@RSJB18 posted:@Chills I have several BEEPS and run them on 027 tubular. They do spark quite a bit on my turnouts. I've learned to live with it but you are not seeing things. I've fiddled with track and pickups to minimize the issues where possible.
Sorry but I'm sure that's not what you want to hear.
Bob
Indeed. It seems the 2003 and later BEEPs from RMT were designed to run on "plastic roadbed" track like Fastrack (also introduced in 2003) where all three rails are at the same height. I could envision that tubular track from various makers over the years might have varying differences in height of their center rail versus the outer two, causing the observed shorting problems for BEEPs on some manufacturers' tubular track and not others. Because the wheels are so small on the BEEP, and the bottom plate "humps" are so prominent relative to the wheel diameter, even with Fastrack its gearbox cover plate comes the closest (just over 2 mm) to contacting the center rail of any loco I have. That doesn't leave much "room for error" when dealing with a "raised" center rail.
