Question about power for new ACE trains

I do not know which locomotive this is about, but I assume there will be some room for a bridge rectifier. And the Amps needed for the ACE can surely be delivered by your AC supply. I would however go for the other option (LGB throttle) since that power source can be used also when you decide to acquire some other DC 0 gauge (like I did). 

Regards

Fred

sncf231e posted:

I do not know which locomotive this is about, but I assume there will be some room for a bridge rectifier. And the Amps needed for the ACE can surely be delivered by your AC supply. I would however go for the other option (LGB throttle) since that power source can be used also when you decide to acquire some other DC 0 gauge (like I did). 

Regards

Fred

Thanks Fred.  That's true, I'd need to modify any future engines too! I may be less inclined to do that with an older engine. 

George

I have ACE/Darstead locos and also Lionel/MTH.  When running the ACE locos I switch to a DC power supply. (If just light running I can use my HO power supply, otherwise my beefier "0"gauge one). I find the voltage doesn't go up that high under normal running conditions - haven't tried it "flat-out"!!

 

Hello,

I have a mix of ACE, Lionel, Darstaed, Hehr, Selzer, Marklin... just about everything. I am pretty sure the ACE locos can accommodate a rectifier. I haven’t tried it personally as I am not all that handy with that kind of thing. I just switch the power supply. Simple LGB works fine for just one locomotive.

Chris

I have an A4 from Darstaed, and it was easy to install an electronic "e-unit" from Dallee.  Plenty of room.  Seems to work well, but haven't run it extensively.

I did not add any resistors or diodes for the LED lamps on the front, and have some fear that they may eventually get fried.  Does anyone have any guidance on this?

Years ago I had an Ace locomotive. I took the "easy" way out and made a dedicated line for that train with it's own separate DC power supply. Most layouts I build don't have switches so isolating this particular locomotive was easy. 

As suggested above, better to use a dedicated DC source with an appropriate controller. 

Thanks guys!

We'll see if this comes to fruition. The seller of the Darstaed cars is not responsive and the gloss black ACE Pacific I like is no longer available. I did find a nice blue Bassett Lowke that might work if I can get the cars.

George

Hello George,

Check out The Stationmaster’s Rooms for ACE Pacifics. Also, have a look at The Darstaed website. Andries is planning a new run of 40cm Marklin repro coaches. I have an ACE Pacific and the look of that engine pulling a line of tinplate Rheingold coaches is awesome.

Chris

Hi Chris, 

Your ACE Pacific inspired me! What a great engine!!

But Shhh, don’t tell anyone about the Station Masters Rooms. 

My seller of the Darstaed coaches responded. Now I hope I bought O gauge. He listed them under OO but the photos say O gauge. I don’t think Darstaed actually makes OO coaches, so fingers crossed!!

George

I converted a Darstaed A4 Mallard to TMCC. As my son asked Santa for a Lionel Mallard.

It was relatively straightforward after some help from Guns, Jon Z. and the Forum.

The loco has a DC motor so was converted to a ERR Cruise Commander which fitted in the tender. Use Guns top tip of a MTH tether for the wiring between the tender and loco.

I added Railsounds small engine sound board and speaker in the tender with a reed switch and magnet on a tender wheel for the chuff. You could use Guns chuff generator. 

The Darstead front lights were fine when powered via the Cruise Commander board. I added a Lionel fan driven smoke unit controlled by Guns Super Chuffer.

The Darstaed Fire box glow bulb was replaced with a direct screw in 24v LED bulb normally used in industrial control panels.

To complete the Set, Mason has a set of Darstaed Thompson teak coaches. The LEDs in these worked perfectly on 18VAC and required no modification. However I disconnected the table lamps in the dining car as these did not like AC. A bridge rectifier would sort this but I’ve not gotten round to that yet.

https://youtu.be/_Ka2D65T-QQ

Nick

P.S. Both the Loco and Coaches were from the Station Master Rooms but again don’t tell anyone 

 

 

 

Nick12DMC posted:

I converted a Darstaed A4 Mallard to TMCC. As my son asked Santa for a Lionel Mallard.

