i just finished putting up the shelves in my son’s room for an o guage thomas train. WHen i start the engine, it will go in forward and reverse, but stops just past the first track or two where the energy box is. Seem as if it only runs on the 2 10 inch tracks before stopping. ANy idea what could cause this? Even if there are connection problems, shouldnt it run on the tracks that are connected securely to the first tracks where the energy box is?
Thank you.
Do you have an electrical meter? If so, go round the track doing a voltage check and see if there’s anywhere you lose power. Could be a bad section of track.
PS: If you’re getting into model railroading or just toy trains an electrical meter can be worth it’s weight in gold, and they don’t have to cost a lot, a good basic one is all you need.
Clean the track…? Goo-gone on an old sweatsock.
A few questions to help us zero in on some possible causes:
Here is another way to figure out whats going on. take all the track down other than the track that is working. One by one add track and test the engine till it stops running. That will show if you have a bad section of track. Some where there is a bad section of track or pins missing or not conected correctly. Youmay have a short somewhere like a screw across the center and one of the outer rails. Check your track closely. You may find something without having to take it apart.
Very common issue, Had the same issue with the grandson’s Thomas set.
Try Lionel’s fix. Easy and works.
Thanks for posting that KRM, great tutorial video.
One other thing, I wouldn’t use Goo-Gone as a track cleaner unless you chase it with some alcohol to remove the Goo-Gone residue. Goo-Gone will attack the rubber traction tires on newer locomotives, or so I’ve been told. I prefer to use just alcohol myself or a Scotch-Brite pad for really stubborn skuzz on the tracks,.
thank you for the suggestions. i have run some bus lines and hope that will work. It is a lionchief.
i have taken the track down to the floor to test the tracks. The engine stalls for the most part, but if I take my hand and push down the track, it runs… any idea what would cause this? I have it down on the carpet testing it out with the transformer and 2 extra bus lines.
It is now running a little better, but sometimes I have to push a track down on the shelf to keep it going. No idea why.
Have you tried anything suggested?
yes, i have tried cleaning tracks, squeezing open end rails. I ran two bus lines to parts of the track, when i connected the second bus line, it made the transformer start flashing the green light when I tried to run the engine. Would a power pack, 4 amp, be enough power to run around a 4 wall room, 10x10,11x11? That is the first thing I want to do is get tnough power and then go from there. I dont wanna mess with the bus lines anymore if there is an alternative.
The length of the track has little to do with the power required. The track resistance, which increases with distance, is responsible for voltage drop between the transformer and the track. High track resistance between the transformer and the train will slow or stop the train, regardless of how much power the transformer can put out.
You can either reduce the resistance (by making better connections or by supplementing the rails with copper wire) or increase the transformer voltage. Some prewar and early postwar transformers put out significantly higher voltages than the modern ones (24 volts for the V and Z types). But then you’ll be continually adjusting the transformer as the train gets closer and farther away.
You’re better off with a loop of heavy wire, no smaller than 14 AWG; but 12 or 10 are better. In addition to using reasonably heavy wire, are you running separate wires for both sides of the circuit, center rail as well as outside rails? Are you completing the loop with the bus as well as the track? That cuts the resistance to the farthest point in half.
There’s no point in separate feeders to various points along the track. Just use a single 2-wire loop around the whole room, with taps connecting it to the track every couple of yards, or as closely spaced as necessary. (I suspect when you connected that second feeder, you got the wires swapped, creating a short circuit.)
Did you try Lionel’s fix that was in the link provided?
That should of fixed it. I don’t think squeezing open end rails will help on FasTrack.
Thomas don’t need much power to operate. nothing like anything post-war. So you won’t need huge wire bigger than 14 gauge unless you have plans for older engines…
instead of teh loop can i just buy one of these and put it on the farthest end of the track from the transformer?
i havent tried the lionel fix because im trying to get the power issue taken care of before moving towards anything else. i would rather not do the loop around the track if i can just buy the above product in the link.
pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean by bus? A lot of terminology I don’t understand which is why i want to just see if i can run the 4 amp wall pack and eliminate having to run any wires.
Bus is a “Main Trunk” line to tap off of… Basically one continuous piece of wire the length of the track tapped where needed…
“Bus” is a shortening of “omnibus”, which is the dative plural case of the Latin word “omnis”; so it means “for all”. It’s the same word as the name for the vehicle that carries “all”; and, in the electrical sense, as Michael says, is a wire (or group of wires, two in this case) that can be tapped into by all parts of the track.
It is often misspelled as “buss”, which is a synonym of “kiss”. I think this comes from confusion with the “Bussmann” brand of electrical fuses, founded in 1914 by brothers Joe, Al, Frank, Lee, and Harry Bussmann.
if i use a connector and splice two diffeent size wires (the wire going into the bus line is smaller), would that still be ok? i was told to use a female .110 cirmp, but I would have to order that size off the internet. I have something to connect to the track (from the bus wire), but the line that would go into the bus wire is smaller than the bus wire.