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[quote]QUOTE: [i] I reduced my layout to a simle oval with no reversing track and with only one set of turnouts to add a parallel bypass around one of the ends. Nothing fancier than that. Only one set of feeders and triple checked and rewired my feeder connections from the power pack. Removed my older turnouts. Still getting the problem, even without a load on the track. [/quote] If the turnouts are the all metal, non-insulating frog type this could be it. When placing these type of turnouts frog to frog you need to place electrical gaps in the rails between the frogs. Test by placing the points in the center position, wedge a small piece of wood or cardboard in to hold them there so the points do not contact either of the stock rails; then see if the short has gone away. Also the feeders must be connected to the point end of the turnouts, not the frog end. Here's a short locating tip if you have or can purchase a digital voltmeter, and above is not the problem. Using the ohms function of the meter will prove you have a short, which you know already, don;t measure ohms with power applied to the rails or you can damage the meter. The ohms function cannot resolve low enough resistances to find the short. But by using the lowest voltage range possible (millivolts, or thousandths of a volt) yiu can measure the voltage drop along the rails when applying brief periods of power from the power pack, ie set up the meter with alligator clips to the rails, turn on the power pack, quickly note the meter reading, then turn power off again before the powerpack overload detector triggers and shuts off the power (you need to have current flowing through the short to measure the voltage drop produced). Then move the alligator clip leads and try again. The farther the clip leads from the physical location of the short, the more voltage drop produced by the current flowing through the resistance of the rails. Move the clip leads in the direction that results in a lower voltage reading. When the reading is at its lowest, that is the location of the short. Keep trying, you'll find the problem sooner or later.
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