Lockdown Layout

[Chrishans]

Hi guys,

Since the start of the new year I decided to build a new layout. My previous one was at my dads but with COVID I decided to move to my mums as I’ve got more space to work from home.

It’s an 8ft x 2ft end to end DCC sound layout and I’m now at a point where I’m just finishing up the track wiring and making a start on some scenery. I was going to work on getting the points motorised but I wanted to work on something other than track.

I do have a small problem though, locos keep stopping on the rear track from the fiddle yard and in the goods shed. It’s never on the point. I’ve installed dropper wires and connected them to the busbar but the problem persists.
I’ve gone over the track with a rubber, and all the wheels are clean.

Any tech wizards who could advise, would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers all

Chris

[IanS]

I'm not a technical wizard but where are your droppers located - and are the points all electrofrog?

[dtb]

My layout is fully DCC and on one of my Peco Streamline Electrofrog points into the goods yard my small tank loco's would stall, strange because they did not stall elsewhere on any of the other points.

Fortunately, the points were in a part of the layout not yet ballasted, so I swapped the points around and found the loco's stalled on that point wherever I moved it to, so I purchased a new point which the cost was negligible, this cured my issue.
As to why I don't know, but I suppose everything in life can malfunction in some way no matter how simple it may be.

[teedoubleudee]

Chris, have you got a meter? If so my method would be to disconnect the controller from the track and measure each piece of track to the next one (both sides) for continuity. If your meter has a bleeper it will only take a few minutes.

[Chrishans]

I'm not a technical wizard but where are your droppers located - and are the points all electrofrog?

All my points are the unifrog type so everything should be live.

My droppers are located on the end of the point, so on the single piece of track, not the fork. (Not sure on the correct term haha).

I don’t actually have a meter, but my step dads a mechanic so he may have one I can use.

The track isn’t properly pinned down yet so I’ve a feeling that might be one of the issues. My household isn’t awake yet so I’m not going to start hammering just yet as I’m not sure they’ll appreciate that

I’ve also thought about installing stay alives but I’m not sure how easy they are to install.

[IanS]

Have a look at this site: https://www.brian-lambert.co.uk/DCC_Pag ... #Bookmark5 where details of wiring points can be found.

Looking at the photo you don't appear to have insulated rail joiners on the middle two of the point (the V rail ends) as recommended.

Unifrog come in many Codes depending on the scale - N scale, HO scale or 00 scale.
Unifrog in 00/HO are Code 70, Code 75 or maybe Code 83 (I think that is right - someone will correct me if I'm wrong), they behave as insulfrog out of the box (https://dccwiki.com/PECO_Unifrog) according to this wiki. This could be the cause of stuttering on the points. They can be adjusted to behave like Electrofrog points.

(Remember, I'm no wizard at this.... but enjoy using a computer.)

[Bandit Mick]

I can’t help you with your electrical problem but just wanted to say good luck - you’ve made a good start with your layout.

[Brian]

Hi
Can you confirm you have one (or more) rail feed connections on the rails I've marked with red and black arrows? If not you will need to add them.

[Chrishans]

I’ll be honest, I did have droppers there earlier but I removed them and replaced them with the standard bullhead fishplates. Since doing that it’s running a lot more smoothly. I think it’s because I bought the presoldered dropper fishplates and had to trim them slightly to fit(as the bullhead version isn’t available yet) and the sleeper spacing would be off. I don’t think it was in contact with the rails very well. I will say this, electronics are the worst part of railway modelling for me, as I’m not confident with what I’m doing.

With regards to the bullhead points, I thought it was a case of just placing them on the layout and they’re completely live so you don’t need to do anything to them.

So if I add insulated fishplates to the V of the frog, it will stop any stuttering?

Forgive my ignorance, I’m still learning

[IanS]

...
So if I add insulated fishplates to the V of the frog, it will stop any stuttering?

Forgive my ignorance, I’m still learning

You'll possibly also need to have a 'frog juicer' to change the polarity of the frogs (the middle moving rails). I'm guessing about this, but a 'frog juicer' + insulated fishplates is often preferred with electrofrog points, the unifrog points are a clever combination of insulfrog and electrofrog. The packaging/instructions that came with them may advise you better than me