NEED HELP inherited garden railroad/

[Anonymous]

hello,

my name is john waite. my mother in law recently purchased a house and the previous owner has a nice railroad in the back yard garden area. she was going to give it away, the whole thing. i would say its over 100 feet of nice aristo track. i protested and told her i would take care of it, and resurrect it. well...i sort of jumped into this and in the last three days have learned SO MUCH. there is a decent power supply from the previous owner i think its pumping out about 10 amps. i went and got a locomotive- a little aristo 0-4-0. it sort of lurches around in some spots. i have cleaned the track and it gets better for a bit, then starts lurching again. also, the track hasnt been taken care of really, so its sort of coming apart at some spots. i guess i am just so overwhelmed but very interested in this. i dont have any cars yet, just a 0-4-0. how important is it for the track to be 100% perfectly level in all places? can someone give me some trouble shooting adivce? i would really love to restore the track and revive the railway. it seems like such a waste for her to just give it all away. any advice whatsoever is appreciated. also, i notice that the lights on the train flicker quite a bit when its being run on the track. i am in des moines, and ideally it would be great if someone could spend an afternoon showing me the ropes.

thanks in advance for any advice.

[Anonymous]

john
what a deal, go over the tracks and put things back together and make sure the screws are tight. my track goes from ground level to 22 inches high off the ground . keep reading the forums they are a lot of help. [#welcome] to the forum, ben ----pa.

[Anonymous]

looks like the sections of track are connected with braided wire- looks like bailing wire. i went around and replaced some connections, added a couple and repaired others. the train still lurches and gets lots of light flickering. tomorrow ill go get a volt meter and see what i can figure out.

[bman36]

john,
Welcome to the forum! To check your track start at the transformer connection. Work your way around from there. An Aristo 0-4-0 only has four pick ups for running. That is each wheel is your track pick up. These locos can be jittery at the best of times. Aristo has a "how to" article on their web site for using the tender as a track pick up for the loco. This may not be the best loco for testing. One thing is for sure...if you can get the 0-4-0 to run smoothly then anything will run on your track. Hope this helps. Later eh...Brian.

[Anonymous]

Hello John

Your problem is certainly to do with conductivity! or lack thereof. If the track is clean I mean with a slight shine on it and no and I no funny lookng patches (I get residue on mine from palms and ferns particularly when it rains). Look at the pick up wheels I have had trouble with reside getting on the metal wheels and causing flicker and uneven running in illuminated carriages. f you have a multimeter go over every joint with power on and the meter on Volts DC about 20 or less and you should read nothing; if you read anything it means that you are dropping voltage across that joint. I solder mine and I have none of these troubles now.

I had no idea that the engine that you have was twitchy, as I do not run anything else but LGB, which arent twitchy at all.

Thats all I can offer. good luck mate.


Regards ian

[Anonymous]

Hi John,
Welcome to our wonderful hobby/reason for living. Prepare to spend every available penny on this for the rest of your life! No more advise on the track mate except to say that sometimes it's better to start over than keep trying to repair. Check your supply, if it's old & not been used for a time then it may be cutting out, put your voltmeter in circuit between the controller and the track and watch the readings. If the train stalls when the readings are constant then it is that bit of track where the loco is.
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]

[vsmith]

Welcome John

What did you cleaned the track with?

Most use a Scotch-bright pad and run it over the top of the rails, the oxidation of the brass could be interferring with current flow, also make sure that all the connectors are tight, if you are using rail joiners or clamps make sure their isnt dirt or oxidation in the joiner. I use LGB conductive grease in all my joiners, it improves electricity flow and helps keep dirt out of the joiner.

Braided wire? is it soldiered to the rail? This is known as a jumper line and is ment to improve electricity flow but if you can replace them I'm unsure how they are connected to the rail.

If your performance doesnt improve you have to pull up each track section, clean it , clean the joiners, and reset and reballast, and work your way all the way around the layout.

[Anonymous]

thanks for all the great advice. the braided wirre, or jumper wires are in between the rail and plasticish stuff under the rail. of course he best case scenario is that the rails have to be PERFECTLY flush against eachother. in some situations though, they dont meet exactly flush. is this a huge concern? ill check the joiners, i noticed on couple of them, there is only on screw- man- im answering my own questions here. lots of work ahead of me!

