Apologies for the empty post yesterday. Apparently this forum dislikes my browser.
My SD26 momentarily shorts when passing through most of my turnouts. (#4 and #6 Atlas code 83). It is more common on the #4 turnouts and more common when taking the diverging route. It is less common but happens occasionally when passing across the frog first heading twards the points. It seems to happen while passing over the points, not the frog. It seems more common on turnouts located near the exit of a curve.
The individual axles are in gage per my NMRA gage. Each axle has a lot of lateral play in the truck (at least compared to my other 6-axle units which are all Athearn). None of my other units (four-axle Atlas and Proto 2K & six-axle Athearn) do this. It has happened at least once on each of my 20 or so switches
My theory is that the second or third axle in each truck gets offset from first, and are hitting the open point and shorting. Has anyone seen this , and if so, what can be done about it? It’s gotten to the point that I almost never run it, and that’s a shame. It’s been recommended that I modify my turnouts. I have made sure that the points are as far towards the center of the tie bar as they go. This has not completely solved the problem, but may have improved it some.
Does anyone have any other solutions, especially that might adjust the SD26? springs to restrict axle play in the trucks, maybe? Thought on how?
Welcome to the forums, glad you got the IE issue worked out.
You did a great job troubleshooting your locomotive.
I had another thought, do you have any pinstripe masking tape?
You could apply it to the non-aligned point & see if the loco passes with it isolated, as it ding the tape & not a powered point. That would be a ‘tell’ if your outside axles may need shimming to reduce their lateral movement.
You didn’t mention if you are using Insul frog or electro frog types of switches. This is common with DCC although you didn’t say you are using it. With the insul frog switches the two rails at the back of the frog are very close together and the wheels of the loco could be bridging both rails causing a short. With electro frog switches a wheel could be touching the back of the open point causing the short. With electro frog switches both points on the switch have the same polarity of which ever point is touching a stock rail. You can cut a gap in both rails near the frog,but you will then have to provide a way to power the frog. With the insufrog switches a little dab of nailpolish on the top of the rails on the back end of the frogs can be used to extend the insulated area a little more. Nail polish is laquer based and is hardier than paint but will have to be reapplied every so often. This has occured on my home layout N scale and my clubs two HO layouts, all insulfrogs. Using nailpolish has almot eliminated the problem.
The turnouts are all Atlas Code 83 customline. The frogs are insulated. They are set up to be powered, but I have not gotten around to it.
I think I will take the shell off so I can better see which axles are causing the problem on what part of the turnout. If I understand you correctly, the nail polish may help if the short happens near the frog. If it happpens near the point end, the nail polish might not help.
Has anyone ever “insulated” the back sides of the wheels?