Need assistance with Realtrax switches

I had similar frustrations, but with different switches.

 

The real breakthrough I had on my shorting issues is when I upgraded transformers. When the locomotives shorted out they left little burn marks on the rails with the more powerful transformer.

 

When the locomotive shorts out, get a flashlight, get down on your belly, and look underneath. Carefully roll the locomotive up on to one rail, and LOOK as you do it to see where the rollers and wheels are contacting. Up, down, up, down, looking all the time. Look for things sticking

 

In my case, the track was O-27 tubular. The problem was the wide pickup rollers were bridging between the center rail and the swing rails on the switch. The solution was to cover the tip of the center rail "diamond" with a piece of black duct tape to insulate it.

 

Your M4000 should be leaving some pretty obvious burn marks on the track.

 

99% of the time, switch derailments are because the switch isn't closed all the way in one position or the other.

 

Isolating a siding, all you really have to do is insulate the center rail. It's easy with tubular track, you simply replace the steel pin with a plastic pin. On realtrax, I expect there's probably a special isolation piece you can buy. Run a power feed to the isolated siding through a toggle switch so you can turn it on and off.

 

Don't forget you need one siding for each locomotive you want to run like this. You can't run two locomotives with only one siding. Where do you park the locomotive on the main line when you want to run the one that's parked on the siding?

Hi Greg -

 

I held off replying to your thread hoping that others may have a fix for your Realtrax switch problem, because my previous experience with 12 of their 054 switches was dismal, and after many months of tweaking, repairing, and cursing at them, I finally returned them for a full refund so I could purchase another brand.  This was back in 2005 to 2006, and after many miles of traveling back and forth to the hobby shops where I purchased them, including two trips to MTH headquarters, it was impossible to get the 12 switches I had purchased to work consistently.  It was obvious to me that the manufacturing quality had suddenly taken a turn for the worse, and although never confirmed by MTH, they were very concerned with the defective product I was returning to them and never balked at replacing them.  Not only did I experience the problems you are having, there were many other issues.  Unfortunately, I was exchanging defective ones for defective ones.

 

I have not seen any complaints or issues regarding MTH Realtrax switches for several years.  The first bunch of 031 ones I had purchased in 2002 were flawless and are still working today on a friend's layout.  I suspect your switches may be from old stock manufactured during this period of poor manufacturing quality.  If you can return your switches and purchase ones that are made more recently (although I don't know how to determine that), your present and future problems will most likely go away.

 

I hope someone will chime in with a fix for your switches and you won't have to go through the return process, but I went through many months of absolute frustration and hours of troubleshooting and tweaking, but there didn't appear to be a permanent fix.  I am not bashing MTH at all, in fact they were most cooperative and supported their defective product replacement policy and we were able to come to an agreement.

 

As everyone jokingly states nowadays after making a point of opinion:  "I'm just sayin' ...."

 

Good luck.  I hope there's an easy fix from a forum member who was successful in getting them to work consistently.

 

Mike

Matt Kirsch and MdMikey,

Thank you so much for your helpful insight on my problems. I will check all of my switches tonight, and if they still pose the same problem, it looks like I will need new ones. Once again, thanks so much and God Bless.

Greg (My Hobby's Son)

www.youtube.com/trainbros89

If you are running on carpet (especially high nape) then the track could be flexing enough as the heavy engine runs over it to have the cow catcher or other part of the grounded chassis hit the center-power carrying rail.

 

Advice would be to do as directed above, get down nose to track to determine where the arcing/short is happening. As has been pointed out, the switches are notorious for poor performance and shorting....depending upon when they were made.

 

A search will turn up many posts with repairs shown on how to take care of certain electrical problems with the switches, but in your case, it could be that since you are on carpet, you may be causing part of the problem. To find out, use the switch and a circle/oval of track on the floor or other hard surface to see the results.

 

Keep posting and looking for other threads using the search feature.

 

Good luck, you may need it. Greg

May I ask why?

> On Feb 20, 2014, at 4:58 PM, O Gauge Railroading On Line Forum wrote:
>

If I may.

You may have stumped him....and everyone else with that "why."

Why what?

Greg

Greg,

 

Email sent...

 

George (G3)

Welllll...........I am glad I got that cleared up for Greg!

Signed,

The other Greg ;-)

Thanks The Other Greg,

 

I never realized if you reply to a forum email, it posts on that thread. I just thought the question would go directly to the moderator. Oh well, live and learn. Thanks again!!

 

George (G3)

Greg (my hobby's son)

 

What does that mean?

 

Also how long have you been collecting O scale...your videos show an extensive collection..quite impressive..

HI 1 drummer.

I am Greg's dad Ray and when I signed up for the OGR forum many years ago I would normally do all the posting but do to a disability it is very hard for me to type And I could only type in caps lock and people thought that I was yelling at them and Greg was to young at the time. And I wanted to make sure that the OGR fourm was a safe and kid friendly place and I know it is so when Greg is posting he is letting all know that it is not me but him hope that answers your question and I want to thank all who have been ther for him.

 

Ray (MYHOBBY) never forget 911 

Hi 1drummer,

The whole " My Hobby's Son" this was just explained. Sorry for the confusion. We have been collecting O scale since 2006. This is our second time having O scale. We had it back in the late 90's till early 2000's. Thanks for the compliment on our collection!

Greg