Thomas' apprentice

[godderz]

Thanks Noob, I’ll give it a try. Interesting subject matter bye! I’ve subscribed to your videos. It’ll be interesting to follow and maybe I can learn something from you? Thanks mate

[BR60103]

Watch closely to see where on the point it cuts out. The common places are on the frog and at the points.

Does it pick up again after passing?

[godderz]

Yes. It does exactly what you’ve said, cuts out as it reaches the frog then picks up again just after.

[BR60103]

Is it a short or no contact?

The wheels may be lifting at the frog and the whole side of the loco rises and loses contact. There may be bits of stuff (ballast, usually) in the frog.

For shorts, the wheels may be wide and touch two rails in the pointy bit of the frog. That usually ends up having to be painted with nail polish or similar (clear, not crimson).

[godderz]

Wow. That’s good advice I hadn’t at all thought of. It does occasionally short!! I had no idea why, so I’ll have a good look.

 

Is it a short or no contact?

The wheels may be lifting at the frog and the whole side of the loco rises and loses contact. There may be bits of stuff (ballast, usually) in the frog.

For shorts, the wheels may be wide and touch two rails in the pointy bit of the frog. That usually ends up having to be painted with nail polish or similar (clear, not crimson).

[godderz]

Had a go at spraying the track. This is for my own mojo and experience for the future... I’ve come to enjoy this so much I’m going to do my own after this!

I have an airbrush not used for over a decade, and used a dark earth acrylic that hadn’t dried up. I see there are paints directed a model railways, ‘sleeper grime’etc. I’ll have to find some for the next one!

[godderz]

A kind of ‘sleeper grime ‘.

[godderz]

Photos always appear in landscape. Anyway you can rotate to portray?

[PaulRhB]

Looks a nice layout and check the point blades haven’t got glue and paint on the surfaces where they meet the rails as it relies on that for contact and just about the right length to stop Thomas! Very fine emery paper gently rubbed between the blade and rail, where the yellow lines are, will clean it up nicely.

[BR60103]

The shorting problem on insulfrog points may come because there is a feed to the frog rails beyond the frog. Then locos with wider-than-latest-standard wheels may touch both rails in the plastic frog, especially if the plastic has worn down a bit. Narrower-than-standard back-to-back may touch the open point rail.

 

(I've just used up my daily quota of hyphens.)