I have a small problem that is holding me back from completing my layout. I have a mainline that runs fine. My 2nd mainline that is on one half of my mountain area has its own wiring. It ran fine till I put rail jointers on my lift out panel to smooth the track where my grade up the mountain started. I am running DC. Does anyone have a clue what would be shorting this out. I lost all rail power on the 2nd line, and my street, house lights go dim when I power the 2nd throttle to main 2. The track is cut where it enters the mainline.
Have you used printed circuit board ties at the rail ends of the lift out section ? Have you checked that the two rails are not electrically joined by a micro amount of copper ?
Are you using common return wiring and have both Mainline common return feeds got the same polarity ?
Try using insulated rail joiners in the location where the problem started. That will get you electrically back to where you were.
Do you have 2 seperate power supplies? Does the problem happen all the time now, or only if an engine is trying to run between the mains?
Generally lighting should be done using the accessory AC terminals found on most power packs. That wiring should have no connection to the track. If you double check your wiring, and still find that the lights are dimming, there is a good chance that the two supplies are “fighting” each other. It sounds like you have bridged them together.
Is the frog on the turnout live or insulated? If it is a live frog then you need to use insulated rail joiners on the diverging side and be sure the turnout is powered from the point side. If it is a insulated frog, check to make sure you didn’t cross some wires.