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Contents

Locomotive Current Draw
From The Signal Tower - Commentary
Roster - Member Profile

All Aboard!

It has been sometime since our last newsletter as our editor, Greg Sargent, had to depart from the club due to his expanded work schedule. I volunteered to try and keep Greg's fine work going and as this is my first attempt I hope that I can make it just as interesting as his efforts! I would like to say a big thank you to Greg for founding our newsletter and bringing us the N Scalers news.

We started out 2002 by losing a couple of members due to work commitments but we also gained four new members which put our membership in a healthy position. Progress on the layout has been taking great strides and I will elaborate on this in "THE SIGNAL TOWER" section.

Dennis Barker

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Locomotive Current Draw

by Dennis Miller

When we were planning the change to DCC there was some discussion on what current capacity would be needed in the booster, so I did some tests on locomotives I have to get a feel for the real needs. I was quite surprised to find that the new Life-Likes win for low current draw. I used pure regulated DC and checked it at a normal to fast running speed, not full throttle. I then held the locomotive in a stall - but allowing the wheels to spin. This would be the highest draw under normal operating conditions. The worst case is a stall with wheels locked. I did this by pressing down on the locomotive until the wheels stopped. Normally this would not occur, but could if the gear train seized, for example because of picking up debris on the track. The measurements do vary from test to test by 20-50mA. Some of these are older, heavily run locomotives (e.g. GP38, F3A) and probably require some tune-up. My results are shown below: (note that this is not absolutely maximum current since the throttle was not on full)

Locomotive	Run (mA)	Stall (mA)	Locked (mA)
Kato SD40-2 snoot	200	300	450
Atlas GP35	200	300	350
Atlas GP38	400	600	700
Kato F3A	350	500	700
Kato F3B	250	350	500
Kato 2-8-2 Mikado	200	300	500
Life-Like GP20	100	200	250
Life-Like SW1200	60	100	200

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From The Signal Tower

by Dennis Barker

Over the last two years our layout has been changing! The N Scalers first decision was to construct two new four foot modules, and the track plan and scenery were agreed on from a drawn up plan that was originally made by Chris Hohman. These two modules were mountainous at the rear, with a fast flowing river at the front. The new modules were quickly followed by another two which had similar scenery but this time with the mountains to the front and a station at the rear. Almost all the members contributed to the construction in one way or another, and the finished product was a great team effort, and was most enjoyable in the meeting and making, during those winter months in Murray Chapman's basement.

In the fall of 2001 I decided to donate four of my modules to the club as the members were keen on doing some major upgrading on them. Now, as club modules, our N scale funds could be used to do all the modifications, and work progressed nicely on rewiring, relaying some track, changing the medium turnouts to PECO long ones and adding Tortoise switch machines and an operational control panel. A big bouquet goes out to Murray Chapman and Dave Robinson for their many hours of work installing all the electrical parts and wiring, plus all the other members who did the work on the scenery and other items that were needed to complete the job. Since the four modules were modified, we have added one more four foot module to stretch the sidings. This now allows any long train that is built up in the yard to be stored in one of the two sidings, and eliminates the possible problem of a train being too long for those sidings.

Our coordinator for 2002 / 2003 is Murray Chapman. Murray is an avid fan of DCC digital operation of the locomotives and with some gentle persuasion he convinced the N Scalers to change the layout so that we could use DCC as well as the conventional DC running. The wiring again, was the job for Murray and Dave, and this has been completed and is now operational. Our members are gradually converting their engines as funds allow, and we are slowly getting into having some great operational runs.

Our future plans are the upcoming Great Edmonton Train Show on Sept.28/29th 2002, and taking the layout to the Calgary show in Feb.2003.

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The Roster

"Our Member’s Profiles"

by Dennis Barker

This time we are profiling Dave Robinson.

Dave started to get interested in model trains around 1960 after his father had brought home a REVEL HO Train Set. His father set it up on a piece of plywood and Dave has been hooked on trains ever since. Of course Dave has progressed since those days and now has a fine collection of both HO and N Scale Trains.

When trying to find him in our club you would be well advised to look UNDER one of the three layouts as his first love and expertise of model trains is in electronics and wiring, so this is where you will most likely find him. Dave has put numerous hours into improving , modifying or adding wiring or electronics, to improve the operation and control of not just the N Scale but the two HO layouts also. Dave amazes me with his knowledge of circuitry and electronics and invariably will have an answer to any problem that may crop up on the layout.

Dave served the club as secretary for many years and here again he excelled in coordinating the general operations of the club. Dave is an great asset to us, and a big thank you goes out for his service to the N Scalers and to the whole club.