Thanks for the replies. Rest asured they've helped. I'll be heading down to the basement now...
analog kid I have one of those small, Kato Pocket Lines, an N Scale motorized bogie that i've built a critter on top of. It looks good, runs nice and smooth, and pulls a decent amount because, hey, it's a Kato. Only problem is when it goes through turnouts, one of the of the 4 wheels loses contact (insul-frog), leaving me with only three wheels making contact with the rails, two on one polarity, one on the other. 99% of the time this cause my pocket line to stall, forcing me to give it a nudge or two. I've check, and it's not the turnouts or the rails; they're all clean and in top condition. It's just that i lose contact going through turnouts. I've racked my brain for some time now, but have come up empty handed. How should i fix this problem?
I have one of those small, Kato Pocket Lines, an N Scale motorized bogie that i've built a critter on top of. It looks good, runs nice and smooth, and pulls a decent amount because, hey, it's a Kato. Only problem is when it goes through turnouts, one of the of the 4 wheels loses contact (insul-frog), leaving me with only three wheels making contact with the rails, two on one polarity, one on the other. 99% of the time this cause my pocket line to stall, forcing me to give it a nudge or two.
I've check, and it's not the turnouts or the rails; they're all clean and in top condition. It's just that i lose contact going through turnouts. I've racked my brain for some time now, but have come up empty handed. How should i fix this problem?
Wire the frogs, my friend.
Use a test jumper first though to verify that this is the problem.
Alton Junction
This is the reason why you should have powered frogs. Powering your frogs will solve your problem.
If that one wheel is still on metal rail when the loco stalls, it's probably not picking up or sending power to the motor. Maybe it's time for a disassembly and cleaning.
Hmmm... well I'm assuming that there is no way to make your frogs hot, so with that in mind the one wheel that is still on the rails must be slightly breaking contact to cause it to stall. And usually the only way a wheel will break contact, other than a derail, is the track might not be perfectly flat on the roadbed ( twisted track). What i did to my track to fix the problem was slightly bend the track by pulling up or pushing down on the rail with a pair of pliers to get the rails back to being even. It worked for me just be gentle it shouldn't take much. Remember as long as one wheel on each side is making contact the train should continue through the turnout. Otherwise you might want to consider changing over to electro frogs, not the answer you wanted I'm sure. Good luck.
The only cure for a problem like that is to have powered turnout frogs so there are no dead spots.