Diagnose / Repair Lionel Fasttrack Remote Switches/Turnouts

Summarizing my long initial post: just wondering if anyone has a service / diagnostic guide for Lionel FasTrack remote switches...

From the lack of responses, I'd say no.

That was what I was afraid of. Given how expensive these things are I am surprised that there is not better diagnostic information out there. It looks super complicated but I think there is really only a handful of main components. It was actually a few posts on this forum (e.g., https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/t...ler-won-t-show-green) and others that helped me see the guts of the switches and gave me the confidence to purchase this lot without the signal portion and switch machine since I realized these are inconsequential to switch operation.

I have to stumble my through repairing them. Most of the issues i have found are lack of electrical continuity through the turnout. I just solder the tabs inside to the rails to make them work. I did have one with a bad board and I figured it out by swapping in a good board. the rest is a couple of limit switches and a motor. Test continuity through the limit switches and apply a low DC voltage to the motor to test. I think it will move at about 6 volts

I fix them, but I don't have an itemized list of what to look for.  It's like most stuff, you look at the symptoms, then figure out what might cause them.

I don't have a list of anything I do, I barley keep notes which is changing fast due to the need to know what I did for people when I try to support them on an issue at a later date

Thanks everyone for feedback / comments. It gives me a better idea about how to go about this. If I figure out some methodical way to isolate / test components I will post something. I hope the boards are not bad since you cannot purchase new boards.

I am also looking at the remote mechanical (vs. electrical) options that are out there and they seem pretty cool if I cannot fix the electronics in some of the switches. I came across these guys which look pretty cool: http://www.humpyard.com/frank_..._at_colton_tower.htm (although it says that these are for N and HO, I don't know why they could not be used for O with an extender that would increase the distance the cable moves).

Good Afternoon Rob M!

The ones that I have repaired, all had the small resister in the line from the power in connection to the main board, was blown, Lionel uses these like a fuse.  The first thing to check.

May the force be with you.

ChooChooPaul ... THANK YOU.  Yep, the resistor was open on the busted switch I had.  The moment I replaced it, all was well.  Do you know what the recommended resistor value is?  It can't be measured anymore and the shrinkwrap covering has made the color rings hard to read.

@rgb posted:

ChooChooPaul ... THANK YOU.  Yep, the resistor was open on the busted switch I had.  The moment I replaced it, all was well.  Do you know what the recommended resistor value is?  It can't be measured anymore and the shrinkwrap covering has made the color rings hard to read.

The resistor is a 2 Ohm 1/4Watt.

Here's a link to a thread containing a reply from Mike Reagan then at Lionel where he gives the spec:

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...605#2415514336678605