I am just starting to put together the track on my new layout and Im starting with a staging yard. I have put together a ladder of 5 turnouts, these are a mix of new and used NS. I have soldered the turnouts together and have attached the flex track to them but they are not soldered yet, when I send an Engine down the track for testing it goes through the first turnout just fine but when it hits the second it stops dead and the overload light on the transformer comes on. Is this a bad frog on the turnout that may not be insulating? This is a DC unit.
Thanks, Dugan
Most turnouts can be put together in most simple configurations without any problems. A few, however, need special attention. What brand of turnouts are you using? In particular, what brand is the turnout where you have a problem?
How are you powering this arrangement? Do you have a single set of feeders, or are you providing power at multiple points? I'm guessing, with no particular reason, that you're feeding the ladder from both ends, but you've got the polarity wrong on one set of feeders. Besides that, there's a loose rail joiner or a poorly-conducting turnout, so the mis-matched polarity doesn't cause a problem until the engine gets to the bad spot and bridges the gap, causing a short.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
It would be nice to know what brand of switches you are using. Atlas, Peco, Walthers, etc? Scale? It sounds like your locos wheels are bridging the rails of opposite polarity on the frog. look at the rails on the back end of the frog where they come together. Sometimes a little paint or nailpolish put on the point of the frog for about 1/4 inch from the point would cure this. This condition is what I have with peco switches in N scale and running with DCC. Does it still do it if you run the loco fast through the switches?
Without knowing the brand of turnouts you're using, it's impossible to know what may be the cause of the short.
I would like to add a bit of friendly advice -- NEVER solder a turnout into position. A turnout is the only piece of trackwork with moving parts, and if anything is ever going to break or cause a problem and need to be replaced, it will be a turnout.
In your case, you probably needed to add insulated rail joiners to some of the turnouts to prevent shorts. But since you have soldered them all together, you can't easily now get them back apart to use insulated joiners where necessary.
The turnouts are a mix of some new Atlas and some used which I do not see a brand name on anywhere, they are plastic coated frogs but it looks like it may not be completely covered like the Atlas. This is HO scale and the track is not fastened down yet. I am starting with the staging yard and doing it in sections so I can test it before I nail it or glue it all down. I have only hooked feeders to one end to test it but will have more feeders when I completely install it. This ladder will feed into a traingle of 3 wye's so that the trains can go either direction or pass the yard, but these are not connected together yet as I am trying to make sure the smaller sections all work before I continue on.
Dugan
There is nothing wrong with soldering switches in position. I have done it and was able to easily replace a bad switch with no problems. When MR did their project beer line layout the builders soldered several switches together, so even the so called pros are OK with it..
Try running the loco the opposite direction, starting on the other end of the track, to see if it causes a short in that direction. You might have to do some adjustments to the turnout.
Springfield PA
Hi!
When I started building my current HO layout two years ago, I found I had 4 generations of Atlas code 100 turnouts. On some of the earlier ones - which worked successfully on my DC layout - certain DCC locos (steamers) would short at the frog. It finally hit me that where the two tracks converge at the point of the frog, there was very, very little space between. The steamer drive wheels (only some locos) would touch both and a short would result. I subsequently got rid of all of them.
Also, there were other old ones that the pivot rails were not solidly secured, and a heavy loco would bend it a bit and derail. These also were removed and replaced with new ones.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central