I posted this problem a few days ago - on a 40 foot track the train reaches a certain point and then loses power over the next 1/2 part of the track. Per posted suggestions I cleaned the track, checked the rail joiners, found that there was a power line (direct from the power source) was installed near the point the power begins to fail. The voltage on the track before the slowdown and after the point of slowdown was the same. I will certainly appreciate any comments, ideas, suggestions to remedy this dilemma. Thanks for your help.
You apparently have poor connections at the point where the slowdown starts. To really locate it, you need to make the Voltage checks with some kind of load on the rails at the point where you make the measurements. As you measure with a resistance of some sort along the rails, when you get to the point where the poor connection is, the Voltage reading will show an abrupt drop, not to 0V, but a noticeable amount. It could be a loose rail joiner, corrosion or trash build-up between ther joiner and rail, or if you’re using feed wires, a bad solder joint.
A leaded resistor of around 1,000 Ohms, one or two Watts, should be enough of a load to give a decent dro, amybe with a couple alligator clips attached to make sure of a constant good contact. Just clip across the rails, take a reading, moe the resistor a couple feet, take another reading, and when you see a drop, you can move back and forthe to isolate the area of the poor connection.
As noted, You will read the same voltage throughout with no load (loco) on the track.
Attach the meter leads to the track where it slows and run the loco. You could just hold the loco in one spot and let it free wheel with slight pressure on the track. You’ll see a drop in the voltage if there are connection issues.
Another thing to do is run a separate pair of wires to the farthest point on the layout and insert the voltage at that spot. Make sure the wire that goes to the outside track matches the original connection. You should see an improvement.
This is another good reason to use feeders off the bus to each section of rail. (within reason of course), Adding feeders on ballasted track later is a real PITA.
It sounds like you are relying on railjoiners to conduct the current – they do, but not reliably. A few simple 2 or 3 foot “jumpers” with alligator clips will demonstrate that additional feeders are necessary. Andy Sperandeo praches that feeders to every piece of flex track are needed. Many of us cheat and do every other piece or every third piece, but we cheaters have to concede that Andy ultimately is correct.
The alternative is all those feeders to solder a very short jumper wire at each rail joiner that basically goes from rail to rail and bypasses the joiner itself. Still another alternative, although i do not care for them, are the powered joiners that atlas sells – with a wire pre attached to the rail joiner. But even then the joiner unless tightly crimped to the rail is not an ideal conductor. And once crimped, it is not an ideal joiner!
Dave Nelson
As far as everyone has said, i agree, and i will go a step further. A good solder joint, whether on a motor or on a rail joiner should be shiny silver in color, if it is a dull gray then that is a cold solder and it will fail eventually. Also when you look at the connection, there should be a nice curving fillet so that you know that you have a good mechanical connection as well as electrical. Keeping the iron tinned and clean will also go a long way to helping you get a nice clean connection…
I am a bit tardy with this acknowledgment, but thank you to all who responded to my
post - they were all helpful and did correct my problem
Great to hear. Good Luck with your layout and have fun running trains. [Y]