Help Fastrack Switches No Power After the Frog

Have you looked at the metal pins and where they are placed? It might be that a pin is missing  either in the center or on one of the outer rails. Always check the electrical and pin placement on a switch if you have problems.

If the electrical problem it is inside the switch you might have to see about taking it back under warranty for a replacement.

Lee Fritz

Since I don't see this here on O36 switches, I can only assume there is a defect of some kind.

I just checked a new O36 remote switch, sitting on the bench you should have continuity between all the center rail segments.  If that's not the case, you have an internal issue with the switch.

Thanks Lee and John! I pulled the whole section and checked all the switches, block sections and adjoining track for continuity. Best I can tell they all checked good. Now that I've ripped 'em out I'm going to set this section up on my bench separately and use track power to see what happens.

While doing all this another issue popped up! I had one of the new 060's freeze up. It won't operate electrically or manually. Out of 26 newly installed Fastrack turnouts on this and another layout this is the 5th one (036 and 060) to fail this way after only operating for a couple of times then Zap. They have been either track powered or externally powered and from different power supplies when this occurs. They're jammed solid! I've checked the wall power for proper hot, neutral and ground and even checked the phasing and voltage / amperage outputs between all 4 channels on the ZW-L. Any known fix for Fastrack turnouts that do this? I've been a Lionel collector/operator for several years but this whole Fastrack turnout thing is overwhelming me and my wallet!

If it's mechanically frozen, you need to pop the back and check what's jamming it.  You won't fix that electrically.

Make sure the joints between tracks are good as well.  While Fastrack is pretty good, after a few insertions, or a bit of over-eager wiggling to get them apart, you can spread the ends and cause poor connections.

I'm not familiar with any switch problems with Fastack by Lionel. I hope you find the problem with the switches.

I know the older O gauge switches in 031 sure had some problems a few years ago, the # 6-23010 & 23011 would seize up on me with any Williams engine that was used with them. Also had one just up and quit electrically on me.

Lee Fritz

I'm still clueless to the cause of both problems! The 036 switches op checked OK by themselves with track power and the locos ran thru OK with just the slightest hesitation as they crossed the frog. All joints are tight and everything meters good.

  Now the 060 that froze up is a real question mark! I pushed it down into it's box to return it and out of curiosity manually checked it one last time before closing the box and low and behold it worked. I pulled it back out. hooked it up and it switched electrically 3 times and then froze solid again. I removed the back plate and could find nothing obvious. This is the same result I got when looking into the others that have failed. It has to be some sort of quality control/design issue that surfaces when pressure is applied in some particular point, either shorting the board or binding the linkage, but I can't locate the exact problem. I was hoping someone or Lionel had seen this before and knew of a fix.