my engine speeds up and down on its own

there is something wrong with my setup. my athearn f7a speeds up on a specific section of track while it slows down on others. i changed the orientation of the train, and it still speeds up on the same section. could resistance on the tracks be the culprit? if so, is this a common occurance for model railroaders?
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
You don't mention if you have grades or if the layout is flat. If it is flat, you have an electrical problem with that section of track. You may need to solder in some extra drop wires to a main buss to get the power to that section of track. If you are trying to power your track through railjoiners, that is your problem. Rail joiners are for mechanical connection of your track only. Every piece of track on any layout should have it's own soldered drop wire to a large buss wire under the layout for the most reliable operation. If you have grades, model trains will act like the real thing and slow down going up unless you add power to them and then speed up coming down.
 
oppss... i forgot to say that it is a flat layout. it is a figure 8, and i've only soldered two rail joiners to the power pack(one for +, the other for -). both of the joiners are at the end of the same piece of track.
 

green_elite_cab

Keep It Moving!
i alos say the culprit is railjoiners

a good way to fix this is to take needle nosed pliers and squeeze the railjoiners tight, or solder.
 

Gil Finn

Active Member
connect to the transformer in several places, remove the joiners, clean the track and replace the joiners on those offending sections.

That is a pretty easy to trouble shoot.
 

Hooligan03

New Member
I'm having the same problems. I have one section of track that slows down compared to the rest. It is a level piece of track. You say that it is a wireing problem and that i should supply a power wire to it?
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
We have found in the modular club that rail joiners don't make good electrical connections. Our module standards do not allow for any rail except for the short joiner tracks between the modules to not have a drop wire soldered to rail and going to a main buss wire. As long as you try to power your railroad through rail joiners, you will continue to have power problems, and it makes no difference how small the railroad is, although it is probably much worse on a big railroad.
 

green_elite_cab

Keep It Moving!
trust me, tightening railjoiners fixes that problem. The only other problem is that your railjoiners might be dirty. if squeezing them down with needle nosed pliers doesn't fix the problem. I did this and I have had no more such weird powering problems.
 

Hooligan03

New Member
I understand that the rail joiners could create this problem but the section of the track that this happens on, all of the rail joiners ar also soldered. Would that still be an issue?
 
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