EF81 (Twilight Express) Decoder Install.

[stevenh]

Well, After a morning of hard work I have my EF81 running on a Hornby R8215 Decoder.
I ended up chewing a big hole out of the chassis to slot in the decoder and have a tiny bit more work to do before it's complete (I want the red reverse marker lights lit) and then I'll put it back together completely :)

Anyway, some shots:





See the whole story at my blog

[Martijn Meerts]

These type of trains VERY rarely used the red lights actually. As far as I know they're not push/pull trains, so the loco gets switched to the other end of the train at their final stops. Moving the train form one end to the other is usually considered a shunting move, at which points they'll have the regular headlights on both at the front and the back of the loco.

At least, that's what they do in most countries I know, they might have different ideas in Japan =)

[CaptOblivious]

These type of trains VERY rarely used the red lights actually. As far as I know they're not push/pull trains, so the loco gets switched to the other end of the train at their final stops. Moving the train form one end to the other is usually considered a shunting move, at which points they'll have the regular headlights on both at the front and the back of the loco.

At least, that's what they do in most countries I know, they might have different ideas in Japan =)

None of my Kato locos have the reverse lights wired either, although they do have lightpipes fitted. I intend to install lights one day, but in the meantime, this is useful to know..have to reprogram my decoders now to include a "shunting mode" lighting pattern!

[Martijn Meerts]

I don't think there's a lot of push/pull trains using regular in Japan, so that may be a reason why very few loco's have both white and red lights. Pretty much all the push/pull operation is done by full consists such as the shinkansen and many of the express trains. Even local ones have cabs at both ends.

In Europe it used to be very common to have intercities (express trains really) pulled by a fast and strong locomotive. At the end station, the locomotive would switch be de-coupled and moved to the other end of the train. Eventually that become too much of a hassle, so at first they started with 1 locomotive at each end, and later on with dedicated cars with a can.

[stevenh]

Hah hah hah... that makes me cry....  :'(

Australia so soooo far behind it's not funny... the main passenger service down the east coast is push/pull... you can't call it a DMU as it has two locomotives at each end (English InterCity style) ... actually, it is based off or a direct copy of the English version? I choose not to educate myself on it as I hate the train with a passion.


And then we have the country services in Victoria... loco hauled... and I'm talking about big, pretty N-Class locos :)... I do like them.


Though Victoria do use real DMUs...


actually, so does NSW on the smaller country services. Like to my home 'town'.. the nations capital.


Anyway... back on topic...
I still want my red marker lights on the EF81... even if they are functions 3 and 4 for fun :)

[Martijn Meerts]

That last picture is interesting, since you can see the passing track they use(d) to bring the loco to the front of the train again ;)

Train stops just before the turnout, decouples, loco drives past the turnout, turnout switches, and the loco uses the middle track to get back to the front of the train. Judging by the state of the middle track, it's not done often anymore ;)

I think it's kind of interesting. As much as I like all the new high speed and express trains etc, I'd really rather go back to the steam era. I've been to a few train shows where they had large steam engines on display and taking you on short tours, and there's just something those things.

[stevenh]

That is used at least once a week for the Indian Pacific (East to West Australia).

The entire train pulls in head first... a helper couples to the rear and pulls the consist minus lead engine back a little, lead engine shunts out and then the helper becomes the new leader.

And we often used to have 3801, 3526, etc... come in and shunt around... it's great fun.
But I'll save all that for another thread :)

[stevenh]

I promise I'm not a fan of double-posting...

But!, I have successfully illuminated the marker lights... and it wasn't anywhere as easy as I had expected :)
...with the correct components (especially the-thinnest-wire-you-can-find(tm)) you can get it going!



See the story here.

[Martijn Meerts]

That does look really good actually ;)

Now I'm tempted to add them to mine as well, even though I know I won't ever use them =)

[CaptOblivious]

These type of trains VERY rarely used the red lights actually. As far as I know they're not push/pull trains, so the loco gets switched to the other end of the train at their final stops. Moving the train form one end to the other is usually considered a shunting move, at which points they'll have the regular headlights on both at the front and the back of the loco.

At least, that's what they do in most countries I know, they might have different ideas in Japan =)

One of the things I like about Digitrax decoders (among many!) is "shunting mode": Activate F6, and the top speed, accel and decel rates are all halved. I wondered if it was possible to have both headlights come on when F6 was activated, but Digitrax just informed me that they cannot be so programmed. Bummer. Looks like the only way to get this behavior is to assume manual control over the lights.

[Martijn Meerts]

Quite a few decoders have the shunting mode, which is real nice actually. Don't think Lenz has the shunting lights option, but on the other hand, you can on-the-fly change some CV values so you get different light effects (blinking, strobe, etc.).. Just need to find a computer program that allows on-the-fly reprogramming of CV's under pre-defined conditions ;)

The blinking will also come in handy when I try to convert my small snowplow. It has a non-working blinking flashing light on the top. It's just a plastic bit now, but a tiny orange LED hooked up to one of those blinking outputs on the decoder should do the trick =)

[stevenh]

...These type of trains VERY rarely used the red lights actually...

Just some fun spam :)

I actually have a real-life image of an EF81 with lit marker lights!
Was running light in Umeda when I was there in January.



They are lit, I promise... see the image from my gallery...

[CaptOblivious]

...These type of trains VERY rarely used the red lights actually...

Just some fun spam :)

I actually have a real-life image of an EF81 with lit marker lights!
Was running light in Umeda when I was there in January.

Which direction was the loco running: towards or away from the camera? What do you think is the lesson about marker light protocol? I ask out of a genuine interest in prototypical operations...

[Martijn Meerts]

Well, all loco's have the ability to have the marker lights on, but those used mainly for express service will seldomly use the marker lights.

Generally speaking (I'm basing this on the European railways I've seen in operation), a locomotive running by itself will either have headlight and marker lights, or shunting lights. A locomotive in front of a set of cars will only have headlights, with the marker lights of the last car turned on as well. In push/pull mode, they'll have either headlights or marker lights turned on, depending on the direction of travel. With 2 loco's coupled together, generally only the first one will have headlights turned on, 2nd one will have marker lights on, but only when it's not pulling any cars. In some countries, marker lights are known to blink even in regular operation.

It's not easy ;)

[stevenh]

I totally agree with Martjin,
The consist must have the marker lights at the rear and headlights at the front.
This loco was running light away from the camera, so what you see is it's rear marker lights on.

As for full train consists, there is no point having the loco's marker lights intruding into the first car... I've got a shot of the Twilight Express loco where it can be seen that the markers aren't on... but for some reason I haven't got that on my gallery.

[CaptOblivious]

Here, someone has done something similar with a Kato EF81:
http://tomtia.plala.jp/MR/ef81/index.htm

[stevenh]

And they've done an amazing job... look at that decoder install... now to work out what model decoder that is!

[CaptOblivious]

And they've done an amazing job... look at that decoder install... now to work out what model decoder that is!

He used a Digitrax DN145K, but this has been replaced by the DN163K0a. Nearly universal fit for Kato electric locos, but you have to fiddle with the length of the LED leads. Forum member Kashigiri has more on that decoder.