Fastrak Manual 036 Switches

[Anonymous]

As a relative newcomer I've a simple question. On the 036 Fastrak manual switches there are tiny nylon pieces on the rails which if you stop the locomotive with a contact wheel directly above, stalls the train. Of course I understand why and it's easy to avoid this or just give the train a gentle push when it happens. My questions are: Is this standard with switches or unique to Fastrak?Is it a design flaw? Is there an electrical rationale for using nylon or does it have to do with wearability and friction (i.e. the nylon appeared coated with Teflon or similar--and the switches do function well)?

Sorry if this has been dealt with elsewhere--a quick search revealed nothing. Thanks in advance to anyone who can shed light on this!

[ChiefEagles]

How many pickups do you have under your engine? If only one, that is your problem. If it had two, the one not on the nylon would continue power to your engine. I see that some engines come with one pickup and there are ways to add another one.

[lionelsoni]

Even with two pickups, there is enough variety in location of pickups and of insulating rails on switches and other trackwork that open circuits can occur. I take every opportunity to bus pickups together on steam locomotives and their tenders and on multiple units that I customarily use together. In one case, I transplanted the pickup for the light in a baggage car (which I think looks more reasonable without one) forward to a General's tender.

You can make an unobtrusive connector out of a mating pair of individual connector pins soldered to black wires on each side and covered with shrink tubing, all but the business end of the male pin. Be sure to put the female on the powered unit. It is too easy for the male to create a short circuit when you are running it alone, as I have found from experience.