I have several bits of advice to reply too in this one so bear with me.
Moonman. Thanks for the help, again, and thanks for the track piece list. I'll get back you on that one.
As for removing the switch that briefly deadened the light in my caboose, I can't really remove that switch because it is fastened to butt to butt with a second switch that allows the train to divert off of the outer most track to the middle track, then go straight or divert again to the inner most oval that leads to the parking tracks. Because the outer most and middle tracks are both main line routes, simply put you can make two trains go in the same or opposite direction around and around for hours, I had to hook a right hand turn directly to a left hand turn, then butt another right hand turn to the back of that one so the train could snake through to the inner most or "yard" oval as I call it. Now I didn't add and 1 3/8 or 3/4 blocks, I just married them directly to each other when I did this. Should I have maybe added said blocks to give the transitions a bit more flexibility. What I am trying to ask is, the direct connect scenario seems to be a bit "cramped".
One thing I should mention, and I should have mentioned way back when I started this thread. My track is currently fraught with gaps. I may have mentioned this. I have been pulling my hair out, pushing, pulling, sliding, cursing, adding and subtracting, measuring, and consuming copious amounts of alcohol trying to figure out how to make these **** straight stretches come together as one long stretch of completed track. Room dimensions, curve diameter, lack of knowledge as to how to set up a functional layout, and the ever popular how it looked in my head versus how it is mapping out on the floor, have caused me to become intimately familiar with the 5, 4 1/2, 1 3/4, and 1 3/8 blocks. Pieces I did not posses when I started this. They are shipped. Shipped....not here. So in place of track I currently have post it notes with "use one 5 and one 1 3/8 here" etc etc.
So if you are wondering how I can be so familiar with the specialty lengths, but not know anything about how they work or why they were designed to work the way they do, it's because I thought I could 10 inch the living hell out of this layout and all my lengths would fit together like a perfect oval puzzle. WRONG. But thanks to all of you and a little help from Jack Daniels (line from chrismas vacation, I really don't drink), I'm learning. Long story short but probably not the case, my LED problem could be due to not having a complete connection track as of yet. I've already derailed once because I got enamored with my engine speeding around the outer most track only to have it violently stopped by a missing 4 1/2 inch piece.