It was relatively straightforward after some help from Guns, Jon Z. and the Forum.

The loco has a DC motor so was converted to a ERR Cruise Commander which fitted in the tender. Use Guns top tip of a MTH tether for the wiring between the tender and loco.

I added Railsounds small engine sound board and speaker in the tender with a reed switch and magnet on a tender wheel for the chuff. You could use Guns chuff generator. 

The Darstead front lights were fine when powered via the Cruise Commander board. I added a Lionel fan driven smoke unit controlled by Guns Super Chuffer.

The Darstaed Fire box glow bulb was replaced with a direct screw in 24v LED bulb normally used in industrial control panels.

To complete the Set, Mason has a set of Darstaed Thompson teak coaches. The LEDs in these worked perfectly on 18VAC and required no modification. However I disconnected the table lamps in the dining car as these did not like AC. A bridge rectifier would sort this but I’ve not gotten round to that yet.

https://youtu.be/_Ka2D65T-QQ

Nick

P.S. Both the Loco and Coaches were from the Station Master Rooms but again don’t tell anyone 

 

 

 

Very impressive.  Especially liked the smoke unit - what kind is it and how did you mount it?  Do you have any pictures from doing the install?

Also amazed that someone in the UK would have managed to get Menards buildings.

Now all that's needed is to get voices with the proper accent.  

Thanks very much. Here’s a pic from the install.

It’s a Lionel fan driven smoke unit. I can’t remember the part number off the top of my head. The bracket is from a Lionel Hudson cut down with a angle grinder.  

I tried using a Lionmaster Big Boy smoke stack adaptor for the twin blast pipes on the Mallard but there just wasn’t the space. I ended up using flexible silicone hose to direct the smoke.

The smoke unit works great when coupled with Guns Super Chuffer.

I would love 3rd rail/ERR to do a Railsounds board that was user downloadable using DCC soundsets then it would be dead easy to have the correct sounds. Never going to happen though.

The Menards buildings I was able to get shipped to a address in Florida when we were on Holiday. Well my Wife calls it a Holiday...I call it a supply run

I’m off on a trip at the end of March and we are doing Route 66 so hope to visit a Menards (ship to store) and pick up a couple more buildings.

Nick

I bought a Bassett Lowke gloss blue BR Pacific from the Station Masters Rooms. The Darstead coaches will be here tomorrow, but I'll be traveling. The coaches are BR carmine and cream. I'll post pictures when everything arrives.

George

Nick12DMC posted:

...The Menards buildings I was able to get shipped to a address in Florida when we were on Holiday. Well my Wife calls it a Holiday...I call it a supply run

I’m off on a trip at the end of March and we are doing Route 66 so hope to visit a Menards (ship to store) and pick up a couple more buildings.

Nick

Thanks for the info.

Would love to see your credit card company's fraud dept.'s reaction when the guy from the UK explains why he is charging a purchase from a company in Wisconsin and having it delivered to somewhere in Missouri or Illinois.

Obviously I don't know your travel direction or dates, but note that the big TCA meet in York PA starts on April 11.  If you're driving several thousand miles, what's a few hundred more?  If you go to York, you'll be booking a container for shipping your purchases.

 

Here are the trains I bought.

The window inserts are loose in the Darstaed cars. I’ll need to fix that. The Bassett Lowke is a limited edition that was customized with a different name. It runs on 12 volt DC, so I am going to need a smaller transformer than my G scale.

The engine is named Sir Frederick Banbury who was chairman of the British Great Northern Railway. His middle name was George.  The cars and engine are British Railways livery.

George

 

If anyone is interested in these cars, send me an email. The seller had more sets. I got six cars for what I normally see as a price for two.

George

Here are some details on the Darstaed cars. The bottom is stamped Darstaed.

