Car makes everything stop

[HopefulPastor]

I replaced some plastic wheels with metal wheels on a gondola car.'
When I put it on the track it stops everything else and cuts off.

Any ideas?

[Len]

Which metal wheels? And are the trucks they go in metal or plastic?

Metal wheels for Marklin, and a couple of other "3-rail" european trains, do not have insulators between the axle and wheels. Using them on a 2-rail layout will create a short.

The other thing that often happens is lighted cars, with axles only insulated on one side, have a truck turned around creating a short througn the light. But that shouldn't happen with a gondola if the trucks are plastic and there's no light.

Len

[bapguy]

Take a meter and set it to OHMs. Check for continuity between wheels. There should be none. If there is, then you have a bad wheel set. I had this happen on a box car I bought that came with metal wheels. One axle was not insulated from the factory.  Joe

[Jerrys HO]

Are they insulated? if not you are creating a dead short.

[jward]

what type of gondola? does it have a metal underframe? if so, do the wheels rub it?

[mabloodhound]

You probably didn't buy the insulated wheelsets.   Solid metal wheels/axle will NOT work on 2 rail layouts.

[Jerrys HO]

what type of gondola? does it have a metal underframe? if so, do the wheels rub it?

Jeff  the OP stated EVERYTHING stops meaning to me he is shorting the system.
As mabloodhound and I have assumed.

[Len]

Asking about a metal underframe is a good question. Some wheelsets are only insulated on one side, if the insulators are on opposite sides and wheels rub on a metal frame you'd get a short.

Len

[jbrock27]

Be nice if the Good Father took an interest in getting his problem solved and responded to these questions posed to 'em.

[jward]

what type of gondola? does it have a metal underframe? if so, do the wheels rub it?

Jeff  the OP stated EVERYTHING stops meaning to me he is shorting the system.
As mabloodhound and I have assumed.

certain older cars, like roundhouse, have metal underframes. if the metal wheelsets rub the underframe it will short out the whole system. this is a problem you probably wouldn't notice with plastic wheelsets. in this case the solution is simply to raise the car by adding washers to the bolsters.

[WoundedBear]

And if you raise the car on the bolsters with washers, then you have the problem of couplers not lining up. One thing always leads to another it seems. Granted, talgo trucks would negate the problem, but body mounted couplers would suffer.

Sid

[Len]

Another solution I've used with metal underframes is using a dremel tool to grind away enough of the underframe to keep the wheels from making contact.

I'd still like to hear from the OP whether that's what's going on, or if he accidentally got hold of some Marklin wheelsets.

Len

[ebtnut]

Back in the good ol' days, there were two common problems with rolling stock that caused shorts.  If you had all-metal trucks and wheels, the wheelsets were often only insulated on one side, so if you disassembled the trucks for any reason you had to make sure you got both insulted sides together or the truck would short.  If you combined all-metal trucks with a metal underframe (like Roundhouse and Ulrich kits, for instance) you had to make sure that the insulated sides of both turcks were on the same side or you would get a short between the trucks.  The third thing that could occur, which could really drive you crazy, is if you had all metal trucks combined with an all-metal underframe and metal couplers.  If you coupled up to another car that had the same arrangement but the insulted wheels were on the other side than the first car, you would get a short through the cars.  By themselves, the cars were just fine, and if you coupled up to another car that had insulated coupler boxes or a non-metal underframe, everything worked just fine. 

[RAM]

Things are much better today than in the past.