I have been having a weird problem lately that has me stumped. I have two industries on my layout where my locos will just die? They wont stall or slow when moving, it only happens when I stop the engine and go to reverse or move forward. The weird thing is if I apply almost full power after a second or two the engine will take off,lol.
I have done the normal things as in track cleaning,wheel cleaning, check with voltmeter to see that power is to those areas of tracks and everything is fine. Would anybody have any ideas on what would be causing this? as I was saying I have noticed this with a couple locos
DC or DCC? If DCC, check your momentum setting in the decoder, and turn off DC operation if it is enabled by reprogramming CV29. Also check CV2, Start Voltage, and set higher if necessary. Could be dirty wheel contacts or dirty wheels, too.
Its DC, sorry should have mentioned that. I don’t think its the wheels I have cleaned the locos wheels a couple times to no avail. I should also mention that I didn’t before its only random??? weird huh? sometimes I have problems and then sometimes I dont [:P]
Have you checked the rail joiners? Are you depending on them to bridge power from one track section to another? If you have unsoldered rail joiners corrosion can creep in and wreak all kinds of havoc including the symptoms that you described.
In most cases that would be sufficient. Was the track checked with the loco on it or off it? A joiners that’s only slightly loose can send power to the next rail very well when there’s no weight on it. Put the weight of a loco, even a small one, on it and that could be a real game changer. I’ve seen that happen first hand often enough.
You have loose or contaminated rail joiners. Cold solder joints on feeders will have the same symptoms. It is taking a bit for current to get past the poor contact point.
Just because you can measure voltage, it does not mean the circuit is capable of supplying current. You could place a load such as a test light across the rails in the area of trouble and then use a meter to test for a voltage drop.
Or another test is to run some jumper wires from the pack to the area of trouble.
Since it’s a small switching layout, it should be easy to add feeder wires, right? I’d say the problem is likely depending on rail joiners to transmit power ( = voltage x current) and feeders will fix that.
Maybe I will add feeders. I will run a couple bus wires under the layout and add the feeders. Should be easy enough seeing as its a small layout. That might be a project for later in the winter.
90% of my small switching layout(10’ and less) I used nothing more then 2 wires from my MRC power pack and never had a problem-I do squeeze my rail jointers against the rails by using needle nose pliers…
I never was fan of overkill wiring or soldering every joit…
Turnouts and sectional track/snap track are stiff, generally, and act as levers. If there really is a mechanically poor joiner at one end of a turnout or short segment of track, like EZ-Track, then by default the other end must also be able to move around unless it has a good solid solder keeping the joint safe. If you don’t ever solder, you have a number of sliding and splaying joiners if one of them can be pressed to restore continuity briefly. If the locomotive’s weight can compress and deform a joint sufficiently that it breaks power and the loco stalls, you can bet your bottom dollar the next joiners in either direction can and probably are nearly as troublesome because they have to be able to allow the bad joiner to get bad in the first place! Not only that, but it suggests, if it isn’t just a problem with corrosion and/or dirt, that your roadbed is in need of attention, or that you should just forget the roadbed and use cualk or glue to fix the rail segments in place so that they are held more rigidly under a locomotive.
Two problems with joiners. Maybe not today, but tomorrow, or two years from today. They splay if they aren’t soldered or held between two firmly fixed rail ends that simply cannot deflect in any direction, say due to well-fixed ballast or good caulking under them to hold them firmly. And, if that isn’t the problem because you looked after those details, then it is corrosion due to mismatched metals and power transmission (AKA oxidation), or just dirt from water, sprayed adhesives, migrating crud, house dust, and anything else that can get between the metal surfaces that should make contact at such a joint.
I’m in agreement w/ Jeff, the issue is most likely the loco movement and weight causing an interuption in the feed. Like Jeff says, when happens again, place voltmeter and wiggle and press on the adjacent rail joiners.
If you continue having problems, just add a feeder to the siding. You can also add a SP switch to kill the power to it if you like ( stop or store power) would just need to cut rail gap.
Like Larry, I use only two wires from the power source to the track on my DC-powered layout, and there’s over 300’ of track in-service. Unlike Larry, though, all of the rail joints are soldered.
Even when the rail joiners are soldered together, it’s not that difficult to salvage the track and turnouts. Several years ago, I removed a pair of turnouts which were functioning as a no-longer–needed cross-over. One was re-used elsewhere, while the other sits in its box, awaiting completion of the second level of the layout. It was more work to clean off the old ballast than it was to unsolder everything.
Heat, push the joiner to one side of the gap using the tip of a small screwdriver or an X-acto blade, then, once the ballast has been softened, lift out.
And like Wayne, I too only have two wires to each isolated track section (block) on my DC powered layout, some of which are 20-30 feet long. And also like Wayne all rail joints are soldered.
The OP’s problem sounds to me just as Jeff described - a loose rail joiner.
The rail has a bigger cross sectional area than any feeder drop that we connect to it, so with soldered rail joints current or voltage drop in the rail its self is not a problem.
Large to medium sized DCC layouts may benefit from the multiple feeder thing, but in DC, with soldered rail joints in each track section (block), there is no such need.
If you have expansion/contraction concerns in your particular environment, solder jumpers around the rail joiners.
Personally, I have never has an issue with solderd rail joint causing any problems. I use plastic rail joiners at all my section breaks rather than rely on open gaps.
This has worked well for me for over 40 years using everything from hand layed track, TruScale ready track and gauged roadbed to Atlas flex and Atlas turnouts.