My garden railway restoration project is moving slower than I had expected. In addition to clearing weed, rocks and other garden “debris” from the track there are also two other major jobs involved.
First, the track has suffered from years of benign neglect. As you can see from the photographs below, sections of the track are not level. While up and down tracks may be fine for a rollercoaster ride, trains require perfectly level, perfectly smooth track to run properly.
The second, and biggest problem, is delivering electrical power to the track. The trains run on electrical power and every inch of track must be electrified. If there are electrical gaps in the track, the locomotives may slow down or even stop. There are over 100 feet (33 meters) of track running in the shape of a dog-bone loop so the challenge is to keep electricity flowing to the whole track.
Electricity to the track is delivered by special transformers. The transformers change (or transform) household A/C current (alternating current) to D/C current (direct current). The previous homeowner took the transformers with him, so now I must find transformers to power the track.
One available alternative is to modify the trains to run on battery power; that, however, is expensive and time consuming. In order to change the locomotives to run on battery power, each locomotive has to be opened up, battery packs fitted inside the locomotive and some sort of radio control (R/C) installed to control the train's speed. Right now, a rheostat in the transformer controls speed by regulating how much electricity goes to the track – the more electricity going in, the faster the trains run. With battery power, however, each locomotive must be individually controlled, so that is why R/C is needed.
I will keep you posted of progress on the DBRR (Debbie Bulloch Railroad). By the way, DB stands for Deutsch Bahn or German Railways, very convenient, eh?
All aboard ... chooo...choooo...
When restoration work is finished on the DBRR, it will (I hope) look something like the railroad shown on the video clip below.
4 comments:
Awesome project! Please keep us posted.
Is that a moel of a narrow-gauge loco and cars? The loco is Colorado & Southern but the cars are Rio Grande & Western. Not exactly the same railway, but back in the day, Colorado & Southern often used rolling stock that they bought from other railways, including Rio Grande & Western. These railways ran in a very tight budget and sometimes they would not bother to re-paint the rolling stock they bought from others.
If you ever a get a chance, go to Durango, Colorado and ride the narrow-gauge train from Durango to Silverton. The use a lot of the same rolling stock as your model train does.
I hope you soon get your trains up and running.
Hey Debs,
A transformer shouldn't be to hard to come by. They are very common and are not only being used by hobby railway enthusiasts.
Also, it will probably say what currency level they need on the trains itself (underneath or in them). With that info you can go to a hardware store or a hobby store and get yourself a new transformer.
Choo Choo!
Templar
:-)
Debbie, I think that you are wrong about using a transformer to power your trains. A transformer is a device that reduces the 110-volt AC house current to the safe, low voltages (0 to 20 volts) needed for model trains.
By contrast, a power pack includes a transformer, along with other electrical components to convert the low-voltage AC into DC power for use with scale model trains. The type of current required is normally specified on the packaging and in the instructions that accompany a locomotive or train set.
Large scale trains are made in both AC and DC configurations. Even a momentary dose of the wrong current can damage the motor and destroy electronic components or light bulbs.
Judging by the photographs that you posted, your locomotives have sophisticated motors that possibly include electronic boards for sound and smoke control. You cannot just use a transformer, you need a proper power pack designed exclusively to run large scale trains.
LGB recommends operating its trains only on LGB power packs because these units are specially filtered to avoid problems with sophisticated electronic sound systems and motors.
Go to any large-scale train website and search for the right unit. You probably don’t’t have to buy a power pack made by LGB, but you should look for one that will work with your LGB trains.
Good luck.
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