Percy wanting to stop problem.

[EQAddict14]

Would anyone know why my HO scale Percy wants to slow down and even stop at slow speeds at a switch/turnout?  I just opened him up today and he is brand new.  My other diesles that I have run smoothly thru them and I have yet to try the Thomas that I got also.  I also cleaned my track and Percys wheels with a Bright Boy.  My layout is a small 3x4 with the switches/turnouts making an inner loop, if it's called that.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

THANKS!

[EQAddict14]

I just tried my Thomas from the set that has Thomas, Annie and Clarabel, Bertie, Harold and Sir Topham Hat and he is doing the same thing, slowing down and stopping while trying to go thru the switches.

THANKS!

[EQAddict14]

Ok, one more update.  I seem to have a "dead" spot in the middle of my switches.  I tried running my Gandy Dancer on it and since the wheels are so close, I can see where it is stopping and where the "zone" is.  Anyone know what might be causing these dead spots?

Thanks again!

[Santa Fe buff]

Switches, or referred to as turnouts by some, have a gap in the track. The ends of the gap is  plated with plastic, any engine may get stuck on this for the electricity isn't on that little gap. This is the gap:
http://www.polyweb.com/dans_rr/blog/images/CVTTurnout2/Dsc00007.jpg
The easy fix is to increase throttle on the approach. If it stalls before the actual turnout, then try your connections. If the engine stalls after the wheels pass the gap, then it may be the circuit. Try your connections again, or replace it. But if your engine derails over the switch when going pretty fast, then it probably rumbled around and the wheel hit the 'point' on the gap and derailed it. Try to see if you can fix it, if not, reply and I'll look into more reasons.
Happy Railroading!
~Santa Fe buff.

[engineman15]

my percy does the same thing i have 3 turnouts and 1 atlas turnout,two black swiches that make him stop on the gap i also have a gray swich that percy doesn't stop for some reason ohh and i'm new here by the way

[Santa Fe buff]

Oh you are, checked your regstration date, welcome aboard, your not the newest, I think we got 3 new members I counted, your number 2, the other just regerster and hasn't been active yet, I remember my first time on here, Feberary 08. Trust me, this board is not boring, so hello.
For introduction,
Hi, I'm Santa Fe buff. 

[Michael]

Hmmm....  Percy isnt the best runner actually...   He has 4 itty bitty wheels.

[alex wittman]

well, i had the same problem, but i cleaned the whole switch and a i cleaned the wheels, but when i tested it out the problem was fixed and it was the flange or the frog, but i had the switch working right. you should try the like-like track cleaner lubricant it might work.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

And as already suggested, the old standby: If it stalls, open the regulator more.

[Cheeky_ULP]

Best thing to do is get PECO switches. They don't have the plastic bit; everyone at the club suggests them. They're wonders!

[Jake]

The "dead spot" you are referring to is called the frog. The frog is isolated from the rest of the turnout to keep from shorting the turnout. The Peco turnouts mentioned above are ELECTROFROGS, not all Peco turnouts as implied. Peco manufactures two types of turnouts, those being Electrofrog turnouts and Insulfrog turnouts. Electrofrog turnouts are power routing, that meaning that power is routed only(!) to the line that the turnout is set for. If it is set for the diverging route, only the diverging route is powered and the straight route goes dead, and vice-versa. IIRC, Electrofrogs can be made to have both routes powered at all times by adding wire drops to both routes from a main bus, but require the two frog rails to be isolated with insulated rail joiners. I am going sheerly off of memory here, so I would recommend  looking it up before trying it.

[Cheeky_ULP]

Knew that there was Electrofrogs, but not sure how the others work.

Downfall is Electrofrogs is expensiv, but more than likley worth it. I just need 9.

[Santa Fe buff]

But you don't see many Electrofrogs because of the forces Jake explained. But a the top two reasons they sell are these:

They decrease the probability that locomotives will stall or lose power.

Very famous model train companies trusted manufacturer them, such as Walthers.

But the reason you see more dead frogs are because:

You don't have to worry about power on the track not switched into.

They tend to be slightly cheaper.

More companies make them then Electrofrogs.

There's a simple comparison between the two.

[Guilford Guy]

Like Jake said Power Routing Switches can be very useful, and can also be used for isolating trains on sidings. They may be a bit more expensive, but you will eliminate stalling on switches. Another choice is to permanently couple a boxcar or some type of covered car, and add pickups to the wheels on the car. Wire the pick ups to the motor leads in the locomotive. When the loco would normally stall on the frog, the car behind would still be picking up electricity from rails still powered and feed this to the locomotive. If you are going to be using DCC, you can add a capacitor between the decoder and the motor leads, so that when it passes over a dead spot, the capacitor would still feed it the electricity it needs to keep moving.

[Jake]

^Good idea with the capacitor, Alex! I've never heard that one before, even though it makes so much sense.