Dead Track


C

chadmichaels

Member
as im laying track for my layout i think i might have messed up. i was laying track for one of my curves and as i was doing this a idea came in my head,

as i bend the rail the one side rail comes out of the ties..as i bend the second piece of track i thought the rail that got longer would fit into those ties from the first bent piece..sure enough it did..but as i was test running a engine as soon as all wheels came on the curve there was no power anymore...

do i need to add wire now to this curve and run it back to my controller for there to be power or what? This is a dcc set up by the way. I hope i explained this well enough.

chad
 
Normal nickel silver rail joiners should carry power to the track from the connecting track but it is advisable to have feeders every 4-8 feet of track. I had some dead track but that was due to a turnout that wasn't making contact. The best advise is to check all your connections with a magnifying glass, even the slightest electrical gap is gonna cause problems.
 
Depending on the distance this curve is from your controller/booster, you may be better off running a heavier gauge wire as a bus, and then running feeder wires from gaps in the insulation on the bus up to your rails every so often.

Joiners are notorious for letting us down. They may work for several months, even a couple of years, but one day we find what you have found, and that is that a section of track is inexplicably dead.

When you make curves with flextrack, join the two or more pieces of track when they are lined up nice and straight, and of course on the same plane. A counter top covered with a couple of layers of newsprint should do. The, solder your joiners into place. Note that as soon as you try to fashion the curve, your joiners will not want to slide through the tiny spikes. You will have to remove several ties, file or sand down the spike heads, plus create a shallow channel in which the joiner can rest, and then make the curve. Once you have it all laid properly and fixed into position, slide the filed ties/sleepers under the rails spaced appropriately.

Normally, the sliding rails go outermost on the curves. The reason is that since the spike heads permit them to slide, they also permit them to move outward radially and to widen the gauge. This little extra width helps engines to negotiate the curve, particularly the tighter radii.

-Crandell
 
Hi Chad: If I read your post correctly, it seems as if you slid the next section of rail into the ties without a joiner. If so, you've created an open gap. If that's how you want to do it, you'll need feeders on the rails on each side of that gap. Hope this helps. DJ.
 
Ah, you are right, Grampy. In this case, the gentleman could also just make sure that the two rail ends actually get as close to each other as possible, and then solder them to create one contiguous length of rail. If it is only two lengths long, another feeder is not going to be needed. Even three might be doable, but we advise against lengths longer than about 6' before you add another feeder.

Good catch...I missed the inference completely. :( Up at the computer way past my bedtime.

-Crandell
 
I was told that the moving rail goes on the inside of the curve because it will allow it to be snipped off. I installed mine that way with no problems.
 
Hblue: I do the same, but because I slide the long rail into the next new rail. Can't really see a "have-to" for either method, other than personal preference for the way you assemble the curve. I could actually do it either way and have the same good mechanical fit. Don't think there is a right or wrong on this one.
 
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