N scale motor foreign debris troubles

[Dave V]

Well, Thursday night I ended up working until midnight disassembling, reassembling, and tuning my recently re-kitbashed PRR H10sb 2-8-0.  Wednesday night I'd been letting my sons run trains, and the 2-8-0 (built on a Spectrum chassis) in my 3-year old's favorite.  But Wednesday night, the loco stopped moving in response to the throttle, even though the headlight would turn on and off with F0.

Turns out there was a "fuzzy" wrapped around the worm gear.  In order to get to the worm gear, the frame had to come apart (along with popping the drivers out of the journals).  I'd also wired in a decoder with very short wires.  The upshot is it required re-installation of the frame leads to the decoder, searching for the right orientation of Bachmann's never-quite-square bearing blocks, and re-tuning of the running gear to get her running well again.  5 hours total.  All said and done, I don't mind "tuning" my locos, but this wasn't the first time a "fuzzy" caused trouble.

Last year "fuzzies" jammed an axle on an E-R Models RF16A and the worm gear of a Kato E8A.  Both required full disassembly to remove.

Anyone else have this problem?  I have a suspect:



He sheds a lot.  But the "fuzzies" appear to be of a finer consistency than dog hair.  I wonder if instead they come from the Woodland Scenics polyfiber that I have in the scenery.  Since I move the layout around (I do train shows periodically) there's ample opportunity for scenic materials to find their way onto the tracks.

But the dog hangs out in the layout room.  In the winter time he has dry skin issues and scratches from time to time.  His undercoat is pretty fine.  Hmmm....

Is it just me?

[absnut]

Dave,

We have a Sheltie and they have a coarse over-coat and a softer, finer undercoat which sheds a little.  While I have had no mechanical problems, yet (knock on wood) with errant dog hair, I do have a lot of trees on the layout which are sprouting very fine, white "vines"!  ;D I don't know if they are air-borne and the WS trees act like magnets or, they were on my hands/clothes while I was making them but, nevertheless, my trees get a little hairy!.

The culprit:



Dick

[Dave V]

Beautiful dog!  Ours is part Border Collie (although it's hard to tell except from his snout shape and his herding instinct) so he has that course outer coat and fine undercoat thing.  I found some clumps of undercoat fur in the layout room this morning, so I'm thinking that's the culprit.

Hmpf.  Guess I need to brush him more!

[SirTainly]

Nice dogs guys.

Dave, we've had a couple of border collies, great dogs but boy oh boy do they lose hair. Another suspect could be the carpet, fif it is losing fibres these can get caught up together and then get wrapped arounf small moving parts.

[Dave V]

Could be...  Our carpets are Berber, though...  The above dog photo was taken at my in-laws' house.  There are some fine fibers but not too much.  Of course, the carpet is where most of the dog hair ends up!

[Erik W]

Guys,

I'm afraid the only solution is to find a loving home for your furry friends and buy a hairless cat instead.

Erik

[absnut]

LOL, I fear my wife would find another home for me before she let the dog go!  ;D

[Bob Bufkin]

This thread is slowly going to the dogs.  Seriously, I just don't let mine downstarirs.

[Chulvis]

I have cats. Whole different problem. They think my trains are toys for them to swat at.

Bob: What the hell is going on in your backyard? Looks like murder!!!

[Greyryder]

I find the occasional stray dog hair on my layout, too. My layout seems to be high enough, that I don't get too much on it. (the slot cat track, is another story....) It helps that neither dog has very long hair, though Bogie being half shelty has the undercoat thing going on.


How could you stay mad at those two?

[Bob Bufkin]

I have cats. Whole different problem. They think my trains are toys for them to swat at.

Bob: What the hell is going on in your backyard? Looks like murder!!!

Dog are just playing and no harm done.

[John]

Guys,

I'm afraid the only solution is to find a loving home for your furry friends and buy a hairless cat instead.

Erik

Hmmmm

[RDG_Rich]

I have cats. Whole different problem. They think my trains are toys for them to swat at.

I had the same problem. She now knows that if she gets on Dad's workbench, she gets a lesson in flight. No more cat problems on the workbench, but as soon as I open the throttle on the test track layout, her pupils open up like a hippy on acid, the tail gets puffy like a 'coon, and she starts rocking back and forth like a mental patient. I was smart enough to raise the height to a level where she can't jump to...about 50".

[ñiao]

I simply told my cats that I have a recipe for tasty cat adobo. Since then they  won't dare to come close to any train.
http://www.filipinofoodrecipes.net/adobo.htm - just exchance any of the meats with cat

[Ian MacMillan]

Dog and the cat are not allowed down stairs at my house. I am afraid of hair, or the cat getting on the layout.

Other than that I try to keep the track as clean as possible so nothing gets "sucked" into the motors and gears.