Hello friends. About 12 months ago I bought several new BLI SP Daylight articulated passenger cars on sale. Most work fine but two of them short out the track. After inspecting them inside out out I did not see any obvious problems. I removed the lighting contacts and now they run fine but they have no interior lighting. I would really like to fix that. I wonder if any of you have experienced this and can give me some helpful incite. Thanks in advance. Rick
Hello and
While I don't have any of the SP BLI cars I do have about two-dozen of their California Zephyr cars. I do recall one or two of these cars having a similar shorting problem and I'm trying to remember (this was in 2006!) the exact details but it involved the component ends on the PC board that were not trimmed close enough to the board.
The result was that when the car was assembled these protruding leads had shorted against another metal part of the car. A little trimming and placement of Kapton insulating tape cured the problem.
I'll have to take a look when time permits and see if I can jog my feeble memory by reexamining the light strip.
Hope that helps,
Regards, Ed
Thanks for your input Ed. I am going to open one up this weekend and inspect closer this time focusing on the area you mentioned. I didn't dig very deep last time as I was in a big hurry to drag them around my new layout. Rick
Have you checked the trucks against those on a problem-free car to see if they are reversed in any way? If one truck is flipped 180 degrees, that could cause a short if the power from the two trucks ends up oppositely polarized.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
You might have wheels with the axles reversed. Many lighted cars are designed to have the trucks only pick up power from the wheels on one side. The other truck will be powered on the other side. The unpowered wheels need to be insulated. One way that is done is to have a small plastic bushing around the axle on the side that is insulated. If the axle gets reversed and the powered wheel is on the wrong side, it will create a short. Check your wheels to make sure the powered wheels are on the same side for one truck and on the opposite side for the other truck.
I guess with an articulated car, you have three trucks and I'm not sure which ones are supposed to be powered but you need to make sure the powered wheels for each truck are on the correct side.
MisterBeasleyHave you checked the trucks against those on a problem-free car to see if they are reversed in any way?
That could be a problem on some makes but BLI uses a system of bronze tabs, similar to how Kato locomotives convey power to the chassis, so even if you could reverse a truck the electrical continuity would remain the same.
gmpullman MisterBeasley Have you checked the trucks against those on a problem-free car to see if they are reversed in any way? That could be a problem on some makes but BLI uses a system of bronze tabs, similar to how Kato locomotives convey power to the chassis, so even if you could reverse a truck the electrical continuity would remain the same. Regards, Ed
MisterBeasley Have you checked the trucks against those on a problem-free car to see if they are reversed in any way?
What about the axles? If they got flipped, would it cause a polarity problem? I've done that with the power pickups on the tenders of my steamers. I inadvertently flipped the axle so the insulated wheel was on the wrong side. That definitely causes a short.
***** UPDATE ***** - Problem Solved - Thank you John - I have pushed my DCS52 and little 3 amp power supply to the edge. I need more power or I clip out the keep alives in the cars that are drawing loads of power on start-up. I am happy to report all the cars are fine other than being power hogs.