OK, I 'll bite; after being so careful and testing track conductivity as I went along, I now have a gremlin that has popped up. Track was laid and joints butted; soldered where needed; drops made; insulator joiners used on the inside rail of fturnouts etc.
Trains ran great. Ballasted a little at a time. Trains ran great. Shut the layout down and came back two days later. The gremlin reared its ugly head and really got my ire. There are two turnouts where the engine stalls at the frog end of the track; decoder drops off line (no short signal on my Digitrak Zypher); power comes back up to the engine and it jerks and stutters to move or doesn't move at all unless I "push" it a short distance. Then, it takes off running again.
A testing light shows power to all rails. There is a power drop wired immediately after the insulated gap past the turnout. Both approach tracks to the turnout from the frog side show power (test light lights) as do the rails from the other side.
Now what? I've cleaned the wheels on the H-10 twice. It runs perfectly well on other parts of the railroad except at these two turnouts (not near each other on the layout). I've checked continuity and connectivity of the "drops" and the main bus which has overload/short protection.
If you have an idea or suggestion, I'm all ears as my frustration level is about a 20 on a scale of 1 - 10. Thanks.
Chief Operating Officer
The Greater Nickel Plate
