# new here. few questions to ask.



## HelmsRacing (Dec 28, 2012)

Howdy,
Just a few questions about my layout, which is HO and shaped like an L and is about 21ft long, 4ft wide. I am using ez track for now but am experimenting with flextrack. I use digitrax dcc. Two prroblems I am having, first one which just started happening is when I power on the dcc all it does is beeps and doesn't power the track? (Which is all ez track right now) And the second is my locos before this problem seem to go fairly slow and not have much speed. Not sure if that's common. 
Thanks for any helpful reply.


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## yak-54 (Nov 7, 2012)

Howdy Mr do you have any cross overs or turn outs ?


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Post a track plan, even a simple drawing!
I'm betting on a reverse loop!


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## HelmsRacing (Dec 28, 2012)

4 turn outs. And all joiners are matched up correctly. As for a track plan I do haved one. Id post a pic of it but I'm on my cell phone right now. I'm going to complete the L then make a sort of u.


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## breakerboy (Jan 17, 2012)

I agree - sounds like a reverse loop. I'd recommend ceasing operations till you correct it. Looking forward to the track plan. 

bb


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## HelmsRacing (Dec 28, 2012)

Yea I'm a truck driver I get home tomorrow and that's the first thing on the to do list is figure out why my track isn't wanting to power on. Ill get a definate track plan workeed up there's a new 1 everyday.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

HelmsRacing said:


> Yea I'm a truck driver I get home tomorrow and that's the first thing on the to do list is figure out why my track isn't wanting to power on. Ill get a definate track plan workeed up there's a new 1 everyday.


Oh no....another truck driver.


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## broox (Apr 13, 2012)

I wonder if train drivers play trucks in there spare time


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## yak-54 (Nov 7, 2012)

broox said:


> I wonder if train drivers play trucks in there spare time



Yep they do


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## HelmsRacing (Dec 28, 2012)

Lol! Yeah well I almost became a train conductor but I needed money now for my family and couldn't wait and go to school for trains. So trucking was an easy route for me. My dad works on the railroad for union pacific and me and my brother drive trucks. And as for the "racing" in my name I race a dirt track car. Just clearing everything up.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

broox said:


> I wonder if train drivers play trucks in there spare time


You don't "drive" a train.



HelmsRacing said:


> Lol! Yeah well I almost became a train conductor but I needed money now for my family and couldn't wait and go to school for trains. So trucking was an easy route for me. My dad works on the railroad for union pacific and me and my brother drive trucks. And as for the "racing" in my name I race a dirt track car. Just clearing everything up.


So...another Truck driver?
Welcome to the site.


What do haul?

What kind of horse do you drive?
I miss my Old Red.
With a turned up 550 Kitty Cat she would walk up the hills with over 80,000 like it was empty.:thumbsup:
For around 5/6 years, I hauled new cars on the East coast, and everywhere East of the Mississippi. Once and a while I crossed the Mississippi but only for a 100 or 200 miles. I was mainly an East coast runner. Florida to Maine. Maine to Florida.

















Then I got tired of being away from home all the time and you wouldn't think hauling cars is hard but there is a lot of work involved if you have to get them yourself and chain them up to load and unload. I don't miss it.

Now I am back doing what I have done most of my Life as a tanker yanker, hauling hazmats.
I am driving a new (2011) farm tractor now. Just turned 90,000 on the engine an they had to put a new head on it!
They are having a lot of problems with the New International motors.

Mine was running like a rocket then one day it just started missing, I limped it 300 miles home with #5 injector/valves/springs broken. Company told me to limp it back, I asked for a tow truck. hwell: A defect in the head design they say. They replaced it free with a "new improved" head.
Probably the same head as the old one.










No sleeper for me anymore. Might be a 600 mile day, but I am home every night.
And NO weekend work for me either!:thumbsup:


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## HelmsRacing (Dec 28, 2012)

I haul a reefer. Drive a 2012 peterbilt 579. I work for Witte Bros if u ever seen em. I've been to maine its my favorite I actually pulled for Wreaths Across America there this year. Otherwise I'm "everywhere, every week" like the side of my trailer says lol.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

HelmsRacing said:


> I haul a reefer. Drive a 2012 peterbilt 579. I work for Witte Bros if u ever seen em. I've been to maine its my favorite I actually pulled for Wreaths Across America there this year. Otherwise I'm "everywhere, every week" like the side of my trailer says lol.


