I have two grandsons who just turned 4. Two years ago, I resurrected a O-27 train that I had as a boy (some 65+ years ago). My grandsons liked it, but got a little bored with the single loop of track. So I bought a few switches on E-Bay, and by last Christmas, I had a overlapping double loop with a cross and happier grandsons. Everything was working okay. I had two remote control 5151 and 5152 switches, and a third manual switch.
Then I got a few more accessories, and decided to rearrange the track a bit to make room for these. I reassembled everything in the new configuration, and now nothing works. The transformer indicates a short circuit. I found one piece of track that was defective, but replacing that did not solve the problem. If I remove all the switches, things run on the track loop. But as soon as I try to put in either of the remote control switches, I get a short circuit (the manual switch seems fine). I measured the resistance between the various legs on both switches (and on a third spare), and all three seem to have low resistance between center and control rail on the turnout (picture attached). I have insulating pins in the control rails, but as soon as I connect the common end of the switch to the track I get low resistance between the center and outside rails all the way around the loop.
Could the short circuit due to the bad track have shorted out the switches? Since I am seeing the same thing on the spare that was not connected, that seems unlikely. The baseplates on the switches are riveted on, so they would not be easy to remove.
Can anyone tell me what the resistance between the various legs of the switch should be? I would assume the center and inside rail should be infinite, but I don't know what the wiring for the derailing feature does. If there is a short, can these be repaired?
Thanks in advance for your help.
JimB
