Spectrum w/sound 2-8-0 stalls at Insulfrog

[SteveJ]

Happy New Year to all,

In the last year I have built a new track with amonst others three Peco #6 curved Insulfrog turnouts.  It all works well with diesel type DCC loco's.  for Xmas my son received his first steam loco with sound.  The loco however stalls at two of the curved frogs and starts again maybe a second later.  The loco will go thru the turnout tender first in either direction without any problems.  My system is DCC with a Digitrax Zepher Command and the new steam loco is our first sound item.
On examination of the wipers I noticed that the second to front set of wheels were not touching the wheels so I followed Jim Banners tutorial posted in Feb 2007 and tried to tease the wipers to touch the wheels. Jim's tutorial is excellent however, my fingers are  still in their apprenticeship phase.  I think I made it worse and now another Atlas #6 (isolated frog type ) turnout is involved with the same symtoms intermittingly.
It is hard to believe that all the wheels need to be touching over a 3/8" short frog. Do I need to order another underframe with the wipers (I actually don't believe that I made the wipers worse I know I did) or should I perserver to get all wipers touching as the cure? 

[Yukonsam]

Hi and Happy New Year

Perhaps this link would help :
http://www.wiringfordcc.com/switches_peco.htm

Never have had trouble with the Peco Insulfrog turnout.

Regard, Yukonsam

[Jim Banner]

A 2-8-0 should not be stalling on a turnout due to lack of pickup.  In addition to the locomotive wheels, the tender wheels also pick up power.  But I do remember one fellow who was having problems with his tender pickup because he did not have the 2 pin plug all the way into the socket on the tender.  A quick check for proper tender pickup is to lift the locomotive (just the locomotive, not the tender) off the rails and turn up the speed.  The locomotive wheels should turn.

If your son's locomotive passes the tender pickup test, there is another thing to check for.  What you describe, with the hesitation, may indicate a temporary short circuit as the locomotive crosses the turnouts.  If so, other locomotives running on the layout at the same time will also hesitate and their headlights will flicker.  A short duration short may or may not show up as traveling zeros on your Zephyr's display screen.  A much more sensitive test for a short is to wire a tiny 12 volt bulb, such as a grain of wheat lamp, across the track connections on the back of your Zephyr.  If it momentarily flickers off, you know for sure you have a short short.

If watching another locomotive and/or the 12 volt bulb test indicate a short on the turnouts, then check the gauge of the wheels.  This can easily be done using an NMRA wheel and track gauge, an invaluable tool available from your hobby shop or from Walthers.  Every model railroader's tool box should include one.

The 12 volt bulb test can also detect another problem that sometimes happens with this particular locomotive.  If the lamp flickers other than when the locomotive is crossing turnouts, it usually indicates that one or both of the tender trucks are on backwards.  Running the locomotive with one, the other, or both tender trucks held up off the rails can quickly detect which of the two trucks is reversed.  The cure is to rotate the offending truck 180 degrees and try again.  I mention this mostly to further illustrate the usefulness of one small lamp in trouble shooting.  From your description, I am not convinced that a reversed truck is part of your problem.

[SteveJ]

Jim,

You are correct with the tender test.  I am getting neither loco wheel movement nor any sound. The connector is completely in however.   I will atempt to bypass the connector this evening and find the bad connection and let you know my progress thank you.

Yukonsam,
Thank you for the link, I put the tape as described before Jim answered but there was no change.

[SteveJ]

Jim, you are the man.  I took the tender apart and under the sound board found the red wire joint at the rear axle was broken.  It appears from a crush mark that it was pulled out from its soldered joint during assembly. 

Anyway a quick resolder and reassembly of the tender and a retest.  Now the tender drives the loco wheels with the loco held off the track.

I ran it around the layout and it went through all the turnouts without any stalling.

On reflection it is amazing that it didn't stall at the other turnouts.