My new Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0 is stalling on my double crossover. It goes through on the bottom track in the photo with no problems, but stops when going through on the top track. The crossover is a little more involved electrically than I am use to, so any help would be appreciated.
I have posted three photo’s to show the orientation of the crossover, where the engine stops, and a look at the spot without the engine. The spot is marked buy the yellow pins. Thanks for any help.
Brent[%-)]
That’s a nice looking switch. Who makes it?
Your DCO has gaps on the inner rails (normal) so that each leg is fed power through its tangent track.I can’t really see in the picture,but you have an extra turnout that seems to have an insulated frog wich is OK but you also have insulators on the outside rails of this crossover so no current goes through there.I’d check this first to see if the current goes beyond this turnout to your DCO.Just a guess…
Looks good, a few ideas maybe?
1.Use a test light or DVM to check for voltage on parallel sections of track in all directions and with various configurations of switches(track and power if you use them). Without power, the loco won’t like it.
Those locos used to (not sure about yours today) pick up one side with the tender and the other side with the two drivers. Resulting in poor power pick up. Many articles have been written on how to add more pick up points using the tender or loco.
An easy quick test may be to run a diesel with all wheel pickup through it.
Richard
Brent.
You have to feed power to every rail going into the crossover. If there is no feeders to the upper left side before the turnout all your locos will stall there. I have done a few of these Walthers/ Shinohara xovers for a couple layouts. I also solder the rail joiners for added reliability.
Pete
Thanks guy’s
Lion,(ROAR) It’s a Walther’s #6.
All my other Loco’s go through with no problems however they are much larger than this little guy. There seems to be insulators all over this thing so that is why I am at such a loss. Is there a schematic of how this thing is wired anywhere?
This Loco also seems to have pickup on all wheels.
Pete if all else fails I will wire in feeders this weekend, however seeing as how all my other albeit larger engines traverse this spot I wonder if that is the problem? My 4-4-0 goes through the DCO in all directions back and forth except straight through on the top. I only need to move it about an 1/8 " in either direction from where it stalls and away she goes again.
I have a volt meter, so if someone could give me a step by step as to what setting to use and also should I take all my Loco’s off the track for testing etc.
Thanks guy’s. Onward and upwards.[:)]
Brent[C):-)]
This looks like a job for a Frog Juicer (if you use DCC). It’s possible to figure it out and wire contacts on the switch motors to power the proper frogs with the correct polarity, but the Frog Juicer is tailor-made for this sort of thing. One wire to each frog, and the juicer figures out the polarity.
–Randy
I just installed one of these on my layout also. It looks to me that the loco is stalled on the frogs, which are isolated with no power. My cross over has jumper wires installed from the factory,but not to the frogs. Yours looks to be the same one. I soldered jumpers to the underside of the frogs and it works great. I used Caboose ground throws with single pole double throw contacts, ( Walthers #97-220). On 2/5/12 I responded to a post about wiring these turnouts. Look at that post, it’s got a lot of good info on this subject.
LIONS have no problems with 48 wheel pickup 
ROAR
Hmmm, wow, that would seem to mean it is not picking up power from about 6 different places on the turnout. The turnout manufacturer seem to have an extra gap in the rail between the two points. Those are the first two things I would check. Get a volt meter and check that there is power between the outside rail and each of those two rails between the points.
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I have a volt meter, so if someone could give me a step by step as to what setting to use and also should I take all my Loco’s off the track for testing etc.
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You have not indicated what power you are using. So for DCC set it to 24 volts AC. For DC set it to 18 Volts DC.
I have a couple of Walthers Shinohara #6 double crossovers on my layout.
I have had a few problems with them.
One solution, for me, has been to add feeders on all four legs of the double crossover.
Another solution is to thoroughly clean all of the rails to ensure uniform conductivity.
One problem that I recently encountered is that one of the copper jumper strips on the underside came loose, causing a loss of power to one small portion of the rails. Check that out. It only affected my short wheel based switchers running at very low speeds. Longer wheel based locos and any loco running at higher speeds will coast through the problem areas.
Rich
Thanks for all the suggestions for this frustrating problem. I have some 40 Walthers T/Os and the 4-4-0 goes through them all flawlessly except for the one on the DCO. There is power to all the rails surrounding the frog yet the Loco just stops on that spot. Go figure.[%-)]
Powering the frog is next. I am just trying to make up my mind as to the root I want to go on that. Randy I had never heard of the Frog Juicer before. Thanks for mentioning that. I may go that root or with a tortoise or a temporary fix with a Caboose until I make up my mind.
Brent[C):-)]
Don’t know if this will help, but have you looked at www.wiringfordcc.com? Under the turnout subject, they show the wiring for double crossovers with a link for walthers/shinohara double crossovers. Might give you some visual clues.
Charlie
Thanks Charlie, that website was my Bible when I returned to the hobby 7 years ago. I spent a lot of time on it this morning and on the weekend seeing if I had missed anything. This is the only Walthers T/O that has ever given me grief. The problem is probably staring me in the face and I just can’t see it.[^o)]
Brent[C):-)]
Brent.
Do you have feeders going to all 8 rails into and out of the Xover? Is there an internal jumper wire that has come loose? If you flip it over you will see several jumper wires and some copper strip feeding the rails going through the frogs. That is how these things work.
Pete
Pete is right in my opinion, and these suggestions are the same that I made in an earlier response.
Have you done what Pete suggested?
Richy
Yep, all eight rails have feeders and still no change. I checked all the jumper strips underneath and they are quite secure.
On a regular piece of track I can lift up the tender off the track and the loco still puffs away. I can lift up the engine off the track and it gets power through the tender and still puffs away. My power meter shows power on every rail of the DCO as it did before I added the feeders. The engine rolling on to the DCO must be causing a intermittent circuit somewhere, somehow. The unit is long enough that it should get power from somewhere, it boggles the mind.
I have a couple of #10 T/Os with very long frogs and the loco sails right through with no problems. I think it is time to order a Frog Juicer for the DCO.
Brent[C):-)]