Locomotive stops then restarts on turnouts without lights or sound

Model Railroader Electronics and DCC
1

Locomotive stops and then restarts without sound or lights, occurring on all turnouts randomly (9). It doesn’t occur every cycle and may not occur for several cycles. I cleaned the locos wheels and the track with special attention to the turnouts, using an emery board in the absence of a file touching where the moving parts of the turnouts touch the rails. The locomotive was fine prior to this.
Just before this change, I went around the layout better leveling track and turnouts. It is a DCC layout using Bachmann easy track and switches, an MRC Prodigy Advance 2 and the locomotive in question Is a Walther’s GP-9. Other locomotives have done this occasionally but not to this extent

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2

What does the title mean?

3

It means I am new here and didn’t enter one… :rofl:

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Ahh, well that certainly explains it. :rofl:

Well, it makes sense now.

5

So this didn’t happen before you cleaned the track?

6

Any suggestions about the post or are you a Locomotive comedian? :rofl:

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not to this extent but occasionally

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Neither. I asked about the title because it made no sense. You then edited the title so now it makes sense. There was no attempt to be funny. I was asking for clarity. Do you have a problem with that?

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I asked about the cleaning because you said you used an emery board. When I first started my layout, I used a file to take care of a joint between two rails. I didn’t realize it, but I took off enough metal that my locomotives began stalling or hesitating at that spot. After careful inspection, I could tell part of the locomotive wheels were losing contact at that spot. I don’t know if that could be part of your issue.

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10

Emery board can have the effect JohnYork1 had on his layout.

David

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Apparently the laughing emoji did not appear on the message you received…

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It was the first time I tried that so I will look into it further, Thanks for your answer

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Ok, thanks…

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How did you wind up fixing that issue? That could definitely explain some of my turnout issues…

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I ended up replacing the section, and the problem was solved. An expensive and time-consuming lesson for me. :disappointed:

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York, we could start a thread about expensive, time consuming errors that we all have made.

Regards, Chris

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17

But a good solution.

Rich

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18

Well, addressing the original question… It’s behaving like it is losing contact. The problem is often dirty track, but since you’ve cleaned, you might have contact problems. I have one loco that took a lit of lookin’ to find the problem: a bit of spring metal was mis-formed so one truck was occasionally losing contact.

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I do agree with the other replies about the damage that highly abrasive “tools” can result, in the worst cases, removing the conductive surface of the rails. I would add emery boards to the list of damage-causing tools along with metal files and sandpaper. Even the Bright Boy eraser is accused of leaving micro grooves and indentations on the rails. Replacement of the faulty track is the best solution.

Rich

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20

I understand. Does Walther’s use sub standard decoders in their mainline model? I now have a third Walther’s locomotive displaying the same symptoms, and a fourth not showing any symptoms but wondering if and when it will.
I have a Broadway Limited locomotive that runs fine on the layout as well as the 4th Walther’s locomotive that, so far, runs fine on the layout.
I am waiting for a resonse from Walther’s about the 3rd loco relative to repair. They already have 2 others.

1 Like