The litho on the side shows ACE Trains.

The glue holding the window inserts has given way. I think the bodies might be brass? Is that right? That's what it looks like on the inside. There is also a decal bubbling on the frame.

I'm thinking about trying a hair dryer on the decal to see if the bubble will go away. I'm not sure what glue to use for the window inserts. The diaphragms also seem a little distorted, but I can probably live with that.

George

Hello George,

Very nice. Darstaed and ACE were partners at one time, as far as I understand it. Check to make sure that there isn’t / wasn’t some sort of tensioner piece of something that held the window inserts taught vs. glue. Regarding the bubbling of the detail strip... that is an issue as far back as the Darphin replicas. I have some spots of it on one of my Rheingold coaches and I’ve seen it on others. I have no solution to recommend.

Kind regards, Chris

Thanks Chris. It's glue. I can see the dried remnants on both the stip and the body. I was wrong about the body being brass. It's clearly tin. It had a yellowish tint, but some of that was a reflection I was seeing.

George

The bubbles were not a decal. It was some type of film that can be removed. Maybe it was some type of dry transfer printing?

George

A plastic sheet or clearcoat protecting the lettering would be my guess.

The rectifier doesn't have to be IN the train. You can do that behind the present ac trasformer on a toggle for ac/dc and second on/off/on 3pos or dpdt toggle for direction changing. 

Adriatic posted:

The rectifier doesn't have to be IN the train. You can do that behind the present ac trasformer on a toggle for ac/dc and second on/off/on 3pos or dpdt toggle for direction changing. 

I think I am going to toggle my DC power supply to the track. I have been testing with a P.H. Hobbies PS3 filtered DC 3 amp power supply that I have for G gauge trains. It runs the engine very smoothly and has fine slow speed control. I was worried that it had too much power for this engine since the engine is rated at 12 volts and the power supply can put out 20 volts, but the throttle seems to have nice voltage control at the low end of the range.

One thing I will need to do is to ensure that the section of track I use this on is completely isolated from a separately powered block that could be running AC with a different train. I usually connect loops with switching track and it could cross over a Standard gauge loop.

George

 I was still on the 20v rating for ACE mention outright. 18v would be enough for near max speeds on a 20v motor, I'd guess is would like 10-15v normally.

Rated at 12vdc I'm usually at 6-9v. And 6v at 1.5-3, 3v at 1.5max, and a 1.5v motor on a plastic 0-4-0 fame(L) that I'm having trouble with; in slowing it down enough to stay railed

George S posted:

 

Here are the trains I bought.

The window inserts are loose in the Darstaed cars. I’ll need to fix that. The Bassett Lowke is a limited edition that was customized with a different name. It runs on 12 volt DC, so I am going to need a smaller transformer than my G scale.

The engine is named Sir Frederick Banbury who was chairman of the British Great Northern Railway. His middle name was George.  The cars and engine are British Railways livery.

George

 

That's a pretty train for sure.  Those are so tempting.  Hey, if your designing a new layout, don't forget about the Merkur Turntable, I think it would be large enough to handle that loco!

"Hey, if you're designing a new layout, don't forget about the Merkur Turntable, I think it would be large enough to handle that loco! "

Those are very nice and should have been priced twice as much! Unfortunately, they have been sold out for years. I made one that I will try to get working again. Mine is 36" long and can handle my Allegheny.  It may need some dressing up to make it look more like tinplate. 

George

Could someone post a picture of and describe the correct way to couple these drop link couplings? Is a link from only one car used to capture the hook?

Thanks!

George

George S posted:

Could someone post a picture of and describe the correct way to couple these drop link couplings? Is a link from only one car used to capture the hook?

Thanks!

George

George you just have to use one link to couple two cars, no more. 

You have buy a very nice model,   Very best, Daniel

I took a trip to Menards and picked up 16 sections of O96 curve and got her running. 

