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No Track Power After Ballasting
Darryl runs HO and would like some help:
“I ballasted about a third of my track and have tried to run a train, but no power to the track. It worked before with good voltage, and I haven’t changed any wiring. I have DCC and the cab still has power. Where should I start? Hoping for some help.”
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7 Responses to No Track Power After Ballasting
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You have a bad track feed connection under the ballasted area. Use a volt meter to check ballasted area versus non-ballasted areas. I assume you soldered the feeders to the rail and then to buss wires underneath your train table. Sometimes a poor solder connection is compromised with the ballast gluing.
Have you cleaned all the rails? Often ballasting the track leaves a glue residue on the surface of the rails
I’ll give it a go. thanks.
If you have extra track try powering the spare tracks and see if it runs. If not, try resetting the engine with, i believe, cv8.
Make sure the track is clean and aligned very well. If the wires that feed that track are a pain to get to Then run a separate set of jumper wires for the alligator clips on the end and power the track from the top side To see if that solves the problem.
After ballasting three gremlins get to work
1. transparent glue on the track which needs to be cleaned off.
2. Damp ballast giving electricity a path from one rail to the other causing a short. Wait a few days for the dampness to dissipate
3. You have dislodged one of your powerfeeds during the ballasting process. Find which one and reconnect it.
Does the engine run on the unballasted section? If so, make sure the rails are clean of any glue. Make sure the glue did not penetrate the rail joiners in the ballasted sections.