Tonight again for the second time since I built a layout with about 1000 feet of track there was a short-circuit. Everything had been working fine the last time the layout was operated. Thank you God for BLOCKS! Regardless if you are a command control, Lion-master remote or conventional operator divide your layout up into BLOCKS (isolated sections). Because when you experience a short-circuit you can locate it very easily by shutting off all the BLOCKS and then begin by turning the blocks on one at a time testing each one as you go.
Tonight, a 3/4 inch screw had somehow magically appeared laying on its side touching the center and outside rails. The screw was small and blackened. It might have taken hours, days or even a weeks on a large layout like mine to find an issue like that if there were no blocks. Because I have blocks, I was able to locate this screw in about five minutes. I just wanted to share this information as useful helpful information to those starting out and those of us who have been doing this for years get this very important lesson again.