I also bought Gorilla Clear Grip contact adhesive and glued the windows into one car. I still have one to do.  This glue doesn’t ruin the window plastic if you make a mistake. It easily pulls off.

 I’m not sure the smoke unit works. It hasn’t yet. The boiler light does and didn’t at first.

George

George S posted:

I took a trip to Menards and picked up 16 sections of O96 curve and got her running. 

I also bought Gorilla Clear Grip contact adhesive and glued the windows into one car. I still have one to do.  This glue doesn’t ruin the window plastic if you make a mistake. It easily pulls off.

 I’m not sure the smoke unit works. It hasn’t yet. The boiler light does and didn’t at first.

George

Gorgeous 

The sound on tubular tinplate track on carpet is so soft! These motors are quiet. Fastrack on plywood is very loud and older prewar tends to howl.

George

George S posted:

The sound on tubular tinplate track on carpet is so soft! These motors are quiet. Fastrack on plywood is very loud and older prewar tends to howl.

George

Too quiet.  Screw the track directly to the ply!

Conan what is good in life? I say:

The rumble of heavy trains on tube track,

The howl of prewar serial wound AC motors,

and the smell of ozone!

Hah!

Yep, that's some good pad we installed under that shag!

Each train has its own personality. Not much ozone in this one with the DC can motor. I'll need to break out my Ives 1122 to get some ozone cooking.

George

George S posted:

Hey George, If your turntable doesn't work, we do make them in Standard Gauge. Here is one we built. It is 34"

George S posted:

I took a trip to Menards and picked up 16 sections of O96 curve and got her running. 

I also bought Gorilla Clear Grip contact adhesive and glued the windows into one car. I still have one to do.  This glue doesn’t ruin the window plastic if you make a mistake. It easily pulls off.

 I’m not sure the smoke unit works. It hasn’t yet. The boiler light does and didn’t at first.

George

This looks absolutely fantastic George.  I hope you're very happy with it.  Tell me, does the Menards 096 track join seamlessly to Lionel tubular?

O Gauge Guy posted:

George S posted:

I took a trip to Menards and picked up 16 sections of O96 curve and got her running. 

 

I also bought Gorilla Clear Grip contact adhesive and glued the windows into one car. I still have one to do.  This glue doesn’t ruin the window plastic if you make a mistake. It easily pulls off.

 I’m not sure the smoke unit works. It hasn’t yet. The boiler light does and didn’t at first.

George

This looks absolutely fantastic George.  I hope you're very happy with it.  Tell me, does the Menards 096 track join seamlessly to Lionel tubular?

The Menards track is great in my opinion. It joined perfectly to my old Lionel tubular track. I also used a Menards tubular - Fastrack adapter and that worked well too.

George

@Nick12DMC posted:

I converted a Darstaed A4 Mallard to TMCC. As my son asked Santa for a Lionel Mallard.

It was relatively straightforward after some help from Guns, Jon Z. and the Forum.

The loco has a DC motor so was converted to a ERR Cruise Commander which fitted in the tender. Use Guns top tip of a MTH tether for the wiring between the tender and loco.

I added Railsounds small engine sound board and speaker in the tender with a reed switch and magnet on a tender wheel for the chuff. You could use Guns chuff generator.

The Darstead front lights were fine when powered via the Cruise Commander board. I added a Lionel fan driven smoke unit controlled by Guns Super Chuffer.

The Darstaed Fire box glow bulb was replaced with a direct screw in 24v LED bulb normally used in industrial control panels.

To complete the Set, Mason has a set of Darstaed Thompson teak coaches. The LEDs in these worked perfectly on 18VAC and required no modification. However I disconnected the table lamps in the dining car as these did not like AC. A bridge rectifier would sort this but I’ve not gotten round to that yet.

https://youtu.be/_Ka2D65T-QQ

Nick

Nice! I just received my first ACE locomotive from an auction! Its impressive for a "course scale" locomotive..from working buffers to the tender bridge plate [Mind the Gap!]