Track Section Goes Dead When Electrified Car Enters

X-ray,

   You may have a faulty piece of track that is only failing when a lighted car

or engine enters that section of track, and provides a connection.   Try replacing the track in the section that leads up to your switch and see what happens.   You might find now that if you reinstalled your old Lionel 022, the same problem might exist.  I had a very similar problem with some old tubular track years ago, after I replaced part of the track the problem went away.

PCRR/Dave

 

The problem is that you actually have no power to that section of track.

 

The Ross switches must be powered at all three legs.  The voltage your meter sees before rolling a car onto that section is a very low current bleed over through some device like a bulb in a switch, controller, or signal.  Remember, a resistor(in this case a bulb) limits current, not voltage, and a lower resistance device placed in that section shorts out the very tiny current to effectively zero.

 

Run track feeder/drops to this section and you are back in business.

Rob,

   If I remember correctly from his other thread, he already tried what you are suggesting.   Your fix is what I 1st thought was the problem also, however

it seems to be something else.  Hence the idea of replacing some of his track.

PCRR/Dave

Thanks to all. This morning I took a quick look just to make sure I didn't have some wires crossed. Everything looks to be OK so after work this evening I'm going to trace the wiring from the transformers to the afflicted track section. I also think I may very well put the old Lionel switch back just to see what happens. What disturbs me the most is that everything was working fine until I changed out the switch. I'm wondering if the insulated rails of the old #022 switch was somehow isolating conflicting track. If that turns out to be the case then inserting fiber pins into the Ross switch may solve the problem.

Right now there is a big gap where the switch used to be and on both sides of the gap the track is exhibiting the same problem.

Just an update to this thread...as described in my original description of this problem in another thread titled "Could a New Switch Cause Track Power to Die", the problem was resolved. A power drop to the buss connected by a wire nut had come loose inside the nut. In retrospect the manipulation and wiggling of the track in order to replace the switch probably caused the loose connection. Coupled with the fact that I didn't really understand the meter reading I was getting, I went down the wrong path of blaming the switch.

xray,

   Glad your back running again with no further problems.

PCRR/Dave