I'm having problems with my HO scale track. The trains operate normally until they hit certain points in the track, when the power noticeably drops. The track is clean and the trains wheels are clean. I've soldered the rails together to no avail. Any suggestions?
I have a spot like that which I have not troubleshot yet. When I do I will give the track an extra good cleaning. I will carefully watch the ammeter as the train goes thru the bad spot. If current draw increases it is a sign the locomotives are encountering some kinda drag and are pulling more current to overcome it. Makes it a mechanical problem. If current draw decreases I will suspect extra resistance from somewhere is cutting power to the locomotives. Then get out my voltmeter and check for track voltage staying constant thru the bad spot. I run plain DC so voltmeters still tell me something. If I were to find that track voltage drops off in the bad spot I will run another pair of feeders down to the power bus. I will carefully check track gauge looking for narrow spots where the wheel flanges might be dragging on the rails. I will inspect the turnouts near the bad spot, they might be out of gauge and causing extra drag. I will run my fingers over the track feeling for rough spots, rail joiners not meeting up squarely, whatever. I will file off any offending bits of nickel-silver or solder.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
How far is this bad section of track from the power feeders?
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Try running a temporary set of feeders past the bad spot. If it fixes it, you need more power feeders.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
The track is hornby semi flex, but the switches are atlas. The solder melted completely, and just for good measure I tried soldering a wire from a good section of track to the problem area but that didn't work either. The problem area is about twenty feet from the feeders. I'll try some of your suggestions and see what happens, thanks
I soldered a second set of feeders to the problem area and that fixed it. Thanks for the suggestions!
There is an old movie called A Thousand Clowns in which the main character, Jason Robards Jr. Is often buying decorative eagles at yard sales. "You can never have too many eagles," he tells his young son.
The same goes for feeders.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Afdahl Flats The problem area is about twenty feet from the feeders.
The problem area is about twenty feet from the feeders.
Yeah, I latched onto this sentence as well. I don't know about Hornby Semi-flex track, but 20' has to be at least five or six joints, and whether soldered or not, that's a long way.
Glad to see the problem is resolved.
Robert
LINK to SNSR Blog
Afdahl FlatsI soldered a second set of feeders to the problem area and that fixed it.
Good to hear. I am glad you found an answer in the forums.