Hello fellow 3-railers,

I love the board and the advice, best site for O Gauge Railroading. I have a problem with voltage on 1 of my ovals, a 27" curved oval that is about 9' long with the 27" curves. All Atlas O 3-rail track, I have the power rails from Atlas about every 8 track sections around the loop.

What I have is the Hot (red wire from Atlas) and Neutral (white wire from Atlas) together, measuring 19 volts at full tilt on my ZW. On the other ground and Hot, I show 5 volts. It is this same voltage configuration all the way around the track. I tried a different transformer a KW that I use for accessories and it registered 15.6 volts with the red/white combination and then 3 volts with the other neutral and hot (center) rail.

I have checked my connections under the table and all the correct wires are connected to the correct strands. I also operate (all Atlas O track, same type of track) 54", 45" and 36" ovals, no problems, the outside rails/inside rail combination read 19 volts on the voltmeter.

I realized this issue when my trains come to a section in the track and they just stop. I tried to bridge the two neutral wires together with soldered wires, and that still does not help. I believe it is an electrical issue, but not sure if it requires rebuilding the entire loop of wire (I can do it, I have the supplies, just trying to regain sanity).

Thanks,
Jack

Just taken a shot here but maybe the solder to the middle rail is not holding, I sometimes have trouble with soldering to the blackened rail.

Hi mtraininjax,

I'm certain we can solve this issue if we can identify more clearly what the symptoms are. I troubleshoot electrical systems for a living and I can tell you that getting a clear picture of a problem verbally is not always the best way. I'm going to ask you a few questions to get some more information if you don't mind.

When you say you are reading 5 volt on the "other ground", what do you mean? Are you taking these measuremetns at the track? By "other ground" do you mean one outside rail as opposed to the other outside rail?

Is there anything on the track placing a load on the circuit like a train or a lighted bumper?

If you are using a digital multimeter to take your readings, it will have a very high input impedence which can result in misleading readings under ceratin circumstances. Your readings will more useful if you have a load on the track. Place a few lighted cars on the track and do this:

1. Measuring right at the terminals on the transformer, set the transformer at let's say 15 volts.

2. Measure at the track between the center rail (hot) and one of the outside rails (common). What is that voltage?

3. Measure at the track between the center rail (hot) and teh opposite outside rail (common). What is that voltage?

4. If there is a difference here, measure the voltage between one outside rail to the other. Is that reading the difference between readings taken in steps 2 and 3?