Train slowes

[Anonymous]

I have a Lionel Christmas train set from 2003 with CW80 and FasTrack. When the train is at the farthest point on the loop it slows down. Should this happen with the smallness of this loop?

John

[laz 57]

JOHN,

  Make sure your track is clean.  Also maybe another power drop is needed on the back side of your track.  This would give more power to the back side.  I have my power drops every 3-4 feet.

laz57

[Anonymous]

 I cleaned the track but I will try another connection at the other end.

Thanks

John

[jimhaleyscomet]

If you train is slowing on the curves (or when cars are on the curves) that is normal.  Still an extra power drop will help.

Jim H 

[Anonymous]

If you train is slowing on the curves (or when cars are on the curves) that is normal.  Still an extra power drop will help.

Jim H 

 

really that is normal?

[Buckeye Riveter]

 I cleaned the track but I will try another connection at the other end.

Thanks

John

I had a 4' x 6' layout under the tree for years, and yes, I had to use two power drops to make it run smooth.  Use 14 to 16 gage wire for all your connections from the transformer to the track. 

[Dave Farquhar]

If you train is slowing on the curves (or when cars are on the curves) that is normal.  Still an extra power drop will help.

Jim H 

 

really that is normal?

Yes, some slowdown on curves is normal because the engine has to work a lot harder to get around a curve, especially a sharp curve, than it does to just go down a straightaway.

I have a Lionel Christmas train set from 2003 with CW80 and FasTrack. When the train is at the farthest point on the loop it slows down. Should this happen with the smallness of this loop?

John

I had the same problem with the loop that came with my Polar Express set. It turned out I had some loose track joints. Finding them is the challenge. Try running the train a while and see what parts of the track feel warmer to the touch. That's always a good indication. I've heard of a couple of fixes but the easiest is to bend the pins inward just a touch with a big pair of lineman's pliers so they'll make better contact with the other pin. Or if you're handy with a soldering iron, tin the pins with solder to make them just a little thicker. 

A second power drop would help, but one drop should be adequate if you're just using the pieces of track that came with the train set. 

[traindaddy1]

A 'no-brainer' question.....please bear with me.  I don't have the problem but in reading the posts, a "power drop" is mentioned. Does this mean another 'lockon'  (tubular track) and if so, would the wires go to the same transformer terminals as the first 'lockon' or should they go to separate terminals? As always, thanks.

[Wes Whitmore]

You could daisy chain them from lockon to lockon, or just run two wires back to the transformer, or use a barrier strip to keep it clean.

If you have a train that has a lighted caboose, you could push that around the track to see if the light dims.  It could be a dirty track, or a bad track joint.  That's a pretty small track to need multiple power connections.

Wes

[lionelsoni]

I'm afraid a lighted caboose would not be a very sensitive test.  A locomotive draws perhaps ten times as much current as a caboose.  So track resistance that would slow down a train would not be likely to dim a caboose on the track by itself.  Enough resistance to dim the caboose would probably stop a train dead in its tracks (so to speak).

[Wes Whitmore]

It was just to test conductivity of the rails and joints.  I used it to find an open in a short section of my track that would cause my train to slow down until it hit the problem-free area.  It allowed me to move back and forth very slowly and see if the light went out.  It was faster than using a multimeter for me.

Wes

[Anonymous]

Hello I have just one question to ask to all that got on this thread and that is .Does any one use DCS when you are experincing this problem? If you do, on a scale of 1 to 10, what are you getting on you track power......Felix