Comments on: Dead Spots on Track

By: burton

burton — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 17:26:57 +0000

thank you all for your ideas and suggestions. other life things have popped up so this took longer than I hoped. I cleaned the particular areas of track thoroughly, redid the ballasting, moved and resoldered the power connections and now the track is working and performing well. Not sure which fix did the trick but I only wanted to disassemble the whole thing once.
thanks again

By: Ralph Furth

Ralph Furth — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 19:46:37 +0000

I only suggest using a voltmeter to check the current on both blocks of your 45-degree crossing. I don’t think it’s your ballast. However, you can always run a little sandpaper over the area following up with Isopropyl alcohol to make sure it’s clean.

By: David Stokes

David Stokes — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 22:24:33 +0000

In reply to Ray. Ray - Play fair. Some of us dream of using DCC but are either cash strapped or have invested far too much over a long period to make the change. The old scale/gauge wars are creeping into the dc/dcc choices world.

By: Frank B

Frank B — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 12:27:39 +0000

If there was a short circuit, trains would not run on any track electrically connected to that section.

If the dead sections are single pieces of track, it suggests that the rail joiners are failing to connect, possibly due to contamination (as others have said), or corrosion, or just plain loose.

Also possible, risers may have become loose or disconnected. Check for loose wires underneath.

Disconnect the controller from the track and try continuity testing along each rail to find the break.

Please let us know what you discover.

By: Mike Straus

Mike Straus — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 11:59:01 +0000

Did you check for dirty track. If you have a bad connection you would not have power on the track at any point past the dead spot unless you have drops between the dead sections

By: Ray

Ray — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 09:05:02 +0000

May I suggest you change to DCC asap. You wont have all the hassles as above and I cannot understand how anyone would stuff around with the old block system when we have the technology of today.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 01:21:47 +0000

I’m guessing that A and B are separate sections of track, that the dead spot is the complete track section, and that you have a power feed between A and B. Otherwise, it’s hard to see how you could get two dead sections in those places. But assuming that’s the case, then the most likely answer, as Jeff says, is that the rail joiner is not making good enough contact with the next piece of track. So you either need to add a power feed to those two dead sections, or else bridge the rail joiner somehow.

You say you have dead spot, and the voltmeter shows a short? That doesn’t make sense. The voltmeter should show nil on the dead spot.

By: Jeff Morrow

Jeff Morrow — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 23:50:39 +0000

In reply to Craig Burton. It's possible this may be related to the ballast. I have had sections where the glue for the ballast has wicked between a rail joiner and the track, leaving a poor or intermittent connection. This often does not show up for a while until the glue is fully set and dried. You can get the same problem sometimes when you weather the track and the weathering agent gets in the rail joiner. This is more the case if you detail with an airbrush.

By: Craig Burton

Craig Burton — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 22:39:21 +0000

I have included a poor sketch. 1 block works fine 2 is where the problems are. ‘A’ showed up about 2 months ago. Hadn’t got around to trouble shoot it when ‘B’ showed up 2 weeks ago. I did ballast the track cementing with iso and PBA and the problem showed up 6-8 mos later.

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 04:53:59 +0000

Is this a new fault or one that has been there from the beginning? It would help to fault trace if you supply a diagram of your setup and where the dead sections are.
Robert