My HO layout is almost 3 years old. Yesterday, while wiring some new turnout indicator signals, I turned on the power and found the mainline section circuit breaker LED blinking, indicating a short. Thinking I had managed to do something to create a problem, I nonetheless started looking for the problem for something obvious like a tool laying across the tracks. Then started removing locos, then vacuumed the mailine track, etc. There’s a yard attached, and when I moved a string of cars looking for derails the shorting stopped.
It turns out that a freight car was creating a short at the Tomar track end bumper. But only when the car was positioned “just so”. These metal bumpers obviously have to have track insulated joiners on them or they would always short. But I had not considered, nor experienced, the shorting with rolling stock. It seems that on at least some cars the first axle with wheels can on each track bridge the rail joiner before the coupler stops the car short of doing that. I’m surprised I didn’t experience it before but either I usually stop cars short of the bumper or most cars have a tad more length between the coupler face and the first wheelset. I was relieved that it is a simple problem and not some hard to find wiring issue.
The photo below shows the wheels over the plastic rail joiner, each wheel bridging both gaps to create the short. At this point I will see how many cars create this issue. Perhaps a fix is to paint a bit of nail polish on each rail end at the gap. I’m not sure how I would address this anew if installing the bumpers. Shortening the bumper track a tad would prevent most or all cars’ wheels from reaching and bridging the gap when the coupler stopped the car at the bumper.
WHat I did to put Kadee couple height gauges on both ends of my test track (the older metal ones, not the newer palstic ones) was figure out where it was going to be, and then cut the gap in the rail right against the ledge used to check the trip pin height. Being on the very end of the track, this of course meant the piece of rail there was held on with like 1 tie, so I used some CA to attach the rail to the tie (and the gauges are CA’ed to the rail, as well, so they don’t walk off).
Looks like you have more room there, so I’d just lose the insulated joiner and cut a gap about right where the left side of the insulated joiner is. A little CA arond the spike heads to the left of that will make sure the rail stays attached and keep it from sliding to the right and closing the gap unexpectedly.
Cutting the gap further away also works. You are not going to run your locomotive any closer than 40 scale feet (One box car.) Gaps 20 scale feet from the bumper will keep the power away from the bumperJust so that the metal wheels do not bridge the gap to power the bumber.
But what the heck does a pumber cause a short anyway! That is what the LION wants to know.
‘‘Some of You may recall the thread long ago, about a poor guy experiencing dead shorts on His layout? Three pages later… come to find out He added a all metal end of track bumper to a siding, without cutting at least one gap in the rails’’. Three pages. LOL. [:$]
Should always stagger all insulated joiners…period.
I agree. I used to buy the Tomar Industries bumpers at $5 to $6 apiece, and as discussed here, you need to use insulated rail joiners to prevent shorts.
I, too, started buying the Walthers plastic bumpers at $1.25 apiece.
I’ve had a powered loco try to shove one off (momentum was on), and had another one stolen by a cat, used as a toy, and then lost in the hallway for several weeks, and they came out no worse for the wear. (Walthers plastic ones). I don’t think they are flimsy.
At my Club we often have visitors which are not always experienced operators and I had to replace or fix a fair amount of these plastic ones. This is why I think they are flimsy.
For anyone who is unfamiliar with the Walthers Cornerstone track bumpers, they require minor assembly and painting, no big deal. The assembled bumpers fits inside the rails. To hold them in place, I just apply some tacky glue to the ties that the bumpers sit on. I agree with Randy that they are not flimsy.
I’ll agree…the cornerstone plastic ones aren’t flimsy. I was using a CMX track cleaning car pushed by two P2K GP7’s in the side of the cornerstone grain elevator, at the end about three cars away was one of those bumpers. I did not clean inside there…like forever, had a hard time pushing it all the way in, it finally caught about full throttle and pushed right through that track bumper, which was glued to track with epoxy. Did not hurt the bumper one bit. LOL. I now screw them in place with round head #0 black wood screw’s, just in case. Havn’t had to test them yet.
I have become persuaded that we all must have various little mental blind spots.Your experience matches mine- a short spur on an upper level that will eventually connect to a future southern division, with the same track bumper to keep a staged car from the dreaded long roll and scary drop. You found the problem much quicker than I did.Years of fussing with jumper wires and other hokey solutions that did not work, kept a main line connection electrically idle. Pulled the bumper off to give better reach in access , and lo and behold an engine sitting on what I had taught myself was a dead section of track started running down hill! Just goes to show that a solution to a problem discovered by chance is just as wise as the one found by careful analysis. Don H.
Yes, it just never crossed my mind that this might happen, even though I was aware that staggered gaps at reversing loop section are a good idea. As some folks rarely look at the instructions, my tendency is to read and follow them…“add the plastic rail joiners and install”. Good thing it didn’t say “go jump off the nearest bridge”. I guess subconsciously I was assuming (you know how that’s spelled) that the bumpers were built idiot proof and shorting if isolating rail joiners were used would not happen. I don’t know why they aren’t built shorter except that to build for the shortest possible car (from coupler to axle) such as a handcar might make they atypically short.
I took an easy (not so prototypical) way out as a fix. Rather than tinker with my 5 tracks, I glued a pad (piece about 3/32" painted scrap styrene plastic) to each bumper that keeps the axle that much farther from the gaps. Looks ok IMO too.
Your pads look to be a very nice solution! I suspect that because it is so logical,somewhere in the full size world , some one has done something similar.Most real world railroads are first focused on answers that work. The old adage that there is a prototype for everything is full of far more truth than fiction. Don H.
I think if you look that the plastic between the rails is lower than the top of the rail and the wheels dropped into that gap and are contacting all the rails. The easiest way to stop the short without taking everything apart would be to add some epoxy or gluing some plastic between the rails to the level of the rail head so the wheel cannot contact both ends of the rail at the same time. The same should be done at all gaps in the rail for electrical purposes. Richard
There is something to be said about the Walthers bumper. They look fine when painted and don’t need any kind of a gap. My only kick I have on them is that my chubby little fingers have a problem with the assembly. [:D]
