I have a Borden's Operating Milk Car from the early 2000's. When I try to activate it from either a Fastrack operating track or a tubular operating track it causes a short and throws the protective fuse inline with my post war ZW. Occasionally, it will operate correctly. Can anyone tell me what may be causing the short and how I might fix it? One shoe does line up somewhat crookedly.
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Richard, could the crooked pick-up shoe that's only supposed to contact the one of the Operating control rails also be making contact with either the center or an outside rail? That would cause the issue you described. Have you tried straightening the crooked shoe?
is this the only car that causes this, or do other cars cause this on the same unloader section?
I would suspect, the crooked shoe is causing the short. Not seeing the shoe, I would think the insulator is broken, causing the wire for power to touch the truck base. Look and see from the backside of the truck to see if you can see anything that looks odd. If possible, remove the truck to inspect. This might work, take a piece of tape and push the shoe up and tape it. Then test the car with the other truck. This might work as it pushes the potential short away from the track base.
Steve and Edmund
Thanks for your replies. I agree it is the shoe. A friend of mine who repairs Lionel cars has it and is replacing the shoes for me and checking for any wiring issues. It should be fine when he's done.
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