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6 Responses to Why Does The Train Stop and Power Up Again?
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Many things can cause what you are describing. The most obvious is dirty track, wheels or connections with the power source. If not the obvious things, then consider looking closely at the decoder itself. If it is powering up and down intermittently as you describe, look for wires that have become bare and are rubbing against metal or each other. If you see nothing obvious, try unplugging and re-plugging the decoder into its socket on the decoder board. And lastly, using a volt meter, determine the decoder is getting the minimum voltage required to keep powered up at all times. And lastly, make up a piece of test track and see if you can recreate the problem on track you know is perfect. Good luck….
Check out the most obvious problem first. That is dirty track and wheels. It is best to clean them on a regular basis. Also you should put a AC voltmeter across the rails to check that you are getting consistent power to the track. If the volt meter needle moves quickly up and down, then check your Buss wires and connection to the power supply. This would be more obvious if it is effecting more than one train.
Another problem as the other guys alluded to: is that there is a loss of voltage (or power). and that comes from wiring that is not large enough to carry the current. If you are using DCC on a pre-wired Standard DC layout. Many folks (me included) used phone wire to wire to each block and through a switch board to control these tracks. The lighter wire just can’t carry a standard set power very far and the father you are away from the power source the worse it is. Is the stopping in the same areas or crossing through switches when it does it? Or how about this, Is the DCC unit breaker popping (Digitraks has a breaker in it that will pop when the DCC unit gets too warm, or too much current is being pulled. Check your DCC unit and see if it is the breaker doing it. Is there other engines on the track and if so how many? They are all pulling some power even though they may not be running Digitraks has cooling fins on the back of that unit and if they are warm then it is telling you something. It needs air to help cool it. Hope this helps. from Newman
(As also suggested above), (apart from dirty contacts), stop/start operation without you doing anything can indicate the power supply overheating, so that the overload protection cuts off the power, then resets itself when it cools down. (On either DC or DCC.)
This is due to too much current being drawn, above the design limit of the power supply unit.
This can be due to:
1) Too many locos and devices taking power from it,
2) A short circuit somewhere. This can be a loose wire touching another, or a bit of metal fallen across two adjacent bare conductors.
Easy way to see if this is happening: connect a 12V bulb across the power supply output so that you have an immediate indication of any cutout.
If power remains good when the loco stops, you know it’s a contact problem, track/wheels/pickups/brushes. (Motor brush problems normally only occur in old motors.)
When you have checked out the suggestions on this page, please let us know if anything helps !
I concur with the comments above. Dirty tracks and dirty wheels are usually the first issues that cause those type of problems. Switches (turn-outs) are another typical problem area as the frogs are usually not powered and shorter wheel-base locomotives can momentarily lose power going thru switches. The one question you need to answer to help diagnose the problem is if it happening in specific locations, or all-over the layout? If it is happening in specific locations then you need to focus on the track in those locations, but if it is happening all-over the layout I would start with cleaning the track and the wheels on everything.
I want to throw another question back at you – what type of wheels do you have on your rolling stock? We have found that plastic wheels will collect dirt and re-deposit the grime back on the rails making it impossible to keep the track clean thus I strongly recommend if you have plastic wheels on any of your rolling stock that you replace them with metal wheels.
Bob, I totally agree with you and I am as I can afford the metal wheels am replacing them but that is a slow process for my fleet. When putting together a new car I go a head and install the new metal wheels. But when getting a fleet of cabooses up and running like I have done for my Caboose Parade. I will install the old plastic ones till I can get some to replace them. But till then keeping them clean is the current issue.
Newman Atkinson