I was runnoing trains last night and I nocticed that some of my locomotives were stalling on a Peco #6 Electrofrog turnout. I tried cleaning the rails but the problem persisted. I then checked the turnout with a volt meter and discovered the inside mainline running rail (the one the frog side), the paint rails and frog were no longer powered. With the frog, there was no power with the turnout thrown in either direction. I'm running DC. I'm kind of at a loss.
The last thing I did was paint the sides of the rails Floquil "Rail Brown." Could that have something to do with it? It was working fine prior to painting and a little bit afterwards.
Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in N Scale.
www.prr-nscale.blogspot.com
I am having similar issues with my Peco On30 Electrofrog switches. There are two possible areas of concern:
#1 is the paint on the stock rails and the closure rails. Remove the paint there carefully, avoiding to bend the closure rails.
#2 those little contact shoes on the closure rails that slide under the stock rails may have been bent while painting. Carefull bent them back , so they align with the stock rails again. Be very careful while doing this.
I have spent endless hours tinkering and tweaking the switches to get everything up and running again after ballasting. I am not yet done, performance at 95%, which is not good enough.
Scrape the paint from the inside stock rail and outside part of the points. Then test with meter.
If you are feeding power (DC) from the point side, the paint has insulated the power flow at the points. Just remove the paint from the stock rails and the outside of the points, maybe sand lightly and that will solve your problem. It worked for awhile after you painted it because the paint didn't cure yet, once it cures it gets hard, instant insulation.
Frank
Are there feeders at the base of the turnout?
do you have turnouts facing each other with no insulating joiner?
Which locos?
SP&S modeler, 1960's give or take a decade or two for some equipment.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SGTDUPREY?feature=guide
Gary DuPrey
N scale model railroader
Remember, Peco turnouts are power routing so there has to be firm contact and good conductivity between the stock rail and the point rail.
So, as others have advised, make sure that the tip of the point rail is not bent and that the contact area is clean and free of paint.
If that doesn't fix the problem, use an ohm meter to test continuity. The frog is live on an Electrofrog, so a probe from the ohm meter placed on the rail on either side of the frog should indicate continuity and verify that the frog is live.
Rich
Alton Junction
Burlington Northern #24 Are there feeders at the base of the turnout? do you have turnouts facing each other with no insulating joiner? Which locos?
Power is routed into the base of the turnout, the one in question splits from the main line and leads into the staging yard. The locomotives in question wer a pair of Atlas Geeps and an Atlas Trainmaster.
I have a feeling the paint is the culprit. Can I use denatured alcohol to strip the paint off?
NO....not on Floquil, either Mineral spirits or positively Lacquer Thinner, or just scrap off with a xacto blade or lightly sand the area.
EDIT: A cotton swab dipped in Lacquer thinner would be perfect.
zstripe NO....not on Floquil, either Mineral spirits or positively Lacquer Thinner, or just scrap off with a xacto blade or lightly sand the area. Frank EDIT: A cotton swab dipped in Lacquer thinner would be perfect.
Dried Floequil is better scraped off than attempting to disolve w/ laquer thinner. The hardened paint will scrape clean to the metal rather than spreading dissolved paint everywhere and still leaving residue behind. Cut down emory or sanding sticks or as I like , strips of fine wet/ dry over small flathead screwdriver or styrene strip will be needed regardless of mremoval method to clean down to "virgin" rail for best contact.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
If all else fails you will have to remove the turnout, clean or replace it. I had to do the same when looking for a short.
First I loosened the turnout from the ballast and roadbed by placing soaking wet paper towels over it until the white glue mixture softened.
Next using a putty knife I removed the turnout.
The sad ending to this story was that it turned out there was nothing wrong with the turnout, but at least I learned a lesson.
Good luck,
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up
Geesz He doesn't have a short, or anything else, he just needs to remove the paint from the points and stock rail where they touch. Sand, scrape, burn, thinner and Lacquer thinner will take the paint off without a mess, with a cotton swab on Floquil paint. That is all I use is Lacquer thinner with Floquil paint. Bottles of Floquil paint that you can't remove the lid because of dried paint in the threads, can be removed after you dip a cotton swab in the Lacquer and let it drip btwn the bottle and cap, within 3 min. you can remove the cap. I've done it hundreds of times, since I started using Floquil in the early 50's.
Take Care!
Hi GP9 man and all,
The moving rails on Peco code100 electrofrog turnouts are made of pressed metal. It is pressed into a rail profile. On the bottom a small piece is left that is bent so it slides under the fixed rail when it is moved to that rail. Sometimes this gets paint or other contaminants on it and sometimes it looses its tension so it doesn't make good contact under the fixed rail. Check these little contacts and under the fixed rail where the contact slides. Also check that the tension is just right.
HTH
Alan
Alan Jones in Sunny Queensland (Oz)
Lacquer thinner on a swab versus scraping. I vote for the lacquer thinner on a swab. Scraping is just asking for more trouble. Too much risk of damaging the point rail. Lucky me, I never have the problem because I don't paint my rails.
Rich,
Wise...choice.
Did I tell you about the time, I opened up a 1 oz bottle of Floquil and my house blew up?
zstripe Rich, Wise...choice. Did I tell you about the time, I opened up a 1 oz bottle of Floquil and my house blew up? Take Care! Frank
LOL
No way!
I turn them upside down in hot water when the cap is stuck.
Well, when I finally got up to the train room, I checked the turnout in question and there was no paint on the paint rails or where they make contact. Just to see what would happen, I put some denatured alcohol on a paper towel and gently cleaned the area Where the ppint rails contact. And that was the ticket. Power seems to be restored and the trains are running fine. ThNks everybody for your help!
Glad you got that problem solved.
Just out of curioisity, what are you using to throw the point rails?
Glad You got it going. Now get some cotton swabs and do the rest of them, if you have any more.