On my track, some locomotives seem to be more prone to "bad contact" and stop, while others have no problem whatsoever.

Can anyone give me advice on how to get these problem locs to run as well as the other ones?

I have taken off the pick-up shoe, checked that the pick-up shoe is not bend, tried to bend it so that there is more pressure on the shoe.

Thanks.

Hi Rudy

Welcome to the forum.

I use C-track - I dont know which track type you use - but I have had some similar problems in the past.

I fixed it by slightly rubbing the central studs with some very light abrasive paper.

Wheels,
it seems to me they might be dirty, few, oxidised, or bad contact between wheel and chassis. Dirt is the easy one of course.
/Lars

Dear all,

Thank you for your comments. In hindsight, I think I should have been more clear and precise in putting my problem to you.

The loc that is running with no problem whatsoever is 37131. This is a tank loc. The loc that continues to stop every 10/20 cm is 37974. This is a loc with a bogie.

The 37131's pick-up shoe is longer than the 37974. I have cleaned the center studs with a piece of cloth, soaked in lighter fuel. I have tried even with a proprietary track cleaning liquid.

All to no avail. The 37974 continues to stop at seemingly random intervals.

I have cleaned the pick-up shoes, I have taken off the pick-up shoe and cleaned the contact on the bogie.

Frankly speaking, I am at a complete loss trying to understand why the 37974 continues to stop, especially at slow speeds. If I put it at very high speed, it continues, but you can see from the flickering of the front lights that there seems to be a contact issue.

Any further advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Rudy

There are several possible causes:

1. Bad contact between track and wheels.
2. Bad contact between wheels and loco body.
3. Bad contact between the center studs and the pick-up shoe.
4. Bad contact between the pick-up shoe and the decoder.
5. Bad contact between the loco body and the decoder.
6. Bad solderings on the decoder.
7. Something it the loco or between the loco and the track that causes intermittent short circuit or over-current.

To resolve the problem you have to test and eliminate each of the possible causes one by one. For example, you can open the loco and connect a wire directly between the grounding point inside the loco and the transformer/control unit "brown", and give it a test run. If the problems still occur, it is probably not one of the reasons 1 or 2 above. Go on with similar tests to check the other possibilities, until you find the reason.

The flickering of light clearly tells that the problem is not in the motor, brushes etc. In some cases (I've done that myself) you get a problem with the overlaod protection circuits in the decoder, if you have too much oil in the motor; however, I don't think this is the problem as the train travels more than a few centimeters, and that the light is flickering.

So I wote for 1, 2 or 3 in perz list as the most likely cuases. Could you tell how the track looks where the problems occurs? Straight or curved? Turnouts? Or just random? At one place you say 10-20 cm, at another - random. Can you be more precise?

/Lars

Foumaro,

Lars had just concluded in the post before yours that the problem is not in the motor....
It must be somewhere in the current pickup path.

Thank you for your suggestions.

I also have contact problems with 36800, which is a Koef. Is it usual that this loc has contact problems due to its small size and light weight? It struggles especially on turnouts, but also on normal straight track.

My 36800 is not very sensitive to dirt on the track. I think all model locos are too light to grind the dirt away, so weight shouldn't matter (much) here.
BTW: I normally use cork (from wine bottles) to clean the rails. You know your rails were dirty if the cork is black after rubbing them.