dead spots in track

Mike,

Can you get to the engine in the spot where it stops? Is this a curve?

When it does stop, cut the power and go take look at the physical state of the wheels and rollers. A flashlight may help. See anything unusual?

Is this engine a steamer or diesel?

Check the wires on any trucks/axles that have a ground strap on the axle or roller to confirm they are attached.

As far as track and power, I wouldn't think that anything is wrong at this point. Look under that piece of track for something metal shorting the rails when the weight of train is on it. perhaps even swap that piece of track out with another.

A volt meter won't really show a poor connection. Using the ohms scale will give a little more indication of poor conductivity. Another method would be to use a car headlight to test different places because it puts a load on similar to a motor. Try the pliers and some DeOxit on the connections and see if things improve.

Mike, Are you running new equipment or post war trains? If you are running the newer lionel trains with the can motors I would think the transformers you have would be sufficient for power.

Ray

How about a weak joint that will light the caboose but not enough to power the train?

John H posted:

A volt meter won't really show a poor connection. Using the ohms scale will give a little more indication of poor conductivity. Another method would be to use a car headlight to test different places because it puts a load on similar to a motor. Try the pliers and some DeOxit on the connections and see if things improve.

Pliers won't help with FasTrack. It will deform the machine crimps of the rail around the connectors. (Don't ask how I know) I have some used track where the connectors would rattle around when shaken. When it's assembled, everything pushes in tightly and makes a good connection.

I have all Fastrack and if it goes together too easy I crimp the empty rail ever so slightly with end nippers and get improvement. It doesn't take much to improve things, and there are joints that need improving. My last one was with a 4 1/2" piece in a 45 degree crossover with 4 switches. Couldn't have been in a nicer spot.

Pliers actually do help Fastrack, at least they help mine.

I thought this was a pretty good video from Lionel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH27b0hmkdI

See Greggs video above, that works better than squeezing the ends with pliers.

What size wire are you using?, How many pairs of track feeders?

Gregg posted:

I thought this was a pretty good video from Lionel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH27b0hmkdI

When he says slight, he means about 1/16th of an inch. It does make the connection tighter.

RickO posted:

See Greggs video above, that works better than squeezing the ends with pliers.

The outside rails are the ones that sometimes benefit from a little squeeze, for the center rail I do what Mike's video suggests.  The pins in the outside rails are not going to be bent by mere mortals, it'll rip the track off the base first!

If you can't find the place where you are having trouble run the engine or engines on the track at night or in a dark area and see if any connections give you a small yellow or blue arc effect as a small blue or yellow arc means a bad connection. If you use an ohm meter set it for a very high ohm setting so you can read the smallest amount of resistance.

Lee Fritz

Mike Rice,

    It almost sounds like you have a couple of bad pieces of the latest FasTrack, remove and replace them and see what happens with 2 different piece of FasTrack.  

PCRR/Dave

You're right, John. The current has to go through the outside rails as well. They get stretched if you put too much angle on the pieces when you take them apart. That's why I suggested taking them apart with a sharp knife.

I don't see, except for physical damage, how you have a "bad" piece of Fastrack.  I've certainly never seen one.  You can have loose connections or the like, but "bad" is kind of out there... 

Fastrack is three rails with the associated pins and most full sized pieces have a couple of straps joining the outside rails.  What is there to "go bad" unless you physically damage it, or of course you leave it out in the rain for a few months and it rusts away.

I have hundreds of pieces of Fastrack, never seen a "bad" one here or anywhere else.