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Dead Area on DCC track.

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  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: North Dakota
  • 9,592 posts
Posted by BroadwayLion on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 8:52 PM

It always takes TWO gaps to stop a train. Yes a jumper or soldering a rail joiner will fix it, but one of those gaps could have been caused by a switch point. I'd check that very carefully even though it is working now.

 

ROAR

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  • Member since
    November 2013
  • 9 posts
Posted by JOHN MACLEOD on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 12:54 PM

Thanks for the help. I did the simplist thing and ran more wire to the dead area. Problem solved.

  • Member since
    October 2006
  • From: Western, MA
  • 8,571 posts
Posted by richg1998 on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 10:20 AM

You will usually need a load on the section of track for proper troubleshooting. A loco or a car light bulb. Some use an 1156 light bulb as a load.

Sometimes you will see the proper voltage with no load and as soon as you connect a load, the voltage drops.

Rich

If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.

  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
  • 21,483 posts
Posted by MisterBeasley on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 10:13 AM

When I see "wet landscaping" and "dead track" together, I immediately suspect that you got glue into the rail joiners, so they are no longer making a good connection.  Mobilman is right.  Just run a pair of feeders and be done with it.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: Southeast Texas
  • 5,449 posts
Posted by mobilman44 on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 10:00 AM

It could be the result of a loose rail joiner or other track connection.  The easy way to fix it is to run another set of feeders to it.

 

ENJOY  !

 

Mobilman44

 

Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central 

  • Member since
    October 2006
  • From: Western, MA
  • 8,571 posts
Posted by richg1998 on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 9:30 AM

Sounds like a intermittent feeder or track splice. Get your voltmeter out and troubleshoot.

If the DCC controller did not trip, you have a loss of power because of open circuit, not a short.

Rich



If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.

  • Member since
    November 2013
  • 9 posts
Dead Area on DCC track.
Posted by JOHN MACLEOD on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 5:48 PM

So far I cannot figure out why I have a dead area of track all of a sudden. It messures not much more than 8 inches. Some times the train will go by but more times than not it will stop dead. It happens just after a double gap and about 12 inches from the next wired rails. I at first thought it was shorting because of an area I was landscaping was still wet. Not wet now. Has anyone had this happen or have some suggestions on posible causes. Train runs fine after moved the 8 inches. Thanks John.

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