Edited w/pix
Hello All, Bill Kobernus, friend and O gauge model rr'er extraordinaire, came over and analyzed the situation last night. We found that the engine hesitated or stopped on all switches regardless of direction of travel, and always with the front roller on the dead spot of the switch. Upon further inspection, we found straight line silver scoring on the plates just on the coupler side of the rollers , indicating that those black metal plates had been hitting the center rail, and likely causing shorts(See first two pix). We took a Dremel tool and ground down those scorings to create more clearance from the center rail(See the final two pix attached. Note the blue painters tape, which Bill applied to keep the steel shavings from fouling the underside of the engine or track. We used a fine paint brush to clean up any residue). I will paint both plates and that should seal the metal. Upon further investigation with the front roller on the dead spot, and tipping the engine slightly on it's side away from us,
Bill saw a spark just above the rear truck. Bill had also seen those same sparks while the engine was running. Now we are sure that we have a short on one of the wires going to the rear truck, it's my job to find and fix that. Then we should have a good, working Dash 8 engine.
Thanks to everyone who game me input on this and to Bill for helping me put the final analysis and fix on the problem. Ron
