What was your latest purchase?

Primavw Feb 4, 2012

  1. Calzephyr

    Calzephyr TrainBoard Supporter

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    Hmm...mmm...mmm.
    It's a good thing that Okane put up a picture about these 'plug-in terminal blocks'.
    Because the ensuing discussion looked more like posts one might find on 'Tinder'... instead of Tapatalk. LMAO

    Sent from my SM-J737T using Tapatalk
     
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  2. okane

    okane TrainBoard Supporter

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    Darn, when you go back and read the string of conversations yea sounds a little dubious. But darn if I'm a gone a change it.
     
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  3. Onizukachan

    Onizukachan TrainBoard Supporter

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    plenty of room in there!
    I have a Pi with 5” touchscreen plus Arduino and motorshield in a transparent plastic school pencil box!
    Don’t recommend the touch screen, too small and hard to get set up right. I got close but eventually gave up. Using the stylus was a pita anyway.
    plenty cheaper to get a non touchscreen and it is easier to use one of those micro mouses with the retractable cord you can find at Walmart for $5. Or a wireless keyboard and mouse combo that will only use up one USB port on the pi.

    Keep in mind most of the LCDs you will find are for direct mounting to the PI, but if you build a facia in the briefcase you a can easily put your pi in the back of the LCD and back mount the LCD for a nice look. Might even be enough room in the lid for both stacked.
    If the 7” have come down in pricing (and they probably have) that would be a good size for what you envision. Add in a flush 5.5 barrel jack socket for a 12v 3 amp power supply and you’d have plenty of power for pi and other sundries.
     
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  4. BigJake

    BigJake TrainBoard Member

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    Please note that the Raspberry Pi runs off of 5V, not 12V!
     
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  5. Massey

    Massey TrainBoard Member

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    Yes, I know, I have a step down regulator I plan on using if my 5V power supply wont fit. At the moment I have 3 planned devices in this box that all have different power requirements. My Pi is 5V, my Screen is 12V and the RD5000 wants 15V... Oh and whatever the UP5 or UR92 need... yup... power management is going to be fun in this project. Too bad there is not enough room for a PC power supply.
     
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  6. Onizukachan

    Onizukachan TrainBoard Supporter

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    Do what I did and run a 12v to 5v phone charger hardwired, And a larger amperage 12v power supply. Or use a 19v AC laptop power supply with few DC buck converters?
     
    Last edited: Jan 14, 2021
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  7. Mo-Pac

    Mo-Pac TrainBoard Member

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    This coupler assembly kit from micro trains and a 4’x3’ map of the Missouri Pacific came in the mail. Yes, I had a lot of wheelset couplers to repair from my cars. Using the jig is uncommon for the wheel sets. They are mainly for body mounts. I knocked out three sets within 2hrs.

    [​IMG]
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    [​IMG]


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  8. BigJake

    BigJake TrainBoard Member

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    Mmmmm... Fritos!

    Nice map! My grandfather worked for Texas & Pacific, which was bought by/merged into Mo Pac.
     
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  9. Mo-Pac

    Mo-Pac TrainBoard Member

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    That bag of Fritos is my “I don’t want to go to the kitchen munchies “.


    The line of the Missouri Pacific that went through my town was a part of the Texas and Pacific. A friend of mine from high school. His father started out when it was the T&P and retired during the Union Pacific merger. He was track maintenance. He has given me some of his railroad related items that his son didn’t want. I wonder if he still has that bell from the wreck from our county back in the seventies?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  10. BigJake

    BigJake TrainBoard Member

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    My grandfather rose from SMU Engineering Co-Op student to VP of Signal Engineering at T&P. They hired him on full time as a salaried engineer after only 2 years of college. He had to drop out of school without his degree, but eventually got his TX P.E. license. He saved them a bundle of money by developing a system to run double the signals on the existing wires, using inductors and capacitors with AC and DC signals on the same wire.

    When his younger brother was killed in WWII, he left T&P and joined the Army. He was commissioned a Captain, and sent to India to command a Railway Operating Company in Assam, India.

    He semi-retired on a farm in NW Arkansas, and had a bell off an old steam engine in his front yard. He told us grandkids there used to be railroad tracks through the yard, but the soil was too sandy, and when the big engine, track and all sank in, the bell was all that was left above ground!

