Lessons Learned

[Scott A Smiley <sc.smiley@juno.com>]

A few of us at the Temple set up went through about an hour and a half
trying to find a problem with the power in the layout Friday night.  We
actually discovered a few things that were either a problem or would be
and was able to repair them.  Some other things were observed that we all
need to remember so we can resolve problems in the future more quickly.

1.  Do not pull the power plugs out of their sockets by the wires.  We
did discover that several of the wires were coming out of their
connections.

2. When doing the plugs for the siding modules, the wires from the main
modules are hooked together and the wires from the add on module are
hooked together.  There is a 4 prong plug on both the main line and the
add on.  They are reversed in connection so they would not match up.
However, there is some combination of plugs were the add on wires can be
connected to the mainline wires through the 4 prong plug.  The symptom of
this is that tracks 1 and 4 are connected together and there may also be
some shorts i tracks 2 and 3.  This is what none of us remembered so now
we all know and hopefully someone will remember when it happens again. 
The wires in the 2 sets of plugs are different and when properly
connected, they should be the same looking wires on both sides of the
plugs.

3. Track 2 is controlled by either/both TMCC and MTH.  What this means is
that both units must be used to reset the power once a Halt command is
used on the layout.  Generally, when you take over a the track, one
system that is not being used is already set  so you do not notice a
problem. 

4.  WE need to be careful with placing things near the tracks.  They
always move around with the vibrations.  They can get in the way of the
trains and cause significant problems for the trains.

Add to this list other items that would help us operate the layout more
efficiently .

Scott

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