davidmbedard Dude.....didnt you read his last post? He solved the issue. David B
Dude.....didnt you read his last post? He solved the issue.
David B
Yeah, I was in a hurry and I wanted to pass that thought along before I went to lunch. I should have read through.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Since you're using Peco flex track, are you also using Peco turnouts? Does this happen when an engine or metal-wheeled cars are crossing a Peco turnout behind the locomotive that stalls?
If you look closely at the frog of some Peco turnouts, you'll see that the frog itself is plastic, and that the rails from the two diverging routes come close together, but don't quite touch, at the frog. This may be your problem. When a metal wheel crosses the frog, sometimes it bridges the gap between those two rails. Since they are of opposite polarity, this will cause a short.
It's an easy fix. Get some clear nail polish and paint the ends of those rails at the frog, just enough so that a wheel can't bridge the gap.
Thanks for all of the responses. I went over the track again with the Bright Boy, except with a little more vigor than before. Lo and behold, it looks like there was a little bit of flux on the track that was causing me the grief.
All of my feeders are soldered to the sides of the rails, and not to the rail joiners, so that is why I was a little confused about what was going on. The track looked clean from inspecting it, but once I ran my fingertip over it, I could feel some residual flux there. Once that was gone, problem solved.
Thanks all!!!
Chris
I would clean the wheels of the locomotives and then clean the track. As you say this happens over a spot where feeders are attached so if you soldered the feeders and used flux this could very well be your culprit.
Good luck
John R
John R.
Try this. Put both engines on the layout, with their headlights on. As you run one engine over the trouble spot, watch the headlight on the other engine. When the running engine stalls, does the headlight of the other engine blink? If so, you have a short, not a loss of power to the engine. If the other headlight does not blink, then you're losing power.
How did you attach the feeders? Did you solder them to the rails, or did you solder them to rail joiners? You may have a solid joint on the rail joiner, but the joiner-to-rail connection may not be that good.
Also, have you cleaned the track in the area where you soldered the feeders with a bright boy? If not, that may be part of the problem.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
18 AWG wire is kind of heavy for track feeders and you need more heat to solder the wire to the rails. There is the possibility that you have changed the gauge of the rails where the wires are due to the heat while soldering. Do you have an NMRA standards gauge to check the rail gauge at those spots?
How did you attach the feeders to the buss? If you use suitcase connectors, remove them and solder the wires.
Good Evening Folks,
I have a bit of a dilemna here and was hoping to get some feedback on what might be happening here.
I have just finished wiring up my HO scale layout, and thus far everything has worked out well. I have gone back and added some feeders here and there to address some of the areas that required it.
My dilemna is this though. As I run the odd locomotive through certain areas, I have noticed that sometimes at low speeds, the locomotive tends to stall, and when it does, it's usually right over where feeders are attached on a straight piece of Peco flextrack. I'm a bit perplexed.
I have checked the wiring, and everything seems in check. I'm using a 12 AWG buss and 18 AWG feeders around the DCC layout. In addition, I have thoroughly cleaned the track and wheels of the locomotives. One loco is an Intermountain SD40-2W, and the other is an Atlas GP40-2W -- both brand new.
This usually occurs during slow speed operation, and is sporadic. Sometimes it stalls, and sometimes it doesn't. I can't seem to find any info on why this might be happening.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.