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I have two fastrack switches which are exhibiting problems.  

 

One switch derails constantly on my engines and chatters when the train passes over it.  

 

The other switch chatters when a train goes over it and when thrown the green light does not come on when thrown in that direction.  

 

I have  read about two solves for this.  

 

One by RickO from the forum:

 

-  Check the action of the little black microswitches that the Triangle toothed "rack" if you will activates at the end of its travel. I've had a similar problem, if the "triangle" doesn't fully close the micro switch at the end of either direction, the turnout "thinks" its thrown the opposite direction and it is trying to activate the nonderail feature, but because its correctly thrown it just buzzes trying to thrown the switchpoints, and cannot complete the circuit effecting the controller light as well. If you reassemble the turnout and the manually turn the lantern throwning the turnout in either direction checking that the microswitch at the end of either travel is closing, by observing and more importantly you can hear the micro switch "click" when its fully closed. I resolved this by simply placing a small piece of tape on the edge of the "triangle" so that it would fully close the microswitch at the end of its travel. Lights came back on and the turnout has peformed flawlessly ever since.

 

 

- another by EIS:

The problem was in either the wire from the 'aux in' terminal to the circuit board or in the connector where the 'aux in' wire connects to the circuit board. Regardless, the connector is too small for me to change the wire so I installed a jumper wire from the 'aux in' terminal directly to the circuit board, bypassing both the wire and connector. The switch works fine now.

 

 

 

 

where I struggle on this is the visual Of both solves.  

 

:  where does the tape go (a picture would be great).  And where would a jumper go.  

 

There are a lot of discussions on this but no pics so I am hesitant to start taking my switches apart.  

 

 

Thank you In advance for your help.  

 

 

Brian

 

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I had a derailing problem with a fastrack switch that was caused by having a curved section enter the switch. I solved it by adding a 5" straight section between the curved track and the switch. Watch the engine go over the switch slowly, from both directions to be sure the problem is not track geometry. In my case, the 0-8-0 steamer derailed and the diesels did not.

 

I have 40 fastrack switches that work fine. If you are having electrical only issues, then take them back to your LHS for a proper solution. problems with 2 out of 2 seems unusual to me.

 

Good luck. JK

Originally Posted by Joe K:

I had a derailing problem with a fastrack switch that was caused by having a curved section enter the switch. I solved it by adding a 5" straight section between the curved track and the switch. Watch the engine go over the switch slowly, from both directions to be sure the problem is not track geometry. In my case, the 0-8-0 steamer derailed and the diesels did not.

 

I have 40 fastrack switches that work fine. If you are having electrical only issues, then take them back to your LHS for a proper solution. problems with 2 out of 2 seems unusual to me.

 

Good luck. JK

Same here, both RealTrax and Fastrak, insert a straight between the two switches so that long cars cannot have wheels on both switches at the same time, or if a curve enters it.

Just finished fixing one of these with the chatter. I replaced the microswitches--this did not resolve the issue of the resistor being used as a fuse being blow...(Hidden Under Heat shrink)

 

I tried to work the switch on Aux power. It would not work. I then realized that the

3 terminals for the track /Aux option had been wired in reverse in the factory..

 

The amazing thing is the switch functioned in track power mode when connected on the layout to other track---

 

There were some switches out there.. with bad wiring...this wa in a previous post.

 

 

Originally Posted by shawn:

Just finished fixing one of these with the chatter. I replaced the microswitches--this did not resolve the issue of the resistor being used as a fuse being blow...(Hidden Under Heat shrink)

 

I tried to work the switch on Aux power. It would not work. I then realized that the

3 terminals for the track /Aux option had been wired in reverse in the factory..

 

The amazing thing is the switch functioned in track power mode when connected on the layout to other track---

 

There were some switches out there.. with bad wiring...this wa in a previous post.

 

 

I recently ran into the same problem with two Fastrack 072 command switches.  With the jumper piece in and under track power the switch operated correctly.  When I removed the jumper as instructed and hooked up axillary power the switch had no power.  I moved the power wire from Aux. in and placed it in the first connection which says "jumper" and switch powered up fine. 

 

Steve, Lady and Tex

Since it's two out of 14, it's sounds like hassle to bench test them. If you remove them and bench test you can rule out or confirm a switch issue.

 

You are getting bridging between the track transformer and the auxiliary transformer.

 

or your are bridging the two loops.

 

Put the jumpers back in for track power and be sure the switches are isolated for the center rail if they are on two different transformers. I use a 1 3/8" between and pull the jumper and keep the default 6" center to center rail spacing.

 

If you are running conventionally and need the auxiliary power, be sure that you are using a separate power supply and not a channel from the track transformer.

 

This made me crazy. I can't explain it, but these are the configurations that I found worked. I would remove power from one track and the light on the switch would still be lit. I run command mode, so the track power jumper was the easiest for me. I fire them from an SC-2.

 

Edit: I also found that tying both switches to one manual controller(or one SC-2 port) allowed the two different loops to be connected. Perhaps on auxiliary power that won't be an issue. Can't explain that either, but it does.

Last edited by Moonman

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