I have Lionel O gauge fastrack, working on layout I noticed a flicker of light coming from the track, it was on the inside of the negative track, I looked at my Z 4000 and saw that I was set on 17 volts and my amp reader was bouncing back and fourth at 4.4 & 4.5 back and fourth. I called MTH tech support and they could not give me an answer. Do I have a problem ???
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Yes you do. Should not be arcing. I'm not sure what the problem is but I would not run anything till this gets straightened out. It could be a bad connection but i'm not sure. One of the electrical guru's on the forum will figure this out. I wouldn't think you have a transformer problem.
"flicker of light coming from the track" you mean a spark, or sparks? Is it just the one track piece or other places as well?
if the track is dirty that can cause arcing because of the poor connection. I would start by cleaning the track and all engine wheels, then retest. arcing can damage electronics from the noise spikes quickly!
4 to 4.5 is a lot of amps for these toys. I have to guess that you are describing a train with pass cars, or several engines? Does your track power connect to other things? Is it powering several loops?
Type of track? How is your track connected? Size of wire?
Are you running in conventional or command?
What is the engine(s)?
Have you ever serviced the engine(s)? Oil the axles, grease the gears, etc. Could a traction tire be stuck in the running gear?
I am 15' X 32' with a double loop connected with four switches , have one passenger car on track lit, also have two cabooses on track lit, my engines are not running, but where the fastrack joins together you would think there's an O gauge Man welding there. now that is on the inside negative rail.
When wheels or track is dirty, you get sparking as connection is made and broken.
Now if you are running AC, it switchers 60 times per second between pos and neg. If you are running DC, you switch it to change direction. So I am confused as to what is negative track?
Sounds like you have a bad connection at the arcing Fastrack and/or not enough drops. Take the joint apart and slightly crimp the rail to get a tighter fit.
okay hear we go I have a Z 4000 MTH Transformer going to my DCS fixed #1 input, coming out of my fixed #1 output to my three rail lionel fastrack, I believe that the center rail is my hot rail and the two outside rails are my ground rails, I sure hope I am right.
what worries me is that I have a tunnel with double track 16 feet long and I don't understand how I can have an arc on the negative rail. I don't want any problems happening inside the tunnel.
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