    The bell was Grandmother's "Quit fishing and come in for dinner/supper!" signal (War Eagle creek bounded the N & E sides of the 160 acre farm.) I remember ringing it many times to fetch my dad and him for supper.
     
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  11. in2tech

    in2tech TrainBoard Member

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    @Mo-Pac What size is your layout table if you don't mind? Looks like you are at the beginning stages? You gonna have a Fritos car, if they make such a thing :)
     
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  12. Calzephyr

    Calzephyr TrainBoard Supporter

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    Meanwhile at Micro-trains headquarters...

    What should be our next 'series' of collectable cars after the Planets boxcars and Wine tank cars?

    I'm not sure... but all this thinking is giving me the munchies. What' in our vending machine today???...



    Sent from my SM-J737T using Tapatalk
     
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  13. Mo-Pac

    Mo-Pac TrainBoard Member

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    It is a 36 inch by 80 inch hollow core door. Here is a screenshot from Railmodeler Pro. I am waiting for the rest of my tracks to come into the mail.
     

    Attached Files:

  14. Mo-Pac

    Mo-Pac TrainBoard Member

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    I could see them doing this!
     
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  15. Massey

    Massey TrainBoard Member

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    So I ordered a DR5000, to try out. I am have used Digitrax products since I got into model railroading back in 2003, and I really like what they have... but I am working on a project that the digitrax units just wont work well with, so I needed an alternative. I thought about DCC++ since I am using a Raspberry Pi in this project, but I wanted a dedicated and proven unit that would fit in the box. It looks like the DR5000 will do just that, and it has a Loconet bus so all my favorite Digitrax stuff will still work with it.

    I also ordered some more goodies for this project but they are things like Power poles and a voltage regulator.
     
  16. BigJake

    BigJake TrainBoard Member

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    Probably too late, Massey, but have you considered a Pi-Sprog 3 (Pi hat for your Raspberry Pi)? It comes with Raspberry Pi OS, JMRI, and other goodies pre-installed on SD card to auto-boot your R-Pi into JMRI Panel Pro, with the Wi throttle server running.

    However, it is limited to 2.5A on the track bus. The Pi-Sprog 3 was updated (SW-only) to improve operating a railroad, over the Pi-Sprog One.

    I run my Pi-SPROG 3 system headless (no monitor or keyboard,) with my phone running the Engine Driver throttle app. When I need to use Decoder Pro for programming locos, I VNC into it from my laptop. I'm very happy with this setup.
     
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  17. Massey

    Massey TrainBoard Member

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    I looked into Pi-Sprog, but decided to go with the DR5000 because of the variety of connections, and I have heard good things about it. My Pi will have JMRI on it and maybe I will put the bootable JMRI on it, but I'm not sure. I didn't have much luck last time I set a Pi up with the bootable JMRI, but it worked just fine as a regular app, so I am prolly going to go that route again. Maybe make it auto loading.
     
  18. Kenneth L. Anthony

    Kenneth L. Anthony TrainBoard Member

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    Double-stick tape from the neighborhood supermarket. I use it to tack down N scale structure walls to a piece of scrap cardboard while spray painting, so the spray doesn't blow them away. I had thought I was going to have to go the ladies' craft store (closest thing to a hobby store in town) to buy a can of DullCote but discovered I already had a can, just with a different look to the packaging.
     
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  19. Massey

    Massey TrainBoard Member

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    This wasn’t exactly a purchase, but a train grab any way. I saved some HO scale stuff from going into the dumpster, and I am glad I did. While most of it was old Tyco, some was really old AHM, Global Models and others. Plus 5 almost mint cedar cigar boxes. Oh and a Varney brass 2 bay hopper... just the plates, no frame or trucks... or maybe trucks in a bag of goodies. Here are a few pics. Oh and the cigar box in the pic is in the worst condition.



    3A90F368-5125-428A-A6D3-CAADD78FD3FC.jpeg 3AAEFF90-6B22-488A-8454-EB48A6156F15.jpeg D37A687B-C31A-45F2-86B8-957AA0E933F7.jpeg 5E320750-7EA6-4033-ADBD-EA269A5BA142.jpeg 5373BB22-AA30-4735-8C8C-FC33011053AF.jpeg 8A3FCEFA-0AF6-4686-9398-305CED720C39.jpeg
     
  20. okane

    okane TrainBoard Supporter

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    I wish I could find some DullCote.. My LHS has no idea when they will get some and no way I'll purchase a small can for $60 on Amazon
     

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