Engine just stops

If you are using tubular track, and want to make good connections, don't use Lionel's method for squeezing the open ends of the rails.  It doesn't work very well.  This is after 62 years of experience with Lionel trains.  What I have been doing for the last 5 years is this:  Hold a section of track with the pins pointing away from you.  Bend the left outside rail where the pin is installed to the left so that the end of the pin is offset about a pin diameter.  Bend the center rail where the pin is installed to the right so that the end of the pin is offset about a pin diameter.  Then there will be contact pressure on the ends of the pins and in addition, there will be some contact pressure where the pin is installed.  Recently I bought a large amount of used O-31 track, and used this method.  Since it was a temporary layout, I had only one power feed for about 60 feet of track.  The loco did slow down a little at the far end of the loop, but it didn't stop.    

I didn't bother to clean the used track as I was in a hotel room and didn't have a wire wheel.  When I put the track sections together, the pressure from the bent rail caused the pin to get burnished and I am sure the inside of the rail also got burnished.  Nice bright spot on the pin. 

After I got the track together, I put a loco on the track with the E unit set to forward only, and I ran the loco until the track was polished and the E unit didn't drop out.  There was a nice shiny, very narrow, stripe down the top of each rail.  This, BTW, is much easier than cleaning the track by hand.  

You don't have to bend the rails every time you put the track together.  Once is usually enough, so it is very quick to change the layout or add to it.  Oh, and BTW, you don't need track pliers.

That happend on my grandsons layout where there is a slight dip in the track and the pilot touches the center rail. A cardboard shim fixed the problem. Watch closely to see if there is a slight dip there and the pilot is touching.

Gandy

The pilots will occasionally be bent due to someone dropping the engine on its nose.  You can straighten the pilot by putting pressure on it over a period of days.  I straightened out the corner of the cab of a 2025 this way without breaking anything.  Check http://www.modeltrainforum.com for the post.  It took about a week to straighten it.  In the same post is a discussion about straightening out a pilot. 

Older tubular? You may have a loose or worn insulating cardboard piece that only shorts when a locos weight is on it. Also note: Weak connections often allow full voltage readings, until the loco tries to draw amperage across that connection, then it will drop.  

Thanks folks, I should have mentioned that I use Fastrack.

Brent

Command or conventional?  If it's TMCC, maybe it's briefly losing the signal.

Thanks all

I am running a TMCC engine on my enter loop and a Vision line on the outer. I reversed them and the Visiion Line ran great on the enter loop. I added 2 drops from the enter loop to the outer one and the problem has gone away for now. What I don't understand is why both loops ran great a week ago but then this problem.

gunnerjohn, it may well be a signal, I stopped using the re-chargeable batteries and started using regular Duracell, they may be weak.

Thanks for the help

Brent 

Actually, I was speaking about the track and earth ground signal.  The signal from the remote to the base won't cause the locomotive to stop, you'll just lose any control.

If it works now, don't tinker with it.