It is nice operating a new truck huh?

What kind of power is in it a Paccar MX or the Cummins?


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## HelmsRacing (Dec 28, 2012)

Cummins. Eaton fuller 13 speed. Its a nice truck had the power of a pete but the turning radius of a volvo.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

HelmsRacing said:


> Cummins. Eaton fuller 13 speed. Its a nice truck had the power of a pete but the turning radius of a volvo.


I used to own a 77 pete cabover with a stretched frame 352 model.
I had a big block 350 cum along with a 13 speed.

I needed 40 acres to turn this around! It had air assist steering on it before it broke then it took just regular brute strength to turn it. That was after I took out the big steering wheel and installed a 13" cherry wood steering wheel. It was hard to turn if you weren't moving, I was almost ready to put back on the old big steering wheel. I still got that in my garage.:thumbsup:



I parked it in 1998.
Here it is right before I parked it, over 2 million miles on it.
I practically rebuilt or replaced every part on it, I also installed air ride on the cab. Which was a 100% improvement on the ride. I should have took more pictures back then, these are copies of some Polaroid instant pictures ( the camera that used to spit the pictures out) I copied. 

















I hauled a lot of Hess oil with it then chemicals for the last 4 years before I parked it. That is a 1962 Heil tanker there in need of a good bath.
I think it was a Heil, that would be collectable today too. :thumbsup:


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## yak-54 (Nov 7, 2012)

HelmsRacing said:


> I haul a reefer. Drive a 2012 peterbilt 579. I work for Witte Bros if u ever seen em. I've been to maine its my favorite I actually pulled for Wreaths Across America there this year. Otherwise I'm "everywhere, every week" like the side of my trailer says lol.



Hmm what a strange name for a Refrigerator truck ( Reefer ) well learn something new every day i always call them icebox 
i liked to see you smoke that


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## Mainliner (Dec 26, 2012)

big ed said:


> You don't "drive" a train.


Thank you for that. Train Driver .. egad.

Pulling 16,000 ton unit coal trains around and he wants to call you a _train driver? _

An engineer doesn't drive a train, he/she _runs_ it. :rockets:


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## Mainliner (Dec 26, 2012)

HelmsRacing said:


> Lol! Yeah well I almost became a train conductor but I needed money now for my family and couldn't wait and go to school for trains.


School? They pay you OJT for classroom basics (rules, air brake, equipment) and ground training.

If you're looking for employment on the rails it's a good career with great benefits. The negative is you're never home, they own you 24/7 and you're tethered to the phone. It is an adversarial environment between management and labor.

I had a trainmaster try to fire me because my wife broke water and I had to rush her to the hospital to deliver our daughter. _Absent without permission._ Total jackass. 

Anyway, if you're looking for a job go to http://www.rrb.gov/PandS/Jobs/rrjobs.asp

We're not under Social Security or Workman's Comp either ... big PLUS for Railroad employees.


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## HelmsRacing (Dec 28, 2012)

Ill look into it. Kinda sucks I have a woman and 2 kids that's the downside. Backk in the day I wish I woulda known that lol. And. That cabover is sweet needs to be in a musuem lol.


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## Mainliner (Dec 26, 2012)

The nice thing you are able to for for that wife and 2 kids is provide a great standard of living for them. Work an extra trip if there's something you really need. Otherwise, you'll do well on average rail earnings.

Like anything else, don't get used to the OT money, keep your head on your spending and your budget will allow you to save some of your earnings. Railroad earnings are quite lucrative.


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## HelmsRacing (Dec 28, 2012)

Well yak was right it have everything to do with the turnouts lol. I tried turning the track into a 1 rail in a place then doing a turnaround and coming back... the power wasn't gettiing around back to the front. If that makes any sense haha. I think soldering power wires will fix that if I want to do it later on?


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