Bachmann DCC question

[ebtbob]

Good Morning All,

      Yesterday I was working at my local train store and got a call from a young lady who asked about the following question.   BTW....what I now share is her words and I have no other info.

"   I have a Bachmann dcc system and every time I throw a turnout the system turns off and on."   She did not say whether a train was going thru the turnout when it shut off.   Her words left to believe it was the throwing of the points that caused the on/off activity in the system.

      Has anyone experienced this before?

[richg]

Sounds like an intermittent short. Troubleshooting the turnouts by the user is needed.

Rich

[poliss]

Could be that she was using more than one power feed and the polarity is reversed. If using a double track oval and there is only one power feed, the power would be cut off to one of the ovals when the point is thrown.

[mf5117]

If its a powered frog on the EZ-Track #5 or #6 unplug the wire underneth . And also are the Trains stopping and shorting or is the controller showing a short or is the controller powering down . And also what type of DCC controller . I have the EZ command controller and have experienced this before ....

best regards MF5117

[Jerrys HO]

ebtbob

This post must be a virus. Just last night before getting ready to go out of town, I went to make sure my train room was closed up and decided to run my UP around. Well low and behold this problem you described happened. I have 7 turnouts and 2 crossovers and all working fine until I swithed my 1 turnout to run the main line and bam the loco stopped in the middle of the turnout and the command controller started rapidly beeping. Yes it shorted. I had been running trains all day and no problems.(until I read this post)

Now I am out of town till Sat. evening with this problem on my mind. Iwill up date you with what I find when I get back. Can you believe this. It only happens on that one turnout.

If anyone finds a solution before me please post I will read when I get home.

Thanks Jerry

[mf5117]

Has the plastic worn down that covers the points in the crossover . allowing the wheel to touch the rails causing the short ..

[Jerrys HO]

mf5117

It is a brand new #5 turnout it has metal not plastic.

As i said I am out of town will be home today aft. noon and will check out the problem. My thoughts are it is the loco but without running my other locos yet, it's just a guess.

Jerry

[Jerrys HO]

Hi all,

I'm home 5 minutes and solved my problem. Hope this helps anybody with the same problem.

I did a little track relocating before I went out of town and when I rehooked one of my straights back to the turnout I must have pushed one rail forward as to where it was touching the frog so when it hit the frog it caused the loco to stop and short the controller.

For now on any connections made to my turnouts I will stick a piece of styrene in between the frog and the rails so it will not happen again.

ebtbob
Please pass this information along to your customer, it mayand sounds like the same problem.

Bachmann
It may help with future sales to insulate the frog from the rails as the rails do move and with handleling and shipping could very well cause the problem and thus cause customers to send back as warranty claims.

Jerry

[ebtbob]

Thanks Jerry.