No 6 Crossover Problem

[jayct7]

Hi,
I'm brand new to model railroading.  I have the Digital Commander Center train set with the 2 Santa Fe locos plus extra track and also the No 6 Crossover.  My Crossover is not DCC.  I have in inner and outer loop in my setup. 

My trains run fine over the No 6 Crossover if running straight across.  If a train tries to cross diagonally between the perpendicular tracks....all trains stop, the controller starts blinking, and i get clicking sounds from the controller.  What is happening here?  How can I fix this?  What difference would a DCC Crossover make?  Do I need to return it to the store?

Please keep in mind that I don't know railroad lingo and dont even know what a frog is.  I appreciate your help.  I do know that I dont have any reverse loops running.

[Jim Banner]

First a few assumptions about how your cross-over is installed:
- assuming it is installed between the inner and out loops to allow crossing from one loop to the other
- assuming the tracks are parallel and not perpendicular
- assuming the inner and outer loops have separate connections to your DCC command station.

Then one possible cause of your problem is that the inner and outer loops are phased differently.  If so, reversing the feed wires on either the inner or the outer loop will fix the problem.

Note that a different set of assumptions will give a different answer so perhaps some more details are in order if reversing the wires does not help.

[Joe Satnik]

Dear Jay,

Sounds like you are shorting to a miswired metal frog. 

See msowsun's first reply in this thread:

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,367.0.html

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik

[jayct7]

Hi Jim,

Your first assumption is correct.  And yes the loops are parallel, my mistake.  I have my EZ commander connected to the outer track only.  I dont see how it would be possible to hook up the inner track seperately as well.  Why and how would I do this with the EZ commander?

I had called Bach service earlier and they suggested replacing the crossover with a new one.

[Jhanecker2]

Good Morning Jay :  I think you may about due to consider adding to your library : Model  Railroader Books , "Easy Model Railroad Wiring" by Andy Sperandeo , Second Edition  1999 , printed by Kalmbach Books. There maybe by this Time a newer edition , but the current one does touch on DCC operation.
       There is also a Book by Atlas that covers wiring and control utilizing Atlas  Switches  & Track  . They have layouts both DC  & DCC.

[Joe Satnik]

Dear Jay,

You need to have an Ohm-meter for these tests. 

Turn your crossover over on the bench.  Unplug the two frog wires.  Flip it over again with the pigtails of the frog wires sticking out from underneath.

Using an Ohm-meter, probe from one pigtail to the frog on that side.  There should be a low Ohms connection (less than 1 ohm). 

Keep one probe on the wire pigtail, then probe all the rails on the crossover and the other frog.  There should be no connection to any other rail or the other frog.  (High Ohms.)

Repeat with the frog wire pigtail on the other side.

I have heard of rail segements sliding down the turnout and touching (shorting to) the frog.

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik