Bringing A Dead Railroad Back to Life

Good list/checklist. Nothing to add except maybe to expect that PS3's will most likely already have BCRs. As for smoke fluid, yes, add a few drops before firing up, but don't overdo it. Some of the newer loco's and their wicks will likely be quite retentive. 

PS/3 has no battery, so you're good there.  A quick lube job isn't a bad idea.

PS/2 you'll want to check the batteries are charged. 

I'd be checking and tightening any/all power connections to the layout, and of course looking everything over to make sure things are good.

Put the PS2 locomotives on the track with power to charge before moving them or plug into the charger ports with the MTH battery charger before running them.

Andrew

Will PS2 locomotives charge their batteries sitting OFF with power on the track? Thanks all for your advice.

Dead may be overstating it a bit.  Up until recently my RR went dormant sometime in April and didn't see any operation until the following October at least,  other than a once over on the track and a quick lube and dusting on the rolling stock nothing much was wrong.  As far as power connections, if you followed the old adage of do it right the first time you have nothing to worry about there.  Spend a little bit of time and go have fun.

Turn the power on to 18V and wait 15 to 30 minutes before commanding the unit to do anything.

I have a few MTH PS.2 locomotives and they can go several years with minimal recharging. 

The PS.1 locomotives are the units that have problems with low batteries after years of not being used.

Andrew

My railroad is alive again! Overall, I found far less issues restarting my railroad which has been dormant since September 2017.

Many of locomotives have low batteries, so I started to replace the NiCads MTH batteries with rechargeable Nimh batteries and BCRs. The batteries in my TIU also were dead.

I found one 3rd rail continuity issue on a Real Trax 042 switch that takes out an entire block.

Dirty / dusty track is wreaking havoc on the El lines having 5% grades, so the track cleaner car will be very busy. 

Thank you all for your recommendations and tips for restarting my railroad.

Neat trick finding batteries in the TIU, since it doesn't have any batteries!

Gunrunnerjohn I also was laughing at the same thing. Pretty sure he meant remote but still made me chuckle.

Pretty sure he did too, but it was too funny to pass up.

"Mostly dead is slightly alive." - Miracle Max (Billy Crystal) "The Princess Bride"

Same can be said for train layouts I think.

My layout was mostly dead for 5 years (after a squirrel attack.) Track and the trains that were left on the track were uncovered too. Then, at the request of a two year old grandson, I reluctantly turned on the power and lo and behold...everything worked! Track has since been cleaned, trains oiled & lubed, broken trains & cars fixed, batteries replaced and we're in business again. 

Okay John, you got me. The batteries are in the Remote.

Batteries charging @18V. I have lots of low batteries to charge so I can rotate locomotives in and out of the yard tracks I am using for charging. This will likely burnout bulbs in the passenger cars, so I will be doing more conversions to LEDs as part of my railroad restart.

Open circuit in the 3rd rail of Switch 7 is the result of a burned printed circuit path inside the switch that occurred long ago. I typically solder the stub rail to that big black blob of a 3rd rail at the switch frog, but the solder joint broke open.

17 months of dust on the rails stalled both the IRT and BMT lines to Flushing Meadows for the World's Fair. The grades are 5%, so I use a coarse stone to grove the rail heads for traction. The dust filled the groves.

The cause of all of this dilemma was this! I have too many hobbies.

Nice to see a layout come back to life!

Beautiful Model A- did you do the restoration?

Bob

Bobby,

No such thing as too many hobbies!  Nice Vicky, by the way.

Here's my other diversion:

Is there a O gauge cleaning car that you guys recommend?  Im having problems finding one on the net for O gauge.  Also, after using a cleaning car to you wipe the track with track cleaning solution?

I use one of these 

https://tonystrains.com/produc...ale-3-rail-high-rail

keith scoskie 122018 posted:

Is there a O gauge cleaning car that you guys recommend?  Im having problems finding one on the net for O gauge.  Also, after using a cleaning car to you wipe the track with track cleaning solution?

There's been several good home-made track cleaning cars posted in the past few months.

Here's mine......................

This car, along with a little extra weight on top, does a fairly good job of scraping grime off the top of the rails.  A clean rag dampened with mineral spirits or naphtha, a small nylon brush or two, and a small shop vac pretty much round out the track cleaning supplies on my layout.

I have yet to see a one-car-does-all unit.  Somebody will own the market if they can come up with one! 

I agree with Matt. The CMX-O-HR is the best. Yes it is pricey but you can put acetone in it which no other car can do. It also has easy pad changing and the pads you can get ANYWHERE! It outperforms all the other cleaning cars I have hands down!

RSJB18, yes, I did all of the restoration on the Victoria except for the paint. That's why my railroad went dormant.

Jenny, that 1937 Tudor Slant-Back is one of my favorite Fords. Nice car & trailer combo.

My Victoria has two buddies, my 1931 Ford Deluxe Coupe and My 2011 Mustang GT.

Very nice job on the restoration.  Fun project.

These are a couple of past projects that are currently in hibernation until warmer days.  Love to cruise with the top down (29 Roadster and a 40 Mercury 2 door sedan).

Here's a picture of my street rod.  It ain't very fast off the line, but Boy!  Can it EVER haul a bu++load of layout lumber!!!  

Now, back to my regularly scheduled track cleaning session.