By inconsistency. Do you mean the signal just jumps around from say to a 5 to a 10 in the same block. I’m guessing you have one paired wire controlling multiple sections of tracks with joiners. You mentioned older switches. Does the same block continue through any of your switches ? When your testing. Remove any lighted cars or TMCC engines residing on that channel.
I use common ground wiring. Every section of Gargraves flex track has feeder wires to the main buss. 14 gauge feeders to a 12 gauge buss. Every Ross turnout has a 18 gauge feeder from every isolated rail. Definately over wired but yields pretty much 10’s everywhere.
A few things you can try. Make sure your rail joiners are snug. You can solder light gauge wires to connect the rails and jumper them if you think it’s an issue. Your engine also can read track voltage to check if you have a voltage drop. The same connection responsible for your voltage drop can also kill your track signal. Are both outside rails connected to one another ? If not it may help. I believe they recommended removing the black from the center rail to help the signal. You can try researching that. It may have another brand.
I’ve had blips in the signal at times in the same section of 3 ft. Flex track. These never bothered me if I was just running a unpreped engine. The track should be clean as well as the pickup rollers and wheels when doing a test to find a problem. What your looking for is a 10 or at least something close consistently. You just don’t want an entire block with a 6 or less.
