Did more research and due to the nature of Kato turnouts, insulating them is not necessary.  Guess my ordeal was going from a 50ft line to 100 and the massive drop in voltage to the loco. 

Moral of the day, dont wire a layout when you are tired!

Ok so you are not going to believe this, but I figured out why this happened, and it is really stupid.  I was messing around with one of the sections and I flipped it around then connected it back up, suddenly the train on the other line started up.  What I had done was accidentally wire those two sections to the wrong bus wires!  Anyway, it is all up and running just fine now, and I feel rather stupid with such a simple issue. 

Here is the offending section, the red lines are the red wire, the black are the black.  The turnouts are Kato Unitrack part 20-202.  I suspect now looking at some more sites that despite my not having a reverse section, because the turnouts face each other I might need to insulate the mainline and siding sections in the middle, and provide power separately.  Is this the case?  If so, can I simply add insulated unijoiners and then wire as I have been doing?

I have been wiring my new layout using 14 awg red and black wires, and 20 awg feeders, black and red, and connecting them with posi-locks.  I have the majority of the layout wired.  I have two main lines, each connected to its own box.  I run DC.  Each run from the box is about 45 to 50 feet, and I did not connect the bus lines together, it just ends at about 50 feet and left loose at this point.

Today when wiring a few feeders near the end of the bus line I had the trains not run at all.  First thought was I shorted it somehow, but this is impossible because my red is wired to red, and black to black.  I double checked that I had placed the track in the right orientation (but this shouldnt matter if I match colors I believe).  I had wired 3 areas, one mid point and the two towards the end, and disconnected them all, then added one back at a time . The mid point one did not stall the train, so it is ok.  Either of the two end ones cause the train to stop.  I can have the reds connected on both with no ill effects, but if I attempt to connect either black, it shuts down the train.  I did notice on each I would get a spark, but this could happen with all of them if I tried connecting while on.  I normally do not do this since I have seen no issues.

These two are on either side of a turnout, one of those Kato powered guys.  I dont think this is an issue either since the same thing occurs about 5 feet further down where I wired on both sides, and no issues there.

I am at a loss, any ideas?

I am a total rookie at motors, on that SD45 i applied a drop of lube on the only moving part i could find after getting the shell off, and i beleive i shouldn't have.  It is the little drum that spins, has copper inside of it.  I was told i should lube brushes, but no clue where those are.  Also couldnt find any gears, or the worm gear.  As a result of me putting oil at the point where that drum spins, now i smell the same smell my consolidation makes, so accidentally diagnosed that one it seems.  Is the solution to buy that degreaser you talked about and blast the inside of that, then find out where the parts are i should have lubed?  Also, why is there no instructions on maintenance provided with these locomotives?   All you get is a parts list and warranty information.

Ok, for the life of me I cannot remove the shell on the SD45, but was able to remove the trucks and tried all kinds of combinations.  

I had tried running it after I removed both coupler boxes and it stayed on the tracks.  I loosened the back coupler box by a half or quarter turn and it seems to have solved the issue.  It looked like the plastic piece that is under the box was slightly bowed toward the truck, while the front one was straight.  Loosening the screw seems to have fixed this issue.

As for the consolidation, looks like that is a lot more work to remove the shell, so that is a tomorrow or the next day project.

I did run it about 5 minutes and it does not get hot, but it smells slightly of something burning, leads me to think that you might be right that some gunk maybe inside the shell and burning off or something.

Good afternoon, I have a pair of Spectrum locomotives, both of which are several years old, and both have potential repair issues I wanted to ask about before potentially sending them off for service.  Both are N scale.

One is an Spectrum EMD SD-45 Diesel which cannot stay on the rails.  It will derail on 19 inch radius, as the back set of wheels comes off, especially most often the very last wheel.  I have run much longer locomotives, including a Kato Amtrak set across the exact track and it has never derailed, no matter what speed, so I know the track is sufficient.  I have watched it closely and it seems to happen most frequently on left curves, but occasionally it will survive that curve only to be undone by a wider right turn with an easement.  I should mention all my 180 degree portions of the layout include a 28" radius easement prior to getting into the 19" section.  I am at a loss for why this loco cannot stay on the tracks.  I use Kato Unitrack, which I believe is Code 80, but this locomotive has only ever run on this track and I have never had any real issues with it.

My second locomotive is a Spectrum 2-8-0 Consolidation.  This locomotive runs well, and runs down to speeds around 30 or so on the pack with no issues, a bit slower perhaps it will stall out.  The issue with this one is that it appears to smell wrong.  After running no more than a minute or two it almost smells like it is burning, or an ozone smell coming from it.  I don't like to run this very long as I don't want to burn it out, but perhaps this is normal and the locomotive hasn't completed its initial running period when you buy them.  This locomotive has been on a shelf a while, and I don't think I broke it in completely before we moved houses after I bought it.

It looks like the prices to send these guys in is 45 a piece, and the diesel was purchased for only 70 so almost not worth the cost of repair and shipping. 

I am not very good at fixing mechanical stuff, so anything that is going to be too complex, particularly with a soldering iron is out for me.  Any ideas?

So if I have to send it back I have to pay again even though it was not done completely well the first go around?

A few weeks back I got my 2-8-0 back from the service department and after one revolution of the wheels the main pin on one side came out and the bars fell out.  I put the pin back in and it is holding now, however, it seems like the wheels and/or bars may be out of sync.  The loco performs badly at lower speeds.  If I have the throttle above 50% it seems to run well, but under that it may come to a halt and the loco appears to rock a bit from side to side.  What is the easiest way to get the drive bars back into sync if that is what the problem is?

Just gave it another shot and it is now operating.  I will clean the rails and the wheels again tonight and let the solution sit to really give it a good cleaning.  Thanks for everything!

I put some rail-zip on the wheels, I will let it sit for a bit and then give it another go.  I did have some stock on the line as well, and I will be cleaning those before they go back on, I just want to get this loco back in service before i worry about those.  I did run another loco on the track after I cleaned it up and it runs just fine, so the problem is exclusively with this loco, hopefully this rail cleaner will do the trick.  Thanks for your help.

Is there 1 specific wheel on this loco that takes in the power?  It looks like the 3rd main wheel on the right side is the one I am talking about, across from the wheel with the rubber around it.  This wheel is blacker than the others after a cleaning, but I see a very small line of clean metal of the same colors as all the other ones.  If I am right that only 1 wheel takes in the power, this wheel has become very dirty and is the cause of the problems.  Any tips to get this thing cleaned up and running?

I had wiped down the track and tried another loco and it was able to run, I will try cleaning off this loco more and see if I can get anything.  My fear is that something inside burned and leaked oil and therefore the engine is dead.  I will give this a shot and see what happens.

I have a consolidation running under the tree this year and we always turn it off overnight and other times throughout the day.  This morning the train would not even light up, and I noticed a layer of black substance on the tracks and wheels of the train, I assume this is oil.  Any tips to get my engine back running or is this a service call to Bachmann?