Hi everyone,

I have two different locs with the same type of slider. One stalls on the 3-way switch in the left position, and the other doesn't. I switched sliders, and the stalling seems related to the slider. The loc that always passes the switch stalls with the other's slider, and the loc that stalls does better with the other's slider (only stalls in one direction now).

I laid the sliders side by side on a flat surface and I can't tell the difference. The wear patterns on the sliders seem evenly distributed along its length.

What should I do to adjust the slider so both work on the switch? Are sliders supposed to be perfectly flat or have a slight up ward bend?

The locs are a BR 80 33043, works just fine, and a BR 81 30321 which stalls.

Thanks for any advice.

As Luis indicates, the problem is not always between the slider and the track, it could also be between the slider and the rest of the loco. His advice seems a bit of an overkill to me though. Often it is enough to gently clean the contact surfaces and bend the metal parts that make contact between the slider and the loco a little bit to improve contact pressure.

Thanks for the advice. I will clean the slider connection parts carefully. Up until now I have only cleaned the bottom that touches the track. I will put the good slider on a flat surface and slide feeler gauges under it to determine its bend and maybe I can give the other slider the same profile.

Hi Trainbuff!
What type of rail system are you using? There is a simple modification possible for the 3-way M-rail switch, which solves all stopping problems.

In case of M-rail, the slider of some locos simply fails to make contact with the point contacts in the rail. It's solved by soldering a piece of copper, or brass plate as the picture show.