Just installed left and right hand switches on my son’s N scale Bachman Empire Builder set he got for Christmas. The layout is set up so that the switches point in so there’s a smaller circle within a larger circle of track., if that makes sense. I connected the two control boxes and wiring like the instructions indicated. The outside track works fine, but when the switches are set to go to the inner track, every time the second switch is activated and hits the rail, the power shuts off to the track and the train,obviously, stops. The second switch has become a de facto “on/off” switch.
I know I can’t be the first one with this problem, but it beats me waht’s wrong. Can anybody help us? Thanks in advance.
Train stops Dead as Soon as you throw the switch?? Sounds like a short circuit… If I get your description correctly you have 1 loops with what is commonly referred to as a passing siding. That is, you can pull one train onto the siding and let another train pass. Correct? Try disconnecting the track that creates the siding, leaving the switch in place and see if the problem persists. If it does, you may have a dead switch and will have to add feeders on either side of it to correct the problem. If the problem goes away when you disconnect the siding track, you likely have a short circuit for some reason and I wouldn’t continue using that as a de-facto on/off switch… I’m not up on the N scale products so beyond that, someone else will probably have to help…
[#welcome] to the forum! Good to have you aboard! [:)]
So, if I understand you correctly, on your layout you have an outer circle and an inner circle, which are connected together by two switches - yes? (FYI: Chuck, In order to differentiate between track switches and electrical switches so that there isn’t any confusion, track switches are commonly referred to by MRRers as “turnouts”.)
Anyway, when the locomotive moves from the outer circle to the inner circle, does the inner track change the direction of the locomoitve so that when it comes back out onto the outer track, the locomotive is facing or running in the opposite direction? Kinda sounds like you have a reverse loop or short circuit somewhere, where the polarity of the track is coming face-to-vace with its alter ego - i.e. positive (+) meets negative (-) and negative (-) meets positve (+). They don’t play together very nicely. Otherwise, it may be a dead switch.
Chuck is useing two turnouts to make two loops. However there are not two complete loops the inner loop uses the track between the two turnouts as part of it. If the track feeder is on the back side of the turnouts the inner loop will go dead when both turnouts are aligned for that loop as long as one turnout is aligned for the outer loop the inner loop will recieve power. The feeder must be installed between the point ends of the turnouts in this case or feeders to both loops. Ken
SOUNDS LIKE when the 2nd switch is thrown thre is a short circuit.CLUE: Does everything stop?
Start with the 2nd ‘control box’.
What happen’s if you remove the wire’s?
What happen’s if you reverse the two wire’s?
Does the diagram call for insulated rail joiner’s on the inside loop?
You may have to get professional (paid) help.
If you wire your own house and the light’s don’t work, what do you do?
If you had a short circuit, the indicator on your power pack would light up. You did not say it does. It sounds like an open circuit in the smaller circle. Run some wires to it the same way you did the large circle and see what happens.
WOW! This has turned into a confusing issue here. I think what we’re needing to know is if the power only goes off right where the locomotive happens to be. If it stops only on the inner loop, don’t change any switching, but put it on the outer loop to see if there is power there. If I’ve got this backwards, just change it all around.
If EVERYTHING, meaning all of your turnouts and track is dead, you’ve most likely got a short. Otherwise, it could be a dead switch or open inner loop.
Do both loops operate when the switches are set to run straight?
I may have just confused things more, but I think if you’ll answer these, we might be able to get somwhere.
Thanks for all the replies, guys! Well, I moved the rerailer track that’s connected to the power supply to ever corner I could, still no luck. I did find an errata sheet that says:
"1. These switches are power routing, which means a locomotive will only operate on the track set by the switch blades, threfore the terminal track must be positioned at the heel (switch blade) end only.
If two switches are being used to cross trains from one parallel track to the otherm then an extra ower feed (terminal track) is required at the heel end. If the train will still not operate, then flip and reconnect the terminal wire track connector."
put the loco on the rerailer/terminal track
drive it 2 inches just to make sure it’s working
throw one of the turnouts , drive train 2 inches to see if it works
throw second turnout , drive train 2 inches to see if it works
throw both turnouts so you can drive all the way around the outer loop . do so
throw one turnout , drive the loco onto the inner loop and stop
throw the first turnout back to the outer loop , throw the second turnout so you can drive from the inner to outer loop . do so
did that all work ? if not where did it stop working ?
let us know what happens