There's two important factors when choosing a decoder: size and rating. Modern motors can use just about any decoder, but older ones need to have a larger rating than the motor draws. Manufacturers re

Hi Bill, The fouling point is where a train on one track will not hit another train on the next track. This may be a foot or so beyond the end of the turnout itself. Puckdropper

Hi Jim, How far out do you isolate your turnouts? Is it just the turnout itself or do you go out a bit, like to the fouling point? For insulation, often the method I see is to add a bit of styrene glu

How's your hearing? I find the easiest way is to rub my fingers along both rails and listen for the "singing" that DCC does. If you don't hear it on known good track, don't worry... Not everyone hears

If your solder joint doesn't start to make immediately, you probably need more cleaning. You can wipe the soldering iron tip on a sponge or damp paper towel, folded several times. For the rail, a fibe

Do you have the ARs connected straight to the booster or after a circuit breaker? Some CBs are so fast that they trip before the AR can reverse polarity. PSX-ARs are a great solution because they act

Check for the flashing dot between F11 and F12 on a DT400. The dot has three states, off, on, and frustratingly flashing. It should be on and not flashing. Press [Pwr] then [Y/+] to make the dot go st

No. I strip the buss and solder my feeders. Afterwards, I almost never cover the joint, it just doesn't need it. As long as the wires are secure enough they can't touch anything else it's fine. Puckdr

I've found a fiberglass scratch brush is great for cleaning the rail before soldering. It takes paint and scenery materials off quickly without damaging the ties like a Dremel tool can. I'll often use

Tricky! I think I'd just replace all the axle gears to be sure they're OK. I've seen them slide sideways after the gear cracked. You may be able to confirm this with the NMRA gauge, gauge too narrow i

Auto reversers work by sensing current draw over a certain level and flipping the polarity in an attempt to fix that. With all your lights on, plus sound etc, you may be drawing more than the trip lev

I like a 1/8 in chisel tip. It fits nicely in the web of the rail. However there are many tips that will work just fine. Your success will be more about technique than equipment. Solid wire is nice in

You can get away with just detecting the start and end of the train provided the blocks are longer than the train. I really cheated on a layout by only detecting the locomotive, but I was doing grade

A switch that shorts in one direction points to the center rails needing to be gapped. Cut gaps just after the center diverging rails and fill them with styrene or pull up your track and install insul

Has anyone tried using the coil-style adjustable block detectors with snubbers? Something like the Team Digital BOD-8? Puckdropper

Besides using different colors, you can also twist the wires together. You need only about 1-3 twists per foot, it's just tight enough to make a good cable but loose enough to let you easily strip the

There's a spring-style stripper you can get that will strip the wire and push it aside just far enough to solder a feeder to. The one I use has multiple holes for the various gauges of wire. I've trie

Do you have a spare computer drive anywhere? For this test, you can even borrow one from a working system--you just need it for a few minutes. Just plug a drive in to one of the power cables and see i

I'm working on a Genesis F3A with Highliners shell that had a screwed up decoder. In fixing it, I needed to pull out the Athearn board to put in a new Tsunami decoder. This leaves me with the question

How does Bachmann keep going? From the standpoint of a guy who fixes trains: * Parts are often available and available through their website. * Absolutely fantastic support. Laura Harris understands y