If anyone could help, id really appreciate it. My HO locomotive stalls, and stutters, jerks, you name it. My layout has Digitrax. It does it anywhere on the layout, not in any specific location. I’ve tried the quarter trick with success every time. I’ve cleaned my track and loco wheels several times, but nothing seems to help. Anyone have any more ideas? Also, is anyone using Tortoise to power route the frogs? My SW800 stalls at the frogs also on M.E. #6 turnouts. What contacts do I wire to on the tortoise? Thanks a bunch
You have faulty electrical pickup to the locomotive. At least, it seems to be intermittent. So, there may be lint, packaging, plastic, whatever, wrapped around a pickup axle, or a pickup may have become loose, and is bouncing. Maybe a soldered wire between the pickups and the decoder is loose.
Edit - P.S. You may not have snugged up the connector wire between the locomotive and the tender well enough. It takes some pressure on e jeweller’s flat-tipped screwdriver, or a bamboo bar-b-que skewer, to press it tight.
Can’t help with the Tortoise question, but the erratic operation does sound like “dirty” something. You mention “My HO locomotive”. Only one? Do others operate OK?
You have stated that you have cleaned everything and so…With that, I have two thoughts:
1)) Double check to see that NO corrosion is on the locos wheels, anywhere! This would include the area that the pick-ups/wipers contact the wheels also.
2)) If all is indeed clean, it could be that you have either a loose connection or a short inside the shell. I’ve had this happen and it can be a bit hard to find.
My two thoughts (cents).
Hey thanks. I’ll try those ideas. I’m at my wits end here. And yes, I only have one SW800 I model a central city branch line in the 1970’s. All of the track is buried in the streets (Or will be after I solve this) Thanks!
This is dirt, no doubt about it. Specially with DCC. You should clean the track, and the locomotive wheels and current pick-ups. You will discover that you will get a lot of dirt even when cleaning a very shiny track.
I don’t want to start a track cleaning war, so I will not tell you here what to use 
Just clean it well, and it will work again.
This stalling on frogs thing could be directly related to the stalling. Check to see if you are getting pickup on all wheels (if the loco is designed for it) Use an ohm meter to check. If the ohm meter shows 0 ohms between any two wheels on the same side and all wheels on the same side then you are good, if any resistance is shown or it appears to be open (just like the leads are not touching anything) then you have an open line and may need cleaning or repair.
If you are not picking up current on all wheels wether it was designed to or not that is most likely why you are stalling on the frogs. I have a 6 axle that does this now so if a 6 axle will stall on frogs with only one truck picking current on each rail then I would imagine a 4 axle doing the same or worse.
Posterboy, welcome to the forum even if under difficult circumstances.
There are a number of things that could be causing this problem and you are going to have to try and trouble shoot this down to figure out what is going on. It is also possible that there are more than one problem at the same time.
The first question I would ask is if this loco, on your track setup has ever worked smoothly and correctly?
Starting at the loco motor and working back to the DCC system these are the things to consider.
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The DCC decoder installation. Can you read and write to the decoder without any problems on the program track of the DCC system? (I may be incorrectly assuming that your Digitrax setup has a program track) You need to be certain that the decoder is installed correctly.
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Wheel pickup. Using an ohm meter you can verify if the wheel pick up is solid. Of course if the loco can be programmed without problem, it is most likely OK.
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Track and wheel cleaning. Sounds like you have done this part to death! Again, if the wheels are dirty decoder programming will be interupted.
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Track wiring. This may well be the culprit and it really depends on how you have wired the track. Are you relying on rail joiners to conduct power and DCC signal, or do you have wire feeders at regular intervals to feed the power and the DCC signal to the track. This would include the powering of the frogs of the turnouts.
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Connection of the power bus to the DCC system. How is your digitrax connected to the power bus? Is this a good solid connection?
The bottom line is that somewhere between the power outputs of the DCC system and the power inputs to the loco’s motor the current flow is being intermitently interrupted. You just have to work your way from one end of this path to the other eliminating the parts to your satisfaction to nail the problem.
thanks for everyone’s input. Still trying to solve the problem as of 4 a.m. this morning.[|)] one thing i’ve noticed is when the locomotive is idling, if i push down on it, it will stop then start. there’s some play there. It looks like one of the wheels is not touching the rail very well. im gonna put something heavy on top of the loco and run it again to see if it stalls again. I’ve never heard of this, but is it possible loco is not heavy enough? weird. Anyway, thanks. I’m still trying.
O.K. I may be on to something here. I have ran the locomotive back and forth repeatedly with a 3’ bubble stick on top for weight (silly I know) and the locomotive never even shivered this time. Maybe it’s too light? I know I cant weigh it down with magnets, but would lead be o.k.? If i can find any room inside the loco, ill put some lead in. Thanks again.
That suggests a contact problem with a wire of with power pickups at the wheels. Pressing down on the loco ensures a more consistent contact.
Maybe I’m wrong…
Re: how to wire the Tortoise, here’s a diagram from Tony’s:
http://www.tonystrains.com/technews/tortoise/signal-wiring.htm