# More MTH Scaletrax problems (fixed)



## Jim M (Jun 21, 2015)

Scaletrax is a nice looking track but it sure does have more than its share of problems. In addition to all the problems that have been well documented by Dave Hikel, I've come across a few more that took awhile to solve. I thought I'd pass on what I've learned.

I had one O-72 turnout that would intermittently have a short circuit when a train entered the isolated section of the turnout.

See the burn marks.








I thought I'd fixed it a long time ago but now that it is being used much more, the problem showed up again. I posted a thread a long time ago on another forum about this short circuit but that thread has long ago disappeared (when I deleted every post I ever made).


I was going to order another turnout, but MTH refused to send me a new one at no charge since the warranty has expired (that's another story in itself) so I go ticked off and tore it out and started digging into it. What I found is that there is a small wire imbedded in the track that acts as a jumper across the turnout. This wire was making contact with the isolated section of the turnout.









I started digging into the track system and I was able to cut the wire in two places with an Xacto knife. Even though the jumper wire is still there and making contact with the isolated section of track, it will no longer cause a short circuit.








I re-installed the turnout and then I needed to add my own jumper for power across the turnout.








So far, so good but I sure don't think anyone should have to go to these extremes to get a turnout to work properly.

Problem #2 was found when I was putting in my 0-80 curves. I had to grind down the rails (usually the middle rail but sometimes the outer rails too). If I didn't grind them down, I couldn't get the track to join properly; what a pain...:thumbsdown:

Problem# 3 : I had a couple of engines intermittently stall while entering a #6 turnout. Again I found that power wasn't passing through the turnout correctly but the jumper wire was intact. What I found is that I had to add solder to part of the middle rail where it was joined together but not "electrically joined". Flux and solder fixed that one.









That's all for now. I hope someone can benefit from my frustration with this track system. I wish I had chosen something else.:smilie_daumenneg:


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Great tips on fixing the Scalerax. If you had picked Atlas, you'd have had some similar issues with their anemic jumpers that connect sections of the rails, they burn out at the first sign of a derailment and heavy current.  Let's not even get me started in the lousy Atlas switch machines...


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## Adam (Feb 13, 2015)

Jim, thank you for these posts. I am building my first layout and I chose MTH Scaletrax because I wanted something that looked realistic and the cost is reasonable. However, as you have, I have had nothing but issues with the switches. I thought it might be my lack of experience in the hobby causing the problem, so it is a relief that it is not me. I LOVE MTH's products but this one needs to go back to engineering. The track itself is fine. It is the switches that need some sort of redesign. I only have 4 switches on my layout and out of the 4, two of the switch machines have burned up, 1 of the switches has broken (albeit with my constant tweaking to prevent sparks and derailing), and the only reason my LH switch is still in working order is because it is still in the box and hasn't been installed yet. I have purchased videos from the Hikel's in an attempt to learn the "tricks" to prevent these issues but they are not mentioned, which leaves me to wonder if I got a bad batch. I have also noted that there are NO YouTube videos from anyone building a layout with Scaletrax. If there are they are completed professional layouts. Anyway, thanks again for the posts, they are invaluable to me in my continued troubleshooting of this track.


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## Lynn D Bennett (Jul 27, 2013)

The MTH RealTrax has some of the same problems. My layout is all RealTrax and that was the worst decision I ever made on this layout.I considered it about $1000 wasted so I just have to live with it.

Because there are no alignment pins on the rails, mis-matches of the rails from section to section is common. I grind the rails in some places to keep the engines from bouncing all around when the drivers hit the mis-alignments.

I to find burn marks in some of my seven switches but it is an incompatibility of the spacing of roller pickups of some engines with the dimension of some switches.

Burned out switch motors? I found that the anti-derailment feature of the switches (sets the switch to the right direction as the engine approaches the switch) was shorted. It is an isolated section of tract where the approaching train wheel completes a circuit to change the switch to the proper direction. That isolated rail needs a gap to the adjoining track section rail. When that isolated piece of track is shorted (no gap) the switch motor is on all the time which it was never intended to be. It is a momentary motor so it burns out.

The points of some switches don't make hard contact with the adjacent rails as they are supposed to. Total disassembly and moving the internals around was necessary to get hard contact of the points to their rails.

Then there is the plastic frog and the opposing guide rail dimensions that let the engine and cars bump across the plastic frog. The effect is minimize with time as the plastic frog wears down.

MTH needs to get out of the track business. They obviously don't have a clue.

LDBennett


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## Todd Lopes (Nov 11, 2015)

I just saw this post and reminded me of an magazine article about Scaletrax that I had saved sometime ago for future reference. If you would like a copy, private message me and I'll email it to you.

Jim M, How's Scaletrax working out since you posted this in October?


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## Jim M (Jun 21, 2015)

Todd Lopes said:


> Jim M, How's Scaletrax working out since you posted this in October?


Except for a few problems, everything has been working perfectly since I fixed the issues that I described here. The only problems I've encountered since has to do with 2 Lionel engines occasionally shorting as they go through my #6 switches and 1 MTH engine (Coor's Silver Bullet) doing the same thing; I can't figure out why. All other engines work perfectly and the switches have worked flawlessly for them.


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## Jim M (Jun 21, 2015)

Adam,

If you need any assistance, by all means give me a private message and we can correspond via e-mail. I've learned a lot working with these switches and the track in general. One quick response to your question about burning up motors is that I would not use the toggles that are included with the switch. They tend to stick and that causes the motor to burn up. I bought some much better quality mini-toggles from Ebay and mounted them in a control panel and that problem is completely resolved. I also utilize the Atlas Non-Derailing Circuit board which uses a capacitive discharge to throw the switch motor so I'm fully protected from that happening.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-BRAND-NE...hash=item4879f05a11:m:mteTKEB0mgI1MyQVt2_tTcg


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