Here is something I’m sure lionelsoni will jump all over! [:D]
This is the crossover section on my Christmas Layout:
When any of my steam engines with tenders and railsounds (either TMCC or convensional) go over the upper left switch the brakes squeel, any thoughts on what it could be? I have cleaned that entire stretch of track, so that isn’t it. I was thinking maybe it could be that the track isn’t 100% smooth over the track joints as these switches had to be modified (the outter rails had to be isolated). Would a slight tap with a tack hammer be in order? The switches operate just fine.
Another thing… why doesn’t Lionel make/sell fiber pins for FasTrack? They would be very helpful in keeping the track aligned properly!
Do you mean the recorded brake squeal? This normally triggered by a TMCC command. It is possible that the equipment moving through the crossover is generating electronic noise that the processor interperts as “brake”. On some equipment with wheel sensors, the slight speed shifts in just making the turns might be triggering the brake sound as well.
Lionel does make isolation sections of track, they use slices in the rails. Issue with traditional fiber pin technology was that you had one pin that was in either side of the track. FastTrack uses split pins, one half of the center pins on each section of track and one full pin on opposite sides of the outer rails on a given piece of track.
Yes the recorded brake squeal is what I am referring to. Guess I’ll just have to play around with it and see if I can figure out what is going on, I may try adding a terminal section between the switches, also wondering if it could have something to do with track voltage ‘jumping’ between the rails…
Yes I am aware of the way the pins are configured, but they could still make the half pins in fiber as well. I have thought about carving some out of wood, but that
Have you tried swapping that switch with another and seeing if the problem presists?
also have you noticed all the 1 3/4" pieces of track that come with the o60 o72 and y switches as well as the 22 1/2 crossover have a jumper in them that you can remove to make it a isolating track block, this is great for yards.
Why did you need to isolate an outside rail on the switch?
John,
When I was building the layout I had one of the loops wired incorrectly and it was causing a short when both tracks were powered up… I went about solving that the hard way (removing the pins from the siding track on the switches)… then when that didn’t work I noticed I had the one loop wired incorrectly… it is amazing how poorly one thinks when they have been up for over 20 hours and still trying to get the trains running!
Once I have everything dismantled I am going to put the outside rail pins back inplace. I’m still thinking on how to create non-metalic pins for the center rails to keep them aligned…
As for the brake squeel, I think I have that figured out as well… have to run some more tests this weekend.
I have thought about fiber pins for my fastrack as well, but you need to dismantle the track to remove to old pins. I have not tried taking apart a rail yet, is it hard to get it pack on and be a tight solid fit.
