I have a question on elect. I have my track down Ngauge, Kato track, I have 5 terminal unijoiners hooked up, three go to a 3 way extenion and the other 2 are wired to a terminal strip which in turn is wired to my Tech 4 MRC 280I have wired it to cab 1 then cab 2 and I get the same results the engine does not move. I am hopeing that someone may help me. All this is on the Manning Oaks layout that I got from kato...
Without a diagram of the wiring it's hard to understand what you have done, but it sounds like the wires are crossed somewhere and causing a short circuit. Both cabs should not be connected to the same wire, but it sounds like that is what you have done.
Disconnect all the wires. Connect only one set of wires to one cab and to one track terminal and see if the locomotive runs. If it does, then connect another track terminal. Keep connecting the track terminals one at a time until you figure out which one is wired wrong because the train will no longer run. Then reverse those two wires and see if it will run.
thanks for your reply, I might have not explained correctly, I just had it wired up to cab 1 then I tried that when it didn't run I then wired it up to cab 2 and received the same reseults, as per your thoughts, I will do as you say and see if in fact there is a crossed wire.
this is what I have done so far, I checked the rails with no power on it meaning the the whole layout with a meter and all is ok, the ohm on was good, I then did as you said by disconnecting all terminals the trying one at a time and it was the same result, the terminal unijoiners have two wires one blue and then other white, I hooked the white to a terminal strip one one side and the blue on the other then one wire to the power pack on one side of the strip and the other on ther side, same reuslt the engine did not move, I then tested the engine it was ok, I put another engine on and the same results.I have six power switches all hooked up tpgether then to the power pack acessory hook ups and they work just fine. I have checked all connections to the terminal unijoiners and all are just fine. I am getting frustrated with this, I have been trying everything that I can think of for the past week almost everyday and no luck. I am about to take the whole thing apart and put it all back in the boxes and calling it a night......
Disconnect all of the blue and white wires from the terminal strip. Pick one (and only one) pair of wires fron the rail joiners. One blu and one white. Connect tose to the poaer pack and se if the engine runs. If it does, connect another pair and test again. Continue connecting them one pair at a time until the engine does not run. When that happens, disconnect the last pair and swap the colored wires. Reconnect the blue wire to the terminal that has the white wires and the white wire to the terminal that has the blue wires. Test the engine again. If it works, you can either leave it that way or straighten out the colors at the track and at the terminals.
Martin Myers