I purchased a vintage turbine #681 that is rebuilt and in excellent shape. Runs great until she gets to my Fastrack activation track and then she drops into neutral. Any ideas or remedy?
John
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I have seen this trouble asked about many times so let's start with the basics. A train engine needs power from the outside rails, at lease one, and from the center rail. Run the engine slowly past the point where it stops. When it stops turn off the power and then slowly tilt the engine on to it's side. Now look to see where the pickups and wheels are. Is at least one pickup in contact with power from the center rail? Is at least one of the wheels in contact with a powered outside rail, Do not count wheels with traction tires? If the answer to both questions is yes then you have a problem with the pickups on the engine or with the track. End of story! If the answer to one of the questions is no then you have found the problem to fix. Look for bent track, insulated track, insulated wheels (traction tires), broken pickups, and dirt anywhere.
Al
All checks out. Activation track has power to all rails. No other post war engines do it. Both rollers are in mint conditon with brand new wiring. A real puzzle. When it reaches the activation track it drops into neutral on the e-unit. No other place does it do this.
It sounds like one of your rollers is not electrically connected. Try reading the resistance between the two rollers. It should be nearly zero. Sometimes there is a bad electrical connection between the roller and the pin due to too much lubricant or rust.
Earl
In spite of what it may seem electrons do not operate by magic. If your engine stops there is a reason. Now you checked for dead spots on the track, dirty track, bad pickups on the engine. bad or dirty wheels on the engine, so there HAS to be another problem. Check what Earl suggested. This can sometimes be caused by a short in the past that was not caught and burned the contact spring for a pickup roller. Check for a momentary short. With steam engines some times the front pilot or the tender drawbar will hang low and momentary touch the center rail causing a short that does not trip the breaker but will cause the e-unit to drop out. Another long shot could be a tender pickup roller that has a weak spring that is allowing the roller to bend too much and contact the truck frame causing a short or bad wiring in the tender. Try running the engine past the point without the tender.
When the possible becomes impossible the impossible becomes possible. You just need to keep looking, there has to be a reason. The engine does not have any special electronics and is quite simple. Don't be afraid to take the top off, set it on the track, apply power, and then poke the wires and see what happens.
Al
You could always just lock the E unit it in the forward position, I've done this with my 2035.
I am not familar with fastrack.
Does the activation track have extra rails, similar to an O gauge UCS track?
If it does, and your turbine has wide rollers, the extra rails could be lifting one of the rollers off the third rail.
This problem is known to happen occasionally with wide rollered engines on UCS tracks when either the collector assembly is not properly centered, or if the roller arm is twisted.
