Hi yes the pickups in the tender are working. My wife is tinkering with it now. Like I said I originally had a #8 atlas which I filed down on, no help. Replaced it with a #6 atlas, no help. Painted a bit of the rail beyond the frog, again no help. I have a #8 walthers coming in a few days we'll see if that does the trick. I know if I crawl through the turnout it normally makes it just fine but at track speed it stalls. I have to believe that something is lifting it up I just can't see it and there are no sparks. I'm running a mrc 20 control master i love it but it has no overload light. Matter of fact I wired a bulb to the 16v ac just so I'd remember to turn the damn thing off I'll let you all know when we get it all figured out. Thanks for all the great input. Wayne
I have not soldered joiners.... But nothing short of deliberately trying will move my turnouts.
Is there an answer on if the tender pickups work? I would also check the contacts from the wheelsets to the motor. It may have a loose contact somewhere, and the turnout frogs/points in question maybe just high enough to "jostle" that loose contact point, just enough to have a momentary interruption. Especially look for dried up lubricant that was "generously applied" by the manufacturer....
And, back to those turnouts.... Make sure that they are dead flat level, and can not flex under weight. That will only agrivate any issues the loco may or may not have.
I had one turnout that gave me fits, until I seen that it would flex slightly under weight. Once I firmed it up, all but my largest loco will run through that thing with no issues, from high speed to slow to even crawling speed. My largest loco? It simply does not like the fact it is a very tight #4 diverging route with a sharp 18" radius curve after it. Straight through its great though! So, make sure flat, no flexing. Now, all of my turnouts are flat, and very secured. I can put almost all my weight on them, no flexing until I am off the floor.... That should handle HO scale trains No problem.
And really make sure it is definitely not shorting momentarily, and giving issues because of it. My Atlas turnouts, and one Walthers/Shinohara turnout have a coat of paint on one segment....
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
Another thing you may want to check is frog height. While I never had any problems with my own mostly plastic steamers, a friend often brings some of his brass steamers to run on my layout. Some of the larger ones would stall on some Atlas turnouts (#6 Code 83), but not on all of them. After checking the usual sources of trouble (flangeways, contact of the points, etc.) I discovered some turnouts to have frogs higher than the other rails of the turnout. When a loco with a longer driver wheelbase ran onto the unpowered frog, all of the drivers on that side were lifted off the rails, breaking contact with the powered rails on either side of the frog. A few passes with a mill file corrected that situation, and I used a straightedge to find a few more on other parts of the layout.All of my turnouts are nailed down and all rail joints soldered, but I am aware that some modellers, for reasons not understood, do not solder the rail joiners of turnouts and/or do not affix turnouts firmly in place - this, I think, would only acerbate such a problem.
Wayne
One other thing to check on Atlas turnouts. Just past the frog, two rails of opposite polarity are right next to each other. Metal wheels can contact both and create a momentary short. In the old days it wouldn't last long enough to dump the breaker, but now with electronic overload protection the reaction is instantaneous. The track looses power until the overload circuit resets.
The cure is to paint the top of one rail with enamel paint for about 1/4 inch past the frog. I usually do the side with the least traffic to help the paint last longer.
Hi I checked the wheels before I left home this morning and all was good. I'm back on the road again so it will be up to my chief engineer aka my wife to figure it out she's pretty good with stuff and she's done all the buildings on the layout so far. If it turns out to be the plug I suppose running some sort of jumper wire would be in order. Wayne
If the wheels are in gauge, check that the tender pickups are working. possible that there may be trouble w/ connection at the plug. On known decent straight track lift the loco to see if the tender will still drive the wheels. Working properly the tender feed should carry the loco through the turnout, may times even w/ an faulty unpowered point rail.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
I'm still thinking out of gauge wheelsets and/or turnouts..... Really rule those out before you make any wholesale changes to layout and/or loco.... If one is slightly narrow, other is slightly wide, you will have issues. And, if it's DC, it maybe shorting "momentarily" and clearing itself just as quickly. Out of gauge wheelsets and/or turnouts will cause that. If it's DCC, dirty wheelsets and/or track along the turnout area will cause this symptom also... But DCC will be easier to check if it is just a stall, or actually a short. DCC circuit breakers are usually much quicker than DC power pack circuit breakers on shorts... When I ran DC, a quick momentary short would usually not trip the power packs breaker, yet same momentary short will trip the DCC system's breaker.
HOWEVER: If it is a true power pick up issue, or a out of gauge issue, adding a decoder to it will not help. If it does this now, it will continue to do this with a decoder.
