I used a lot of this past weekend working on layout repairs I've been putting
off, such as why I was getting an indirect short whenever the Back Lead switch
from the main line at Terminal District whenever it was lined for the main
line. Interestingly, the short was intermittent, and when it did occur, it
would disappear whenever the West switch to the Pass was lined for the Pass.
Guess how long I took to discover the problem was rolling stock trucks bridging
the insulated joiner whenever I doubled inbound cars over to the Pass. Since
only a short stretch of rail was involved, I reversed the insulated joiner and
the NS joiner. Now, the common ground on the Pass runs all the way to the Pass
switch, but the "hot" rail is still insulated at the uncoupler. Problem solved.
The next one was a little more taxing. The House Track switch at Powdertown is
a converted Atlas #6 switch, and locomotives had a disturbing habit of stalling
when the rear truck passed over the insulated frog - only on INBOUND moves;
backing out of the House Track was no problem.
I cleaned rails until my arms ached, and almost wore the rail heads down to the
web, but to no avail. I had been painting rail and ballasting track in this
area and though that somehow I was not getting all the paint off of the rail
heads. I couldn't figure out WHY engines, even with eight-wheel pick-up, would
stall in only one direction!
Finally, in desperation, I took a miniature screwdriver and scraped between the
frog guardrail and the stock rail on the turnout side of the switch, and guess
what! I still don't know why engines would stall in one direction only before I
did that, but they don't, now.
Apparently, some ballast in the guardrail was raising the rear truck wheels
just enough to cause them to lose contact with the rail, but that doesn't
explain why the front truck would lose power in the interim, nor does it
explain why just the gentlest nudge on the FRONT truck (when the rear truck was
the problem would cause the engine to start moving again.
Y'woulda' thought I was trying to solve a DCC idiosyncrasy! Thank goodness I
don't have THAT to deal with, too! The new Yardmaster Panel at Terminal
District has been operational for some weeks, now. I'm getting some minor bugs
worked out, but the problem is, not all the bugs are in the panel.
Since those two problems took most of the available time I had, I didn't
accomplish much else, except replace the ground throw extension rod for the
Power House track at Humongous. I did come up with a way of applying switch
point indicators to basic Caboose Industries ground throws, but that will have
to wait for later - the East Wye switch at MJ Tower awaits.
Bob Nicholson _______________________________________
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