[Anonymous]

If the lights are flickering the problem is that the engine is not picking up supply from the track.This could be dirty or uneven track.0-4-0,s are notorious for being bad runners when using their own pickups.I use one with my LGB undertruck trackcleaner.If the 0-4-0 will run on track,everything else will.Another problem could be the track joints.Because my children run all over my track they sometimes move the trackjoiners.When the train stops I leave it where it is and wiggle each joint on the rails.When I find a bad joint I drill the track either side and link it.This makes sure that the conductivity is constant all the way round.The track is the best conductor of all.Imagine running a wire the same size as the track to various parts of the layout.Small wire=big volt drop.Big wire(rail)=hardly any volt drop.
Level track on a small loco is quite important.Where the train hesitates rock the train on the track and it will show you which wheels are touching.Then you can adjust the track accordingly.Although my track is fixed to large bits of wood sunk into the ground it is never screwed down tight.It "floats" on the ballast.This gives the flexiblity .
On my small layout I can keep the track clean,however my Dad always runs trains with multiply pickups via metal wheels on the carriages.Even with an LGB trackcleaner loco he finds that this is the best way to run his small locos.
Hope this helps,Troy

[Anonymous]

Hi John, Welcome to the hobby, now get your mom interested. There are some good points brought up by the previous posts. If your 0-4-0 was used when you purchased it, you may have one of the early ones that had a problem with the plastting wareing off the wheels exposing the copper base coating. This will cause the wheels to become very dirty very fast. By all means, do apply electrical pick ups to the tender and electrically connect it to the engine. Adding weight to the loco will also help. Aristo track has very nice screw type rail joiners. I don't recommend using abrasive cleaners on brass rail; your rail has been sitting for a period of time in disuse. You may need to do a lot of cleaning. Using an orbital vibrator sander, try placing an absorbant pad of cloth on the sander and cover it with a piece of fiberglass window screen, wet the pad with whitchazel and poli***he rail head. Next, clean the rail with simple green followed with a liberal spray of water, wipe it with a cloth and alow it to dry. Now you are ready to improve the contact; coat the rail with WD-40. Use the liquid form and place a strip of the liquid about a foot long on each rail and let your loco spread it around. You may need to do this at several locations to get the whold layout covered. This may make your wheels slip, ( if you have grades or a light loco, your 0-4-0 should be ok, mine was.) if it does wipe it off with BBQ liter fluid. The WD-40 will improve the contact of your wheels and help keep the ants from using your track as a freeway. If performance falls off add more WD-40, this should keep you running smoothly.

[Anonymous]

I'm glad someone else has the ant problem.I thought it was just me!

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by johnrwaite

thanks for all the great advice. the braided wirre, or jumper wires are in between the rail and plasticish stuff under the rail. of course he best case scenario is that the rails have to be PERFECTLY flush against eachother. in some situations though, they dont meet exactly flush. is this a huge concern? ill check the joiners, i noticed on couple of them, there is only on screw- man- im answering my own questions here. lots of work ahead of me!

OK John, I'm having a real hard time trying to picture this,

exactly how is the braided wire connecting the two rail segments?

Is the braided wire welded (soldiered) to each rail, or simply inserted between the plastic tie piece and the brass rail?

are there Aristo rail joiners still in place?

has the second set screw that goes thru the small slot on the other end of the rail joiner been used to tie the two rails together?

If there are rail joiners, then how can the rails be not be aligning flush when connected?


We need to know a little more info to help.

I think the problem might be this funky connection.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by vsmith

QUOTE: Originally posted by johnrwaite

thanks for all the great advice. the braided wirre, or jumper wires are in between the rail and plasticish stuff under the rail. of course he best case scenario is that the rails have to be PERFECTLY flush against eachother. in some situations though, they dont meet exactly flush. is this a huge concern? ill check the joiners, i noticed on couple of them, there is only on screw- man- im answering my own questions here. lots of work ahead of me!

