Hi all. Thanks for a great time on Saturday.
I just read Ira's Show post mortem. As a new guy in the club it has raised a question for me on our expected operating practices at shows. I ask because I want to be a good member and honor the club's expectations and/or rules. My question is --- when is it appropriate to use the Lionel Cab-1 HALT button to shut down the complete layout -- or maybe when is it NOT appropriate to use the HALT button. I will appreciate the club leadership's guidance on this and suspect others might too.
So here's my example. Rick was running his Lionel Cab Forward on an adjacent track to the one on which I was running my new Lionel Legacy Gs-4 Daylight locomotive pulling ten K-Line 21 inch aluminum daylight passenger cars. His Cab Forward articulated on a curve and crashed into one of my passenger cars derailing my train. Both trains were continuing down the tracks and mine was derailed. Both trains were like new, pristine top of the line equipment. Rather than take a chance on further damage to the locomotoves and cars on both trains -- either physical damage or damage to the electronics brought on by sparks (or a melted truck like what happened to Rick previously) I immediately hit the HALT button which I knew would shut down the total operation.
I understand that the show must go on and that indiscriminate use of HALT isn't desirable. But, I also feel the need to protect mine and others hard earned equipment. So, what's the club's position on this?
Thanks and Best Regards to you all
Bill Lohman
On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 1:31 PM, Ira Schneider
<ira_schneider@iname.com> wrote:
Hi Steve,
The show started out as a disaster, but ended up great.
We were supposed to set up on Friday at 6:00 PM. We started getting concerned
when the trailer wasn't there by 6:30 PM. Around 7:00 PM, we confirmed that the
trailer was still in Cedar Park!
Scott agreed to tow the trailer down to New Braunfels on Saturday morning.
We started setting up around 7:30 AM. We had one major mishap - Rick's
bridge module got severely damaged. However, we were up and running by
around 9:15 AM.
We set up a 6 x 3 layout. The scenery included Ricky's station and
city scene, my carnival rides, and the trolleys. I also set up the laptop so
people could watch the train camera.
The rest of the day was pretty normal for us. We had about a dozen members
running trains during the day. Once or twice someone panicked and hit
the Halt button, but that is not uncommon. Allan reported that his TMCC engine
was out of control for a while. Perhaps we were getting interference from somewhere.
DCS appeared to be working normally. Late in the day, we noticed that we could
not shut down one of the tracks by hitting AUX1-0, but turning the speed
wheel turned the voltage down.
Most of the time, things were running OK. As I said, we had a lot of people
running trains. We had a large variety of engines and rolling stock and several
very impressive passenger trains. Several times, Hunter and I switched tracks
(between tracks 2 and 3) using my new switching module. Ricky and Allan
switched between tracks 1 and 2 manually (since my switching module only covers
tracks 2, 3, and 4).
There were a fair number of visitors to the show. There were several dealers
who had O-gauge equipment for sale.
Orlando and Buddy sold personal items at a table in front of our layout.
From my point of view, the show was a total success, even though it had a
rocky start.
I am sorry, but our photographer (me) was too lazy to take any pictures at this
show.
Ira
------
TTAT members reflector.