Probably the centre rail pickup touches the rail (or the frog maybe). Which type of track? Which type of turnouts?

Make sure the pickup shoe is straight horizontally and vertically and parallel to the rails on straight track. Maybe it helps to reduce the pressure of the springs if it already is straight.

Hi WS,

If you are using C track, I get this same spark effect on a few pieces of long wheel-base rolling stock.

In my case, it is caused by the back of one of the wheels touching one of the centre pukos (the centre pick-up stud). The particular puko is one that is closest to the rail. I can often solve this problem, by using a needle file.

I carefully file the side of the puko so it is not touching the back of the wheel as it goes around the curve. I find that a few tenths of a mm filing will do the trick.

regards
Kimball

I"m using C-track. It only does it with this one car. The Christmas car has a pickup shoe and is lighted on the inside. You can remove the "body" of the car to access the inside stuff. The track is just a temporary setup around the tree and its on a tree skirt. The track seems to be connected ok, but it seems to spark at the transition where the track splits into the 2 directions. I guess I just don't want to do any damage to the car or its pickup shoe, the rail or somehow the engine or power supply. I didn't know if this sparking would affect any of those points.

a photo from the underside would be an advantage for us to guide you in the right direction. it is obviously the pick up shoe and it needs to be looked at whether or not is centred, is level or has any other abnormal signs and this can be compared with another slider such from a loco.

John

The reasons of sparkings is that small locomotivs and wagons with pickup shoe makes models to lift up by passed over turnouts.
In this way it makes wheels bad contact on the rail and disturb.

Scott (is it Scott?),

I don't think anything is wrong with your turnout. Normally this sort of thing is more of a result of slider configuration. If you remove the locomotive from the track, set the transformer to an average speed (ignore transformer setting if digital), and slide the wagon by hand over the track, do you get the same result (sparks)? Does it happen in both directions? Does it make any unusual noise as it passes over the middle rail pukos? I can't say from the top of the slider in the picture, but I wonder if it's just out of adjustment a bit. You could remove and reattach it, just to make sure the seating is ok.

Regarding attaching images, these files are too big (in computer bytes) to be displayed in the post, they are good photos, they just need to be downsized for sharing on the web.

-Brandon

Here are the photos shrunken.

I agree with John. It looks like the slider is off center. I think what happened is that the slider got bent sideways. This is a common problem with packaging when you push your loks and rolling stock sideways into the package and forget to compress the slider.

I know that packaging of these cars are different. A good bend in the other direction would help.
Also, although it is rare with Marklin products, you should check the gauge of the wheels, perhaps they are narrow and cause the car to shift too much. Probably not enough to derail but enough for the slider to be too much to one side.

Looking at the picture, it also is not quite as parallel either. These little things, on their own, would not be much of an issue but each will contribute to the slider offset problem.

To check for wheel set gauge, pop the wheels out and set them on the track. There should be little side to side motion. Also compare to a good lok as the lok would have more detailed quality control. If the gauge is out, twist and pull wheel to gauge. Keep in mind that the distance of wheel to axel point should be as equal as possible.

To verify slider performance, swap slider with one that is a good performer. If issue is resolved, compare the 2 sliders and adjust if necessary. If this is too much, replace the slider.

To adjust the wheel gauge, take the wheel set out of the truck (bogie).
The wheel that you do not what to move, grab the wheel and the axel and hold tight.
The wheel that you do want to move, grab and twist. While twisting, pull a little to get it to move to place. If we just pull, it would slip right off so that is why you want to get the wheel moving while twisting and while twisting, you can make minute sideways shifts.

Sorry, but I thought my follow-up questions indicated what I had tried in response. I noted above that there is some slop in the gauge of the wheels, and asked how to adjust it, and received a reply. I haven't had time to try it yet. I will let everyone know the results. I tried bending the slider, but it didn't seem to make any difference since it still has some arching. So at this point I'm trying out the wheel adjustment when I have a moment. I would describe my level of sophistication and experience as "novice", that's why I think my questions seem to me to be fairly basic. However, I am an analytical individual and have experience in overhauling a car engine when I was 12 years old, have worked on BMW's off and on for 30 years, and I'm now 63. That's not my line of work however. I'll keep everyone posted on my success or failure with this issue.

I appreciate everyone's time, input and patience with this issue. I finally had time and took the wheels off the car this morning and compared the gauge with the loco's gauge and they appear to be the same with no need for adjustment. They just line up with each other. I also took the loco off the track, and just moved the lighted car by hand, and as the car comes into the turnout it rises up a bit going through the 2 turnout rails regardless of the direction the turnout is set to, and then as it comes out of the twin rails in the turnout the spark occurs. It doesn't occur if I'm pushing the car by hand, but only if the loco is pulling it. It does this for each of the turnouts, regardless of direction. I also turned the car around to see if its direction mattered, but it doesn't. The slider is solder wired to the lighting board inside the car, so its not as easily replaceable as with other sliders. I tried to lightly bend it, and it seems to be more centered over the puks, but hasn't solved the problem. And as I said it only does the sparking at the turnouts and after the car has passed through the turnout. Everywhere else in the layout it doesn't spark. I still think it has something to do with the weight of the car since when it has light pressure from my hand moving the car through the turnout it doesn't spark presumably because it maintains its contact with the puks, and the only place in the layout where the cars rises up is when it goes through the turnout. So much for my analysis.

Looking at the photo of your switch track, I noticed that the first pin on the outer side of the tracks seems to have been a little bent/twisted.
As suggested by some other members, the wear marks on the slider seem to suggest uneven wear.

I am going to ask you for some additional information:

1) Does the car spark when travelling on only one of the two tracks, i.e. only on the outer track or only on the inner track?

2) Does the car spark when travelling in either direction, or only when passing in one direction?

2) If you remove the car and set it back on the track in the opposing direction, does the problem still occur?

Take the car (on it's own) and run it manually along the tracks. Observe whether the spark is coming from the wheel or from the slider.
Rotate the car 180 degrees and try the same again. Is the spark always coming from the same spot on the car or does it change when the car is rotated? (i.e. the spark is always at the same place on the slider or is it, say, at the leading edge of the left side of the slider no matter in which direction the car is positioned).

Some lighter cars may slightly tip in curves, which can cause sparking or shorts on crossings, switches or contact tracks when those cars are equipped with sliders. This happens especially when lighter cars are placed in front of heavier cars to the rear. To test if this is part of the problem, simply change the positioning of the car in the consist or test with that car alone. You can reduce the risk of this type of problem by adding a little weight to the car or using it at the rear of the consist/rake.

On older M and K tracks, the pukos are a little higher compared to the C Track ones. This may make it more likely that cars will have issues on the newer track as the slider is not lifted as much as it was on older designs.

Mike C