OK John, I'm having a real hard time trying to picture this,

exactly how is the braided wire connecting the two rail segments?

Is the braided wire welded (soldiered) to each rail ?

are there traditional rail joiners or clamps?

if so are they the slip-on type or do they have a small set screw into the rail and a small slot to accept another screw at the ajoining rail?

If there are rail joiners, then how can the rails be not be aligning flush when connected?


We need to know a little more info to help.

I think the problem might be this funky connection.

Maybe its some type of rope wire or cable that has been welded to each rail section, I've seen something like that on real railroads that serve to show when track is out.

When the connection is broken the signal sent through the track is intrupted, this warns train crews and prevents would-be disasters.

[vsmith]

In garden RR's the jumper wire is ment to be a means of providing uninterupted electrial flow as an alternative to soldering the rails together. It has the advantage of allowing the rail joint some movement for heat/cold expansion and contraction. Larger lines that have soldiered rails will often leave joiners every few dozen feet and use jumper wires so the joint can move without disrupting the current.

It sounds like what John is describing if I have it right is that the previous owner layout out the track but might not have used the second set screw that ties the aristo joiner to the next rail, or he did use the second set screw by did not use any conductive grease to keep dirt out and the connection got grotted out. So he did a simple, but really temporary solution of wedging a short section of wire under the rail between the plastic tie baseplates and bridged the grotty conection that way. the proble is that there could be corrosion or oxidation between the rail and the wire hence yet another poor connection. Maybe thats why he's getting poor performance.

[Anonymous]

just got back from the railway. i got a volt meter but i wasnt exactly sure how to read it. where ever i was on the track it was the same thing anyway. i set it high and it went to 100 everywhere. then i cleaned the wheels on the loco. this made a HUGE difference. i think one problem is that all i have right now is a locomotive and no rolling stock. the wheel base on the 0-4-0 is really narrow and tipsy. i think its so tipsy and light that its having a hard time maintaining a connection. i did buy the thing used- but i dont know how to tell which model it is. the wheels are completely chrome. i havent seen any other 0-4-0s on the web with wheels like mine. my power supply is an astron rs-35a running to a train engineer art-5471. can someone tell me what sort of power i have running to the track with this information? im really sorry i dont know this stuff, be patient, im learning. so the clean wheels make a huge difference, but i think i need to really go to town on the track like a previous post suggested i do. i have wiped it down, and scrubbed i know i could do a better job.

[Anonymous]

oh yeah- no tender either. the train came by itself. i know i know- BUYERS REGRET!

[Anonymous]

Ive come to the conclusion that a big part of the problem is the locomotive itself. the others i look at have more than four contacts. i bought it on consignment, and think i got taken. i still think the track needs cleaned and all that, but i feel a better loco would perform better. i bought it knowing full well that it was used. if anyone can suggest a good (steam) loco for 200 or less i would very much appreciate it. i got the 040 for 100.

[vsmith]

Well that could be a BIG part of the problem. Aristo's 0-4-0 is not one of my favorite engines, I have one that I got second hand and I have NEVER gotten it to work right. i would suggest trying to pick up something a little bigger and try again.

If your looking for engines at under $200

Aristo's FA-1 is usually under $200

Bachmann's 10 year Annie 4-6-0, spectrum versions can be found for around $150

LGB's little 0-4-0 porter is my favorite engine, it has 6 point power pick up, those 2 additional little slider pickups do make a big difference. Its around $120 for new.

Bachmann's new 0-4-0 saddletank looks like a winner too, but I dont have it yet. Its advertised for around $100 new.

USA and Aristo's has GP's and U-boats for under $200. but these might need at least 6 foot curves to run.

[bman36]

John,
The fact that your loco has chrome wheels means its older all right. The newer 0-4-0's have blackened wheels. I have seen Aristo FA1's in magazine ads for $109 US. This is a diesel but a way better running loco. The FA1 will handle 4 foot diameter curves no problem. If steam is what you want then choose from what Vic listed above. If you go Bachmann I feel any "Spectrum" loco is worth the money. LGB's Porter will make you happy too. All depends I guess on what you like. All the best. Later eh...Brian.