short(s) after fastrack switch wiring

What do you have connected to the "AUX GND" terminals?

Save yourself the aggrivation and power all of youir switches through the track. Fastrack switches are designed to handle 18v in a command environment,certainly conventional voltage won't be a problem. They use very little power from track voltage so theres really no need for auxillary power.

Okay, wiring these really can be simple and I run isolated A and D side on my ZW with the bricks just like yours. I would check your feeds to the switches and frankly you do not need the AUX GND to be wired since the Fastrack Switches get their ground through the track regardless so eliminating that will help simplify things. Otherwise I prefer to power my Fastrack Switches through AUX power all the time which lets me throw the switches regardless of track power when I do run conventional. I hope this helps.

Tx guys.

Not in order of responses.

Ricko.  The problem with your suggestion is I can't throw switches unless power is applied to track.  Aux gets around this.

ADCX Rob... I had the transformer common connected to aux ground (common) on switches. 

Captainog.  I disconnected transformer common (aux gnd) and your right, the switches still function when aux power (B) supplied.  So ground must be achieved via track ground.

But breaker is still tripping.

And you guys did see my reference to mixing aux powered and track powered switches on the same inside line right?

Okay, then you might have an internal short somewhere so the best course of action is to remove the connector track between your blocks to isolate which block have the problem. After that then remove one switch or track section at a time to find the short. the only other wierd thing that I can think of is one of the block track section accidently has the hot grounded to the common via the connector wires under the track. I hope this helps.

Captaincog.  I guess I have no choice but to start disassembling.  The only thing puzzling me is the trains ran fine on the inside loop until I did the remote and aux wiring.  I would have thought a block issue would have been a problem before then.  So what your saying is, that with your experience, which it sounds like you have lots of, and the fact that you have a similar setup, the switches and wiring to them can't be causing the short on the inside loop?

It really does sound like at least one(but I'm guessing probably only one) of the switches has the ground wire meant for the "AUX GND" terminal connected instead to the "TRACK JUMPER" terminal on the bottom of the switch, which is why I asked about the superfluous AUX GND connection earlier.  When you use common ground and just a one-wire connection for auxiliary power, it's more difficult to make a mistake.

This would explain your perfect operation of the switches, your relatively high resistance short circuit only tripping the breaker well into the throttle range, and the problem being with the track power and not the switch power supply.

With the bottoms of the switches being mirror-imaged, it would be easy to make such a connection by mistake.

I really have to agree with ADCX Rob in that I think that either you have a hot wire going into a GND Fastrack swtich aux power or that a block track is accidently grounded from hot to common. I think I have amde every mistake out there with Fastrack and I remember the only issue my group of AllAboardFastrackers had was that one member had wired up an extra power feed track and one day the wires ended up touching each other underneath the track mounted to the boards. Our setup worked perfect the first time and then did not the second. A few minutes spend with a volt/OHM meter found the grounded section and when we pulled it up we found the wires touching. We laughed with relief and ran trains from then on with no issues. Please let us know what you find.

ADCX Rob and Captaincog,

Why didn't you guys just say, "Hey dumb a*^ rookie, one of your switches is wired wrong!".  Of course I would have said, "No Way!!!, I'm perfect, I don't wire switches wrong!".  You called it Rob.  The one way in the back, hardest one to get to had the common hooked to the track jumper.  Thanks so much guys.  It was a real lesson in switch wiring.  Now I can start adding in the other five.  Correctly that is.  And I'm so glad I didn't do all of them at once.  It's not exactly easy taking track apart at the switches in order to find your stupid wiring problems.  Have a Merry Christmas! 

Merry Christmas Dave2 and I would have never said that simply because I have been there! I am glad you found it. Now you can have fun running trains. My small 7 x 11 Fastrack layout has 16 remote switches and 3 manual switches. All of the remote switches have either been wired to SC2s or are command so I understand what you are going through. I started off with just a few switches and ended up with Legacy/TMCC/DCS on my layout and running the switches on aux power lets me throw them in either command or conventional. Here are a couple pics of my layout. I recently added the shelf that leads to a siding that I put on the cases behind the ZW.

Hi I know I'm the new guy here but I can offer some help.I read the guys talk about wire it this way or that way or what ever.I have wired  hundred"s fast track switches.Lets talk about technique of making connections for a min.The connection terminals on a fast track switch or track unit are a P I T A !ONE... Don"t push the wires in to far or you will be tightening down on the wire insulation and have a bogus connection.SECOND..... when you push the wire into a terminal it may seem to be in but when you tighten the screw it pulls right out.It has to be in dead center or it will not catch.Important...use the proper gauge wire stripping tool!To small will have you banging your head against the wall when the wire breaks off after you have secured the track down and it wont throw.Nick