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Electrical Problems on Ceiling Layout
Ben has a ceiling layout and wants help from an experienced railroader:
“I have a train going around the ceiling. The trouble I get is drop outs along the route as in it stops and goes and at times does run. How do I get flawless power running along the tracks. I had the Engine gone through and cleaned about four years ago. I have cleaned the tracks and still have drop outs. Please help?”
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2 Responses to Electrical Problems on Ceiling Layout
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What you’re likely experiencing is poor conductivity of the track. Most track has fairly high resistance and the joints are notoriously bad conductors. The best solution is to run a track-power bus underneath the track (or in your case, next to the track) and solder track leads at least every 3 feet. If you use flex track, that would be each piece of flex track with track leads. If you use sectional track, I recommend at least every third section and solder the track joiners.
Hope it helps.
Ben,
Ken’s suggestions below are the way to go but something you may want to try is a product called Wire Glue made by Anders Products (www.andersproduct.com). It is essentially a black colored paste that, when dry, has the same physical & electrical properties of electrical solder. If you apply it at your rail joints it should help if not completely solve your conductivity problems without dragging a soldering iron up to the ceiling. I had similar problems on my N scale layout and this product made them go away. Just be careful not to use too much since it dries hard as stone and could cause derailments if over done (as would a metal solder). A little goes a long way.
Hope this helps,
Geof from the US