As most of you know, I’m building a very large railroad. When it comes to wiring, I am quite meticulous. So it was quite disconcerting Tuesday night when a section of track which had been working perfectly for the last 10 months, suddenly stopped.
I had just completed a major extension to the mainline, and was running a train to test a switch which was having derailment problems. I worked on the switch for a while, replacing the frog, and fixing the gauge. When I went to put the train back in the hidden yard, it died on the lead.
I grabbed my meter, and discovered that I had a dead short. How could this be? I have had similar problems with tubular track insulators failing, but my layout is all Gargraves. I inspected the 50’ block, thinking maybe I had dropped a screw or a single strand of wire. NOTHING!! The track was completely clear, and completely empty. Out of disgust and frustration, I turned off the lights and went to bed, thinking that in the morning I would have to take my Dremel and start cutting the center rail to locate the short.
Morning came, and I grabbed a flashlight to do another visual inspection, thinking I must have missed the culprit the night before. Logic said that something had changed to cause this problem. But what???
Then I saw it. Could it be that simple? In my haste to get the new section of the mainline open, I left a lot of the feeder wires dangling down over the hidden yard. Many of the wires were long enough that the trains brushed them as they passed through the yard. There was one particularly long wire, a ground lead, which hung down so far that it touched the track. It wasn’t as if the insulation was off the end of the wire, and there was an obvious connection. The flush cut end had perfectly lodged itself against the center rail.
After that, the rest of the day was spent litterally tying up loose ends. I’m just glad I didn’t panic and sta
Glad it worked out easy. This is why I am a proponent of blocking sections of rail with center rail insulators even though they are all fed from the same supply. That way I can disconnect feeds from below to isloate a shorter section of track. Even then, 12-20’ of track to trace a short (or even worse an intermittent short) is still tedious. Been there many times.
The layout is looking great! Hope I can visit your area some day to see it in person!
BTW, several days ago I picked up some old Model RR mags for $1 ea at my hobby shop. In a 1993(?) mag, there was your previous giant layout and photo of you standing beside it. It was the entertrainment or something layout.
Big_Boy, I feel for you! I had a similar scare this past weekend. I was running a train on my inner mainline loop and it began to stutter, then stopped, and the passenger car lights dropped significantly in brightness. I figured I had had a derailment, so I killed the track power, checked the train, and found all wheels on the track. I slowly restored the power to the track (I run DCS and TMCC) and I could hear my KW strain under the load. Methodically I removed the engine, then each car, and the short remained. I walked the entire layout 3 times looking for something, anything, on the track. Nothing! I went around with my ohmmeter checking between the outer and center rail, getting nearly a zero ohm reading. Then, as suddenly as it started, the problem stopped. I began to get an infinite reading on my meter. I put the train back on the track and this loop has been fine ever since. The funny part about this is my trackwork has been functioning flawlessly since fall 2002. I never did find the short.
My question to the group is, has anyone ever had an Atlas O switch short out? I can’ t imagine any other cause, because all my wiring is done with terminal blocks, and I use Atlas O track everywhere, so there’s no chance of the inner rail insulation failing.
Wow, I’m glad this was all it was. I had a short that drove me crazy a few weeks ago because I couldn’t find it - it was caused by a tiny sliver of metal wire I had used to tie two cars together that fell on the tracks - that I found only by going over every piece of track.
Elliot, looks like things are moving right along with your layout.
The most baffling one I ran into when I was building my layout was with a Ross Switch. Again I was testing track and when I would through the switch there was a short. Luckily the track was not totally secured and I was able to isolate it to the switch. What had happened was that one of the “spikes” Ross attaches the rail to the ties with had gone in at such an angle as to make contact with one of the jumpers when the switch was in one position and the weight of the train passed over. Drove me crazy for the better part of a day.
I am glad your big scare was resolved with a minor fix. I have minor scares occasionally. I will forget to throw a switch and the front wheels of a loco will spark in complaint. I have a very long Atlas switch in my loco yard and I get lurch once in a while on that. I suspect the inside rail is interrupted a long way and the loco rollers don’t hit the inside. Looks like you are really having fun and making great progress. I am just amazed by your plan!!!
Roy, I do have the entire layout cut up into blocks. This just happens to be a rather long one. That’s what happens when you have a 600’ loop.[;)]
Joel, Atlas track is just like Gargraves, and isn’t prone to those kinds of problems. Your situation is even more mysterious than mine. Gremlins!!!
Doug, that’s exactly what I thought I was dealing with, a tiny piece of wire, but I couldn’t find it. I used a magnet, and a vacuum, but of course neither worked.
Time to go back and fini***ying up the wires in the last section. When I’m done, there won’t be any more wires hanging down over any track, and I have to find new problems to keep me up at night.[swg]
Good to hear that it worked out well and was nothing serious. Keep us posted as things progress. I’m sure we’re all as anxious as you are to see the final product!
