Bruce and I have been trying to meet over the Christmas holidays so we could review the process on the layout he designed. We never did get together over the holidays but we both finally had a free Sunday afternoon so he dropped by today. Last time he saw the layout, the trains were running but it was all cork, track and scene dividers. Now, there is actually scenery, if somewhat temporary.
A couple weeks ago, I started having a problem with the trains running and I could not figure out why. With Bruce's help today, we finally isolated where the problem is...although not why.
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| Point where both trains stop |
Oddly enough, the problem occurs if an engine on the inside main (does not matter which engine) is just east (right) of all the yard switches AND the engine (any engine) is approaching the entrance to the west yard, both trains stop. We think it has something to do with the fact that there is only one feeder to this whole section so maybe the two engines are drawing too much current (voltage??) and neither can run. Next week I plan to drop at least 2 new feeders, one on either track and see if that improves the performance.
On a funny note, I pointed out to Bruce that my Repair-In-Place, or RIP, track can hold 4 freight cars that are not running well on the layout. That was not enough, so I started placing RIP cars on West Yard #3 right behind the RIP and maintenance shed. Now that is full with 4 freight cars and 1 cabin car. Worse, doing our running today, a second cabin car kept derailing but at least I was able to squeeze it onto the RIP track.
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| RIP Track full, so is West Yard #3! |
Looks like the Maintenance Dept better get cracking!
