Engine stops over switches

Hello Henry, If you are thinking the battery will will keep the engine moving when the rollers hit a dead space, unfortunately it won't. The purpose of the battery is to keep the sound going primarily in conventional mode when the direction button is pressed or when the power to the track is shutoff and the engine can complete the shutdown sequence.

Best bet is to add additional rollers to the tender if it's a steam engine or change the arrangement of the switches to alleviate the dead spot.

Are the switches in a row or at the end of a tight curve ? If so, you may want to try and insert a short fitter straight piece before, between and/or after the switch.

Also, check this link:

MTH Realtrax Switch Issues | O Gauge Railroading On Line Forum (ogaugerr.com)

Yes the switches are together both are 031 and the engine is a rail king SD60

I had the same issue with an MTH engine and a single switch.  I noticed that another of my MTH engines used rollers with a wider spread.  Swapped the rollers and the engine crossed the switch with no problem.  I ordered a new set of pickup rollers for the engine that worked and put them on the problem engine.  No more problems crossing the switch.

I just had the same problem. So I hooked a ground wire to the rail that was not grounded . Problem solved. I believe Gar Graves or Ross told me to try this some time ago. It work then and it worked last week🙃

So after reading the all of replies its not the engine its the switch? I thought the engine would coast through any short dead spots but i guess I was wrong. Thanks to all for your help

Henry

@Bill Grafmiller posted:

I just had the same problem. So I hooked a ground wire to the rail that was not grounded . Problem solved. I believe Gar Graves or Ross told me to try this some time ago. It work then and it worked last week🙃

I checked power and ground  both ok. I use a jumper wire on both outside rails

for a test, put a regular 9 volt inside just to see if it makes it over the switches. Some batteries fail when under load. Take it back out right away.

On some steam, you can add a pick-up to the tender if there isn't one. On diesels, you can add the double rollers when they fit, if they aren't already there.

I've also seen where some wires aren't connected properly or failed, and the engine stalls like you're seeing.

Joe thanks for your reply. I switched out the battery with a BCR no changes also picked up each end one at a time of loco while under power and the engine did not die so that tells me that each roller is working correctly.

Another quick check is to first measure the length of the "dead spot", using a test lamp and a ruler/tape measure. The distance between the pick-up rollers MUST be greater than the length of your "dead spot", otherwise the model will never negotiate the "dead spot".

@H1000 posted:

Hello Henry, If you are thinking the battery will will keep the engine moving when the rollers hit a dead space, unfortunately it won't. The purpose of the battery is to keep the sound going primarily in conventional mode when the direction button is pressed or when the power to the track is shutoff and the engine can complete the shutdown sequence.

Best bet is to add additional rollers to the tender if it's a steam engine or change the arrangement of the switches to alleviate the dead spot.

I went back to layout and did some more testing and discovered that the sounds stop as well. earlier I had the sound off

Henry

I had two 072 in a row and i had to put a relay on one so it would energize the dead rails when the switch was  thrown in a certain way.  Ross has instructions on their web site on how to do this for the big switches.  It helped with my issue, not sure if it would help with your issue, not sure if the MTH switches are set up the same way.

@Tony H posted:

I had two 072 in a row and i had to put a relay on one so it would energize the dead rails when the switch was  thrown in a certain way.  Ross has instructions on their web site on how to do this for the big switches.  It helped with my issue, not sure if it would help with your issue, not sure if the MTH switches are set up the same way.

Thanks Tony I will look at their web tomorrow

@c6usa posted:

I went back to layout and did some more testing and discovered that the sounds stop as well. earlier I had the sound off

Henry

so you may have a broken wire? Why would the sound stop so fast?

Can you test your battery with load? and BCR you have as well?

or do you mean the engine sounds shuts down?

@Engineer-Joe posted:

so you may have a broken wire? Why would the sound stop so fast?

Can you test your battery with load? and BCR you have as well?

I agree that will be my next move tomorrow. Checking wiring

I have 8.8 volts from battery to board I checked voltage at the board. In my heard I have 2 other sd60 engines both PS2 5 volt and they both go over the switches with no problems with sound on. so it looks like I may had a PS2 board problem (bad cap?)not a track problem.

Thanks for all your input Henry.

Henry, I'm not sold on the board being bad. How slow is the locomotive moving when going through this bad spot? If both rollers are moving through a dead spot slowly, you can expect the engine to shutdown. If you turn the engine around on the track and run it the other direction or just run it backwards through the same spot, does it shutdown?

@Richie C. posted:

Are the switches in a row or at the end of a tight curve ? If so, you may want to try and insert a short fitter straight piece before, between and/or after the switch.

Also, check this link:

MTH Realtrax Switch Issues | O Gauge Railroading On Line Forum (ogaugerr.com)

@H1000 posted:

Henry, I'm not sold on the board being bad. How slow is the locomotive moving when going through this bad spot? If both rollers are moving through a dead spot slowly, you can expect the engine to shutdown. If you turn the engine around on the track and run it the other direction or just run it backwards through the same spot, does it shutdown?

I have another SD60 engine PS2 5 V that I tested as well.  Both engines were tested at 50 smph and in both directions one has no problems the other stops abruptly and sound stop as well. The layout has been down for 2 years now and I did not have any problems with the engine in question until yesterday. I have 2 areas where there is 2 spots that this happened. I still think its the something in the PS2 board. My layout is a large one about 50'x10' with 4 levels, 51 switches, 38 engines all DCS

Thanks Henry