# Problems, problems, problems...



## HuTHeBeast (Dec 21, 2013)

I am going to tell the full story here. I finished applying ballast about three weeks ago, and every weekend after that was dedicated to cleaning the track. It worked, for a while at least. Here is the weird part, IT SOMETIMES WORK, SOMETIMES NOT SO MUCH! Only this morning, my trains ran smooth, and a 1 hour hiatus caused stalling around the whole track. What am I doing wrong? I don't want to spend any more weekends cleaning track, so I can run trains for fifteen minutes during school nights. What do I need to do? Maybe buy a expensive cleaning car.

Please Help!!!
Brandon


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## Davidfd85 (Jul 4, 2011)

Have you checked or cleaned the wheels of the engine (s) ??


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## HuTHeBeast (Dec 21, 2013)

I have cleaned everything, about two days plus of work on cleaning track


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

I am guessing the rail connectors are failing. Might have something to do with the glue for the ballast. Its a pain but feeder wires to each piece of track and then you don't have to depend on the rail connectors. I don't trust them. When your train stops push
the track down at the joints (both pieces). See if that brings train back to life. If it does the connectors are failing.


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## SRV1 (Nov 14, 2010)

Solder the connectors and eliminate that possibility.


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## singletrack100 (Dec 18, 2013)

Davidfd85 said:


> Have you checked or cleaned the wheels of the engine (s) ??


Check your rolling stock wheels too, especially if they are plastic wheels. I understand your issue started after ballasting and may very well be related, however you'd be surprised at how many times issues arise after something only to be non-related to what you did. 

Ocassionally I start getting stalling- loco wheels get cleaned. If it persists, track gets cleaned. I have found if it persists after that, I have dirty wheels on rolling stock. Plastic wheels have a way of bringing about problems after scenery changes!

I recently ran a long freight consist with some "new" (used) stock I recently got and a few with plastic wheels. Stalling began, so I went through the normal procedure above, finally focusing on every car. Most of my freight stock has been changed to Intermountain metal wheels and they required very little attention. However, the recently acquired items did, even though they had metal wheels, though not IM. The couple with plastic were filthy. Cleaned them all, swapped out the remaining plastic wheels, one last track clean and taadaa!! No more stalling!

Happy RR'ing!

Duane


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## raleets (Jan 2, 2011)

I'm in total agreement about getting rid of plastic wheels.
I changed EVERY car on my layout to metal wheels two years ago. I've only cleaned my EZ track NS one time since and I'm not really sure it needed it because I wasn't having any problems at the time. There is no stalling and my trains run smooth as glass.
Metal wheels relieve lots of headaches. They're a gift that keeps giving.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Ballasting glue can create all sorts of mayhem on layout tracks.

It gets on the rail head and blocks power pickup for the loco.
I've found you have to get a bright flashlight and do a very
close inspection of each rail. In spite of your cleaning efforts,
there will be little dark spots that are non conductive. Sometimes
you have to scrape these off with a hobby knife when normal
methods fail.

The other major problem is that it seeps into joiners and blocks
conductivity. The solution is to either add another drop to the buss
or solder the joints where there is a problem.

There is one other non track possibility. The power pickup wipers
on your loco may not be contacting the wheels, it may have gunk
on it, or a wire may have broken off of a truck.

It do get frustrating, but if you stay with it you'll beat it.

Don


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