MTH Railking 911 Engine

I forgot to mention that my dad is running in Conventional. 

1 - roller spacing on the offending locos is usually the problem.

2 - with traction tires, a loco can actually lose the Common side of the circuit (outside rails), rather than the Hot (rollers) side.

3 - if there is indeed power coming from everywhere, I find both 1 and 2 a little mysterious. Check if you indeed have both sides of the circuit on both sides of the crossover on all rails.

4 - the crossover appears to be humped up a bit. I suspect that this is contributing, and the differences between locos and brands are just the coincidences of trucks, length, roller position and the like. Smooth track is always required for (dependable) smooth operation.

5 - command or conventional makes no difference.

I purchased this same engine in November.  I found that one of the pickup rollers was sticking and not in contact with the center rail.  A bit of label oil and working it up and down a bit solved the issue.

Hope that helps.

Tony

Thanks i will see if the pickup roller is not lined up right. 

Yes there is power to all sides of the track

I will let you know.  

Thanks i will see if the pickup roller is not lined up right. 

Yes there is power to all sides of the track

I will let you know.  

Tony, i looked at the pickup rollers and adjusted them. Still the engine will go over most of the crossover and then stop.  Thanks for your suggestions.  

Any other help will be greatful.

David S posted:

Tony, i looked at the pickup rollers and adjusted them. Still the engine will go over most of the crossover and then stop.  Thanks for your suggestions.  

Any other help will be greatful.

Don't just adjust them, make sure their action is springy.  Hold each down, and then let them go.  They should snap back to fully extended very fast.

Just today I picked up a NS ES44AC to run in a lash-up with my 911.  I found it had the exact same problem.  Because it was running in a lash-up, the 911 basically dragged it across the switches that show the problem.  I only noticed it when I was running at around 5 SMPH.  I noticed a hesitation.  Took the ES44AC off the rails and found the "sticky" pickup roller.

As others have pointed out, this could also be an outside rail problem.  Rubber tires on one side of each truck means both outside rails need to have good connectivity.  The pickup rollers on the SD70ACe should be wide enough to navigate the cross-over.  But if you have an isolated outside rail, that could also cause the problem.

Tony

Try running jumpers wires  on all four side of the cross over track that should help so the Engine see current like a continuous circuit. That should help you out here.

This way the voltage is even all around, no dips in current flowing even all around.

Please let us know how you make out. Good luck. John 

Put a piece of masking tape on a straight section of track away from the crossover the same length as the center of the crossover (plastic piece).  If the loco stops, then it is a pickup problem.  If not, then either the loco has a bad ground (common problem with the black oxide screws securing the ground wire to the truck) or the crossover has a bad jumper under it for one of the rails.

Thanks for your responses. I will let you know what my Dad and I find out. I will not be able to work on it until Friday. I will post updates.

Thanks and have a great weekend,

David