I have learned that operating trains on a layout requires continuous tinkering to iron out nuisance faults. Today I had a Rail King EP5 pulling two track cleaning gondolas, a couple of LCL freight cars and a caboose. This train was running between a coal drag and the afternoon Hiawatha. To clear the main for the Hiawatha, the EP5 took a switch to a branch line and stalled on the switch. The Hiawatha was fast approaching and I lost sight of the coal drag, so I hit the DCS panic button and all came to a stop.
I ran the EP5 back and forth slowly through the 042 switch and I saw two issues: 1) The pickup roller on the truck coupled to the train lost contact with the 3rd rail; 2) That pickup roller had a tendency to get caught in the gaps between the 3rd rail segments of the switch.
The root cause of the problem is the distance between the pickup roller and the truck pivot is borderline too large. Fortunately, the solution is simple and it's in the sketch below. You can download the sketch by going the the Attachment Box, clicking the photo icon, and right clicking the photo when it opens. Select "Save Image As" and save it to your desktop.
