I took my LionChief Santa Fe Super Chief#159 Starter set down last night and started running it on my layout again, only to find out that the passenger cars somehow are "grabbed" by the electromagnet occasionally of my UCS remote track sections, causing random uncoupling! I have to mention that I'm using the old tubular track, and NOT the Fast Trak. I even disconnected the controllers to those UCS sections, to no avail. I was supplying independent voltage to terminal 3 of the UCS's, (14 volts), and thought maybe if I temporarily disconnect that it would be a solution, but that did NOTHING. Anyone else experience the same phenomena? Somehow the Santa Fe passenger car trucks are shorting something out on the UCS sections.
What's even more mysterious is that this does not happen if I run the starter set on my inner loop, which also has one UCS. I looked at the various UCS sections, and observed that the only difference I can see is that on the inner loop section, the electromagnet contact sits FLUSH with the orange insulator, while on all my other UCS sections it appears a little raised. I'm stumped. Why would that cause the electromagnet to activate? I'm guessing that a more feasible explanation might be that perhaps the rollers are a little too wide and maybe they're tripping the magnet by bridging across two of the rails? Is it possible that this popular starter set is only compatible with Fast Track, and NO UCS sections or tubular track? (hard to believe). What am I missing here?
