Good morning fellow Lionel friends. I am brand new to the hobby and just recieved a set last night that I purchased for my two kids for Christmas. I wanted to unbox it and set it up for my own curiousity. In addition to the 40" x 50" oval that comes with the set, I also purchased a new "deluxe layout" set of fasttrack off ebay. I have only opened and set up a medium sized portion of track (from the deluxe set)ontop of a ping pong table just to see how it runs. The "deluxe set" comes with its own TERMINAL section which I guess I couldn't use since the Pennsylvania set I purchased is the remote lionchief set. I just took the terminal section from the train set and used it in place of the terminal section that came with the deluxe set. The reason being is that the terminal section in the box set has the two wires that get connected to a transformer which my set doesn't have...yet.
After setting up a bit of track, I ran the train and noticed that in a couple sections that the train comes to a halt (or very close to it) in that portion. You give it a bit more throttle on the remote to power through it and then it runs normal after those sections. Why would it do this? The sections aren't far at all from the terminal section (I have heard larger layouts may have trouble getting power to the other side). Are these sections of track bad? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all and have a Merry Christmas.
Drew,
Hello & Welcome to the Forum!
I use tubular tracks, so I'll suggest the basics to deal with your problem.
First, make sure that your track connectors are clean and tight so you have a good connection between each piece of track.
Second, clean your track. Use a green 3-M scratch pad, a rag saturated with alcohol, a cotton ball saturated with smoke fluid, what ever you use to clean track...
Third, Clean Your Wheels and Pickups.
Fourth...
If none of the above works, add additional terminal section(s)/track power connector(s) to those dead/low power areas from your transformer/power supply.
Happy Rails!
Dave
Many of the track packs on ebay have bad sections. I recommend that you buy directly form lionel. Merry Christmas!