Hi All,
I’ve been having problems with my Wire Bus, I have recently redesigned my layout, where I once had a peninsula, I have taken it out, so now my mainline just goes straight along the wall, the problem is this, I was reconnecting my track bus ( black ground, Red hot) I noticed that there was a short that was created, by connecting my ground side, I don’t understand how this can happen, I’ve checked my feeders, and they are all conected in the right rails, Please help if you can, yes, my layout is DCC, and I’m using Digitrax, Thank you for helping in this matter, take care, and hope that you guys can make it to the National modelrailroad covention here in Portland!!![:D]
have a great rest of your day,
Trainsrme1[8D]
Can you post a picture of the track plan? If it runs along the walls, if all the feeders on the wall side are red and all the ones on the rail to the front of the layout are black, and all connect to the proper bus wire, there should be no shorts. If the layout is of a dogbone shape, with loops on the ends, and you have any crossovers between the two tracks, then you have created a reverse loop. If you can put your finger on the red rail and trace around it and end up on the black rail without lifting your finger, you have a reverse loop.
–Randy
I’m with Randy, we need a track plan. Sounds like a reverse polarity problem.
Rich
Could be a function at a junction. A switch that is no longer working correctly. Even without a reverse loop, a bad switch can do that for you. You may have to take out the switches and test them on the bench. Problems like this can be a real bench to figure out. LION has gone so far as to cut suspect rails to see if the short would go away. Oh well, LIONs also have no problems soldering them back together again. Him once tore out an entire interlocking panel only to find out that the problem was a tripped circuit breaker at the power supply, so that a switch machine would not clear as I expected it to do. One day it worked perfectly, the next day every thing was shorted out.
Such is the life of a LION.
ROAR
Randy and Rich, I’m at work right now, so there’s not a way I can post a pic of my trackplan, I barely have enough time to post this message, I’m a bus driver here in Portland, but I will post (or try to post a pic, having problems with my computer doing this) tomorrow. One thing, I do have a crossover on my mainline, and a reversal loop on one end.
The reverse loop is probably the first place to look. Do you have an auto reverser installed there? If so, the power bus wires must go into the AR, not to the track. The reverse loop track gets its oower from the AR.
If that doesn’t solve the progblem then the cross over is the next suspect.
Rich, as I thought I’m having trouble posting here, so I will try my best to explain what I found out, checking my crossover did not cause a problem, my reversal loop is insulated at both ends that was not a problem, So I’m stumped, I did try this and maybe sombody can explain, I took my red bus and black bus connected them, get this, NO SHORTOUT!! can someone explain this to me,??? Like I said I’m stumped.
If you go back to your original problem, a short was created when you connected the black bus wire to the booster. Presumably, the red bus wire was already connected to the booster for that to happen. If so, for a short to occur, a feeder wire from the “red rail” must be connected to the black bus wire, or vice versa (a feeder wire from the black rail" connected to the red bus wire).
Another possibility is that a feeder wire from the reverse loop is connected to the main bus, and that would be a no-no.
A third possibility is that the AR is wired backwards.
Rich
Usually with buss problems, the best way to find the culprit is to go feeder by feeder to assure its on the right rail. ASSUME NOTHING. I too use two color wires for buss and also for feeder wires. In wiring my layout, I had reversed feeder color wires in one spot (very hard to reach of course). What kept the problem local was that I routinely checked if all was well after every handful of feeders were connected.
On a more difficult level (to find the problem) is you could have a reverse loop situation (also turntable, wye, etc.) which the previous posters will be better able to help you resolve.
One last thing… On a previous layout a short came about after the layout was fully wired and run for some time. Turns out “someone” had stapled two buss wires (different polarity) with the same staple and it eventually worked thru the insulation. That was a hard one to find!
Thanks guys,I will find the problem I’m sure of it, thanks for your help, any more suggestions would be of help though,
I want to thank you guys, with my feeder problem, I found the culprit fixed it and now I have a smooth running railroad!!! now on to tacle other projects!!!
Take Care, trainsrme1[8D]