Switch question from novice...

[Anonymous]

New to the whole model railroading hobby. Got an N scale Bachmann starter set for kicks. Thought it was a blast. So I bought some more EZ Track and a couple switches - one left and one right - and created a big "creative" layout one night on a 4 X 6 piece of plywood.

The outer loop runs fine. But whenever I try to switch to the inner figure-8 type loop the train stops. As soon as I manually (or electronically) hit the switch for the engine to take a right instead of continue going straight, the train stops.

And if I try to start the train off in the inner loop, it doesn't run. It only works on the outer loop.

What's the deal?

Like I said, I'm totally new to this. I realize I probably have to do some type of wiring.

Please help me so I can start playing with my trains again. [:)]

[Anonymous]

Just adding a note to say that I'm not making this a "big-time" layout. Just want to goof around one train at a time. Maybe later add some extras.

[rrinker]

It would appear that the Bachmann EZ Track switches are power routing of some sort, which is pretty darn suprising to me since any other sectional track system that I've ever used does not do this, and the train would run everywhere with just one set of feeders.

What you will need to do it put another terminal section in the inner loop to get power there. Hook the wires up so that each terminal connects to the same side on both terminal sections - if they are reversed you will have a short.
Even better, get an Atlas Selector (before anyone else starts in, YES, you can just get ordinary toggle switches, but if you are trying to keep it simple for now, the Atlas electrical components are a bit easier to understand), and hook your power pack to the side of the Selector. Hook one of the outputs of the selector to your outside loop, and hook a second output of the Selector to the inner loop, again making sure the both terminals are connected in parallel, that is, if you are looking at the track so that one rail is to your right and one is to your left, both 'right' rails must connect to the same side, and both 'left' rails must conenct to the same side. Now you can run one train around the outer loop, bring it to the inside, and stop it, and run a different train on the outer loop.
Even though you are using Bachmann track, take a look at one of the Atlass track plan books, you won't be able to duplicate the plan exactly, but the wiring stuff will be explained. At some point you may want to get a second power pack and run 2 trains at a time, or do other things.
Start small, add ona little bit, get that figured out, and move on to the next thing. That's how you learn and before you know it you will be lookign for a bigger house so you can build a bigger layout [:D]

[trollw]

It would be helpful if you could provide a sketch of what your track layout looks like. From the description, it sounds like the inner loop is creating a short circuit so it shorts out the power pack when you switch to it. Without using fancy gauges, you can see if this might be the case: place one finger on one of the rails where the track connects to the turnout from the outer loop. Run that finger all the way around the inner loop until it comes back to a turnout that takes you back to the outer loop. If your finger doesn't wind up at the same rail on the outer loop, then the inner loop is shorting out the pack when it is selected. If this doesn't make sense, send an e-mail (with a phone number where I can reach you between 9-5 CST ) to me at [e-mail] and I will try to talk you through the process.

John

[cwclark]

If i understand it correctly, you have an outer loop and an inner loop that is a figure eight..if this is the case, then you are creating a short where the turnouts connect to the figure eight...to correct this, you are going to have to insulate the turnouts where they connect to the inner and outer loop and install a DP/DT switch (the wires will cross on the outer posts) so that you can reverse the polarity when the train enters the figure eight section or exits back onto the outer loop ..another thing you can do is set up for "cab control" so that you have two power packs that can run the inner and outer loop independently..you can also run two trains at the same time with this setup......chuck[:D]

[IRONROOSTER]

You have may have introduced a reversing loop into the layout. Push a couple of cars from the outer loop through one switch into the inner loop and through the other switch back out to the outer loop and around to the first switch. If they are going the other way from how you started you have a reversing loop. This requires special wiring and a dpdt switch to make it work correctly. Pick up a book on wiring your model railroad at your LHS. You can also rearrange one of the switches to eliminate the reversing which should clear up your problems.
Enjoy
Paul