E-Z N Standard Switch NEW, fail analog DC at frog

[timhar47]

I have just purchased some new EZ track, including standard remote switches. I have two that fail the same manner, but different route. The engine stalls when it gets to the frog area. Since the power lamps on the MRC pack blink at that time it seems its shorting out. The dumb thing is that one switch does this on the straight route, and the other on the diverge route. Is this a known thing with a fix or do I need to contact Bachmann since they are new?

Thanks - Tim

[brokemoto]

The B-mann turnouts come from the factory with the frogs neutral.  You must undo some screws and move some wires to make the frog live.  The instructions are on the back of the package.  The turnouts are factory gapped, so that should not be a problem.

Is your locomotive stalling at speed or when creeping?   I have seen certain locomotives stall on specific turnouts when creeping due to a short.  the solution was to stop operating that locomotive over that turnout, operate in in MU with another one so that it would be pushed over the short spot or run it a little faster through the turnout then scale back the throttle.   

In addition, I have seen certain live frog turnouts trigger breakers in hypersensitive DC systems and trigger re-sets on more than a few DCC systems.   I assume that you are running DC.   If it is occurring when you are running at slow speed, try running at speed and see if it still stalls or if the pilot light flickers.   Does the locomotive trigger the short if it is pointed in either direction, or only one?  I have had locomotives trigger a short when creeping through a turnout in one direction only.  I have turned around the locomotive, had it creep in the same direction through the same turnout and have in not short.

Sometimes, swapping out the turnout does it, but it appears that this will not help you, as both turnouts are doing it.

Is it the same locomotive that does this, or is it more than one?

What locomotive(s) are you operating?

I have had problems with locomotives' stalling on some of these, but that has been due to poor contact of the points with the stock rails.  Usually cleaning the contact areas with LL track cleaner and making sure that the points contact the stock rail properly has solved that one.

[timhar47]

Hello, actually I first had a new Bachmann SD45 with sound, it would halt at that switch, and the NCE would go into reset. I since sent the loco back for other reasons. The DC loco was my only loco, life like pa1. It would stutter at med-high speed, but at slow it would stutter-halt, and also cause the overload lite to blink, which logically to me meant a short.
(I have the default wiring, which I believe means the frog was not powered)
At any rate - the next day both switches worked - go figure. Thanks anyway