I have a relatively complex O-27 layout that I can only set up around Christmas, I am having a problem with a track short I can not find and am asking for help with troubleshooting
Thanks
Hi:
first check the track, apply power without any engine on it and check for shorts, if don’t have how use a passenger car or any illuminated car. if the light is not bright at middle throttle the short will be in the track.
to be sure use another illuminated car for the same procedure. if nothing happen, the short might be in the engine.
my 2 cents.
(sorry I now it is HO forum but he need help)
Andre.
If the track is shorted with nothing on it. Disconnect all the track but the first piece where the two wires are connected. Then add one section at a time until you find the short.
Kyle, I love 027 track for all the advantages of what can be done in a tight or small space. But 027 track is not the best track for being put together and then pulled apart frequently. There are any number of potential trouble spots. But given my experience with 027 track, I suspect one of the center rail insulators has moved or slipped slightly out of place. This will cause the normally insultated current of the center rail to short with the ground current that is in the ties and both outer rails. This can happen when the track is repeatedly put together and pulled apart.
You can make quick time of checking this, by using a couple of wires with alligator clips off your transformer. Then with any kind of small light (a cut-off light fixture off a chain of mini-CHRISTmas lights will work) or short tester, just go through and check your track. You might even do a visual inspection to see if you can see where the center rail insulator has slipped - or maybe even just worn out or gotten brittle with age (and maybe due to storage).
Could also be a switch or uncoupling track. The other potential possibiliity is a broken or stripped wire off the roller pick up on an illuminated car, such as a caboose. The cabooses with sheet metal frames can have this happen over time, where the wire doesn’t break, but the insultated covering does allowing the car to almost constantly short.
This same exact scenario can happen with a locomotive too - it’s happened to me. And on a newer locomotive too. The wires were just too taut in the loco, and eventually with the to-and-fro swing of the truck going around curves, the sheet metal frame cut through the insulation causing a short. And it takes some time to narrow the problem down with trial and error testing.
Too bad you can’t set up a layout year round… that is one of the advantages of 027 track that you could even do a layout on a hollow-core door. You could even do y
I understand your layout is “complex” but for the purpose of illustration consider it to be a single large oval loop. If the short exists with nothing on the track (and does not exist with simply the transformer plugged in with no wires attached) disconnect the lockon from the track. If the short exists, it is somewhere in the wire to the lockon, i.e., at the transformer terminals, inside the wires, or at the lockon itself.
If not, split the loop of track in half, separate the halves, and re-attach the lockon, first to one half of the loop, then the other. When you get a short, the faulty track is somewhere on that half-loop. If not, try the other half-loop.
Split the shorted half again and try each half. Keep this up until you locate the bad track. It should go a lot faster than testing each piece of track one by one.
Wow,
What a great support, I have bookmarked the page and will be back,
I tested section by section and finally found , of course under the Christmas tree, a insulation piece for the center rail that was slid out enough to allow the rail to touch the tie.
Thanks to everyone!!
Kyle
I have a permanent layout that uses O-27 type track.When building it I put out about eight sections of track and tested for shorts,then added four or five at a time checking for shorts each time a section was added.Yes ,I had a few problems but I could disconnect one section at a time and find the short rather quickly.It took less time to do than write this.
Another thing to watch out for as it happened on a friend’s layout is not to overtighten track screws if you secure your track that way. When you overtighten the track screw it pulls the tie loose from the center and pulls the insulator away from the rail and shorts out the track.
Lee F.