The problem is solved. I cleaned out the ballast around the joiners. Soldered the joiners to the track and I now have juice to the 3 inch segment.
Soldering the joiners was the proper and easist fix.
I have been soldering all my rail joints for 50 years. I will never understand why others don’t.
Sheldon
I treat every piece of track as its own section , soldering drops to every piece allowing for any expansion or contraction at the rail joiners.
I assume you use DCC? So much for the idea that DCC means less wiring…
I use DC, my average control section (block) is 30’ to 40’ long. They are each fed by a single feeder which runs thru an inductive dectector first. Multiple drops would be a wiring nightmare.
But I have never needed them with soldered rail joints, and never had any expansion/contraction issues.
So you mean to tell me you would not simply solder the rail joiners of a short section of track to the ajoining 3’ section?
I believe the OP indicated that the offending piece of track was only 3" long?
Sheldon
I wasn’t sure whether the OP was talking about a failed joiner that was wired to a feeder on not. Apparently not. Randy is a wired joiner guy and he claims no failures. I am just starting to try that.
From what I’ve read that’s really really long for DCC. I see no point in testing the limits of the bare minimum number of feeders needed. It’s easier to do more work up front, than go back and problem solve.
As I guy who isn’t sure where he put the car keys 2 hours ago, remembering what I did in 1985 is hard. Pretty sure I used 1x4 pine for L-girder and at least 1/2" plywood for cookie cutter roadbed, with homosote on top.
I soldered every rail joiner. Like George Costanza, I did have shrinkage. The kinks were fixed by dremel cut off disk and adding a bunch of jumpers between the cut sections. When I took it down, unsoldering turnouts did not go well either.
It may well be argued that I should have had better soldering equipment, and I should have used better quality lumber, but I didn’t glean that from the How To publications from MR at the time.
My current construction is modular, anticipating moving late this year. 7.5 and 5 foot. I should have gone for 6 -2 1/2" so they would fit in my SUV. That limits the longest continuous stretch of rail, soldered or not.
That happened to me some years ago so I immediately turned to my meter and trace the tracks. I might have mentioned it before, I forgot to solder in a feeder in one section.
I have been using a meter since 1955 so it is first in my mind for troubleshooting any electrical issues.
Rich
Henry,
My first layout, located in an unfinished basement, when I was only 12, was built for me by my father. The track was TruScale wood roadbed track, a
“I wasn’t sure whether the OP was talking about a failed joiner that was wired to a feeder on not. Apparently not.”
In fact, the joiners were wired to feeders at the end of the bus. The only other failure I have had over the course of several years is a soldered joint that contracted throwing the track out of gauge.
I rarely have pieces of track that short… and have soldered one end to an ajoining piece of track in some cases… but soldering is involved in either situation & in the grand scope of things what is 2 more wires dropped to the bus
“I assume you use DCC? So much for the idea that DCC means less wiring…”
Sheldon, I use DCC. There are two members of my club that still run DC. I have looked at their wiring, and quite frankly it looks like a bowl of vermicelli. I believe that DCC wiring is “less” then DC, but if you are still running DC and are happy with it, then great. A lot of modelers drop feeders from every section of track, which is fine if that is what they want to do. I don’t and with the two exceptions I have noted in a previous post on this thread, I have not had any issues in about 10 years.
DC or DCC, in my view as an electrician, there is little excuse for sloppy wiring practices.
The “version” of DC I use is likely something you have not seen.
I use wireless radio throttles, have CTC and signaling, and one button route control of turnouts, all intergrated in one system.
Wiring under my layout looks similar to this:
And control panels along the layout look similar to this:
These are photos from a radio throttle Advanced Cab Control system similar to what use that I designed and installed for a friend years ago.
I am very familiar with DCC as well, and have many hours operating on DCC layouts and have designed and helped build several for friends as well.
For me, signaling, CTC, and being able to operate in three different specific modes is more important than the special features of DCC.
But I still chuckle at those who try to sell DCC based on "less wiring&quo
Sheldon I am not anti-DC. As I indicated if you are happy with your situation then more power to you. I have a DCC system which is only used to power the tracks. with one exception, all my turnouts are manual groundthrows. And I don’t try to “sell” DCC. I do know however, that, for me, I would not have the layout I have today if it were not for DCC. I would still be operating a 4 X 8 with two blocks and two locomotives.
I understand, and I’m glad you found your problem and it was a simple fix.
I did not take any of your posts to be anti DC, the point of my posts was simply that soldering rail joints works, DC or DCC.
To which, from another poster, I was once again met with the implied message that 200 feeder drops (my new layout will have about 600 feet of track) is “better” than soldering rail joints.
In addition to all my comments above, I have known several DC modelers who converted their layouts to DCC without any real rewiring. They simply connected DCC to all their exisiting DC block wiring, giving them one feeder or “drop” per every 15’ to 30’ of track, most often track with soldered rail joints within each block…
Their layouts all performed well on DCC. Again supporting the idea that the every 3’ to 6’ thing is overkill of the highest order.
DCC is a great system for the most part. I seriously considered it several times.
But for my specific goals, the additional features it would provide do not justify the very large expense of installing decoders in 145 locomotives - 145 locomotives necessary to operate my layout in the way I desire.
The other thing that kept me away from DCC is the poor design/complexity of the “user interface”, in other words the throttles - too many buttons, too hard to see/touch.
With my Advanced Cab Control,
Sheldon, there is no way that I would even come close to considering the kind of wiring and controls, regardless of it being DC or DCC, that you have done.
My regards.
Bear,
I understand. We all have different interests, different skills, different vision for our layouts.
Sheldon