As you stated it does not have a decoder, this issue you are having will not go away simply by adding a decoder to the mix... It may in fact make it worse, as DCC decoders are more sensitive to power interruptions than plain DC only loco's.
EDIT: I see that your other loco's do not exhibit the same problem, so that, with so many not giving the same issue, to me shows it maybe a loco issue. You need to check the wheelsets on this loco before you try anything else. Rule out the out of gauge wheelsets before even looking at anything else.
It's supposed to be all wheel pick up there is a plug between the tender and the loco. You would'nt think that with that many wheels there would be an issue. There was a little room in the tender so I added some extra weight helped on one turnout but not the other. Wayne
Nope no shorts just stalls.
I'm using a track nail to keep the points locked in place. When I do get to the point of adding switch machines I'm thinking of going with Tortise the more I read about them the more I like them. I also going to replace this turnout with a Walthers one. This is the only loco out of about 100 I've had stalling issues with. Would a dcc chip do any good? Just curious. Thanks, Wayne
A stupid, basic, question. Is the engine stalling, or shorting out at the switch? They can seem the same but the steps to correct are very different.
If after 'fiddling" w/ the turnouts, you still are experiencing stalling, you may consider work on the loco itself. I'm not familiar w/ this particular one. Doesn't it have tender pickup? If not I would look into adding pickup or make them more reliable. you can also look into a TCS keep alive module. This will solve any issues by carrying the loco across and potential dead spots. Of course if it is a short, you will need to remedy the problem in the turnout/ trackwork.
I have one of those locomotives that is DCC/Sound equipped, and have never had a power pickup problem with it.
Your statement that you have not installed any type of switch motor seems to be the biggest problem -- not even a ground throw of some type? The point rail is possibly not making good contact with the stock rail, and is causing a loss of power within the turnout, especially if you have a loose rail joiner.
Hi, Thanks for the input. The reason I filed the gaurd rail is because Atlas is fameous for their gaurd rails sitting to high. I have tons of other locos including some finicky Rocos and others. I may end up swapping this turnout with a Walthers or powering the frog on this one. I have not got to the point where I've added switch machines yet. Do you have any preferences?Thanks, Wayne
Assuming HO scale, also assuming DC?
My first check, with turnouts, would be that the turnout itself is electrically sound... By that, I mean that it conducts power throughout the entire turnout. Check with a multimeter to ensure there are no "dead spots" on the turnouts. I have had turnouts with electrical issues before. And speaking of turnouts with issues:
Are the turnouts within NMRA specs? Check the entire turnout with the track gauge. Every bit of it. (I notice you mentioned something about filing the guardrails helped, were they out of gauge or higher than the rails? Really check those areas out carefully.) Think Sherlock Holmes carefully examining here... Every little teeny tiny, itsy bitsy, minute detail on these turnouts.
While you have the NMRA Gauge out, check every wheelset on the loco in question. If either turnout or any wheelsets are off, or both, you will have issues like this.
Next check, and this sounds really stupid, but, that each turnout is flat. Dead flat. No low spots, no areas that will "sink" under the weight of the loco, allowing the loco frame to lift the wheels off the rails and thus kill any electrical path from rail to wheel. A 2-10-2 is a long steam loco, if there are areas on the turnout that flex under weight, the loco frame will keep it straight, pulling the wheels off the track. It does not have to derail when this happens, just off enough to interrupt power... (I have one turnout that has this exact issue, but only pops it's head out at me with my larger loco's.... And my largest loco really hates it, it not only stalls, it then derails when I do the "hand from the sky nudge" to get it going again... Of course, that's my fault for having a poorly laid turnout at the exit of a curve.....)
Finally, when all else fails:
Dirty track and/or wheels. However, if it is only doing it on a certain set of turnouts, my thoughts are track work and/or turnout issues, or out of gauge wheelsets, as that seems to be the most likely culprit right now...
Curious, do you have any other loco's, and do they have the same problem? If yes, track. If you have other loco's and they work just fine, what kinds are they? It still could be track/turnout issues, but, need more information to rule out certain issues, like wheelsets not in gauge, turnouts not in gauge, power continuity issues, etc...
Hope this is helpful.
Hi Folks, I have a brand spanking new IHC 2-10-2 Gold Series. It runs well for a mid priced loco but I'm having issues with it stalling on a couple of my Atlas #8 turnouts. Not all of them just two. I've tried fileing down the gaurdrail it seem to help on one but not the other. I replaced it with a #6 (smaller frog) not much difference. I'm befuddled Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Wayne