After 33 years of “storage” , grandkids talked me into setting up a RR layout…takes up the entire living room,(3) 4X8 sheets worth…027 scale (mostly)…lots of “SWITCHES”…right hands,left hands,some electric some “manual”… My question is : Is there a exact science regarding these fiber pins…Having problems with “shorts”…
With a layout in storage for that long the problem could be many different things. First since you said O27 I assume this is three rail. In that case the center rail is always the center rail and I would not think there is a short circuit problem with the fiber pins. Usually the fiber pins are for other things like running signals, crossing gates, and other accessories. I would guess that in 33 years some of the cardboard that insluates the metal ties from the metal rails have worn or rotted through. this is like a fiber pad that the rail sits on. To fix a worn or rotted fiber, one has to bend the two parts of the “tie” away from the rail. Slike the damaged one away. Then slide a new fiber insluator in and rebend the “tie” tabs back over the bottom rail. Sorry I don’t have any pictures to help explain. As a Kid I used cut up cerial box cardboard for insulators. I am certain there are much better materials that could be used, but hey it worked. The hard part is finding the ones are bad because they might look fine on the top and be rotted on the bottom. I guess I would start by looking for places were their might be rust or other signs of wear from the top. Failing that, a very sensitive ohm meter might help tracking down the ones that are causing the problem. The closer to the short the meter would read closer to zero ohms.
On the other hand if the shorts are in the accessories or switches proper
Welcome to the forums.
Now I am going to tell you to go somewhere else. Not that there is anything wrong with the advise given above, but most of the folks here are in N and HO scale. A lot of us started with Lionel or AF, but if you go to the Classic Toy Trains portion of Trains.com. you will find folks that can answer most of your questions.
I had some of the O and O27 switches with fiber pins. The automatic switches with fiber pins would turn the switch when a train approached so that it would not derail. Nice feature. You cam also use them to seperate your power sections if you want to run more than one train at a time.
I think you will find many friendly folks over on the CTT site.
Good luck,
Richard