HI all, ok I may have asked this general ? in another post but I am gonna ask again. How many feeder wires is too many on the common rail. I have SHINOHARA turnouts that are route controlled so when I throw a switch to change the trains direction I lose power to the engine, someone suggested putting feeder wires on both the main common and the diverging common rails after the frogs? After trying this on a couple of turnouts it seemed like I was developing a short, is that possible?Oh BTW I am running a DC system with toggle switch block control and dual transformers( not sure if that matters ). Thank you for your suggestions in advance, JOE
Joe,
There is no such thing as too many feeder wires. Crossing them and hooking one up to the wrong bus wire will cause problems. That's where you need to look and it is very easy to get mixed up under the layuit. I once install a wrong color feeder to a stock rail of a switch. It took me several days to finally find it because I had all the red feeder wires soldered to the red bus wire. One of those red feeders should have been black. Finding it finally was a "DUH" moment.
Martin Myers
Thanks for the info Martin , but is it possible to cause a short by soldering a feeder onto the diverging rail? I just tried it and as soon as I threw the switch my engine stopped and my pilot light went out on my transformer indicating a short.
Correct. THAT *is* a short. Some switches (turnouts) work one way, and others another. LION isolates the diverging leads of all switches. ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Ok BROADWAY LION I'll bite so how do I fix my problem? any input would be appreaciated
LION does the biting! Disconnect all of the feeders from one side of the layout. Is the short still there? If so disconnect the feeders from the other track as well. Replace them one at a time until the short comes back, and then you will have in your hand the wire that is making you miserable.
Or run your finger along the right hand track, look to see that all of the feeders are attached to the correct bus. Do the other track. Are these all wired correctly.
Well before taking all of the feeder wires off, you suspect the problem is by a certain switch, so start there and trace back the wires. or better yet, examine the switch. Maybe there is a snip of wire on one of the tracks that does not belong there.
When LION has short, him pushed emergency power cutoff switch. Then him must walk around the whole layout just to find all of his trains and to see that they are all on the tracks. Him knows his trouble spots, and so him looks there first. But LIONS railroad is working, so him must look for transient shorts, you are looking for one that may be hard wired into your circuit. But it sounds like the switch is the problem.
Try taking the trains off of the track and isolating the power supply from the layout, then you can use a battery and a test light. The lamp should only go on from one track to the other if there is a short. (That is why you mast take the engines off, they will pass current to the lamp and make it light up. Transformer coil, same thing.
Is not easy to find short.
ROAR