On30 trolley won't reverse

[gcread]

I have three On30 trolleys in my Christmas village. When I set up this year, one worked perfectly, and the other two won't reverse. Because I have three sets, I have checked every connection, switched trolley barns, switched final reversing track, and switched trolleys -- none of these troubleshooting ideas has caused the the trolley to reverse. It goes to the end of the track, stops, and stays there. Please help me troubleshoot how to fix this. Do I need a new barn, a new trolley, or a new final reversing track (A to "connect to bumper")?  It is a fairly long run of track, but the trolley runs fine until it gets to the end and doesn't reverse. Greg

[railtwister]

Hi gcread,

The tracks used with the Bachmann reversing system have a third wire (in addition to the two rails) underneath the roadbed that completes the reversing circuitry, and one or more of the connections at the track ends for this wire may have become oxidized while the sets were in storage. Try running a jumper wire for this third wire from one end of the track to the other, and see if this helps.

Bill in FtL

[NarrowMinded]

This is usually caused by a wheel pickup problem, both wheels on each side must have good contact with the track it is the bridging of the gap though the wheels and pickup that triggers the reversing module

Clean all the wheel pickups, make sure there is no dust or dirt and that they are making contact with the wheels.

If you have a meter you can figure out which wheel is the issue.

Meter across the axle from one side to the other, it should show Resistance if not that axle has an issue.
next meter the wheels front and back on one side, it should show continuity, if it does not that side has an issue.
so from that you can tell what axle and what side has an issue.

Just be aware that you could have an issue on both sides, your trolley will run if you have at least one wheel on both side picking up electricity


NM-Jeff

[gcread]

Thanks, Jeff. I'll try that. Greg

[gcread]

I cleaned the tracks and wheels, and still the trolley does not reverse. I don't think it is a trolley problem because two other trolleys, which reverse on other tracks, do not reverse on this track. Greg