-up problem, I'll tackle the weight issue.
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - August 31 2012 : 08:20:23 AM
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Any updates on this? Love to see it in action.
Starting my Tyco and other favorites collection over again after 37 years.
My still in progress list of inventory and wantlist: tyconut.com
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Posted - August 31 2012 : 8:24:54 PM
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Nope, it's been sitting on the back burner, like many of my projects. I DID come up with an idea to get around the pick-up shoe issue, but I haven't broken it out to work on it. I am also thinking of relocating the Decoder to the trailing car instead of trying to cram it into the lead slot engine, and just run the wires to the 2nd car. Will make installation MUCH easier that way, since there's not much room up front.
Between work, my aching joints, and trying to keep the wife happy by organizing my trains so they're not stacked all over the house, I really haven't worked on projects for awhile. I need to get my workbench cleaned off AGAIN,and the floor around it cleaned out AGAIN  , and try to schedule some time on these projects. Just haven't done it yet. But with the long weekend, I intend to do some organizing, so maybe I"ll get that Turbo Train pulled out and on the bench to look over again. Thanks for the prod, I need it occasionally
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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 Posted - April 23 2016 : 8:13:16 PM
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Yay for reviving an old thread....
I plan on adding DCC to my turbo train.
not much I can do just yet moving into a new town house soon and seeing up a new layout.
plan on having the turbo train on a dedicated track running around just below the ceiling.
so would love to possibly pick your brain on getting ti set up and what all you tried to do in the future.
Adam
Rides to and from the airport. $5 savings for signing up: Wingz.me/invite/adam.cs
In Denver Book me to drive you wingz.me/p/adam.cs
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Posted - April 23 2016 : 9:27:45 PM
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Well, I've actually recently "found" my Turbo Train project parts, and have it out where I can find it at least :) I still haven't sat down yet to try to apply the knowledge to it. But it will get worked on this year, somehow, someway. It really shouldn't take that long to do it, I don't think ? I've just put off doing that project.
Ok, so I will promise to work on it before June. :) I know where the copper tape is, I know where my decoders are ( I think ), I need some foam tape...and I think that should be all I need to accomplish the installation. Making it WORK properly is another matter. :) I'll post it when it's ready to fire up.
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - April 24 2016 : 9:05:18 PM
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oh maaaan
the freight setn is the ONLY TT set I don't have 
I'd not mind getting a few to redo in today's railroads hehe
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Posted - April 26 2016 : 11:02:47 PM
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quote:oh maaaan
the freight setn is the ONLY TT set I don't have
I'd not mind getting a few to redo in today's railroads hehe
Originally posted by microbusss - April 24 2016 : 9:05:18 PM
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There's a guy selling the white ones in sets of 3 auxiliary cars, I wound up buying about 6 of them to make a longer train eventually. :) So those would be perfect to kitbash for other railroads.
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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