Always something to fix!
The cold, low humidity air creating havoc:
That road has been there for at least 3 decades but the sub plywood shrunk enough with this low humidity!
Engine shorting at one spot which took a good hour to diagnose.
Thought for sure the air hose touching the rail was the problem; nada. Just happened to be at the 'right' spot.
Thought the complex cross over must be causing the short: nix again.
Finally, tried another engine and it ran fine but it took awhile to find the brass bolt holding the front trucks to the frame was just a little too long and touched the turnout rail but only at this spot. Filed a very small amount off and all's good.
Earlier, I thought, maybe, the insulated side drivers were shorting.
While diagnosing the problem, the next DCC district was also shorting out. With the low humidity, two rail ends were touching. Should have insulation at all 'break' points but, obviously, I missed this one.
Left engine ran fine through the double crossover while the right one was shorting.
Nice to be able to run one non DCC engine by using engine number 00: now I can run any engine (DCC or DC) without having to convert all of them to DCC: granted only one at a time though.
