Stuttering train

[PD1]

I'm trying to help out a young lad who's has just been given a Western Master kit.(new)

He's running the train on an old layout that he used to run his old DC. The old layout ran OK.One outer and one inner loop.In certain parts of the track the train

 

"stutters" and then carries on OK.

Can I assume that maybe the "digital" signals are less tolerant of dirty track and bad "fish plate" connections.

I have read some comments in this forum re-applying more than one point of the track with one power connection

 

and soldering a wire across the "fish plate".

We are going to try and borrow another train to check that the original supplied train is OK.

A voltage measurement around the track is 18v AC. I am tempted to do resistance tests around the track.

As

 

with all these things the part where the train "stutters" is not easy to get at and the track has been fixed down.

 

Any advice great fully received

 

PeD1

[poliss]

Could be dirty track or dirty wheels. Rubbing the track with the rough side of a piece of hardboard is an effective cleaning method. For those hard to get at spots it's not hard to make a track cleaner from an old wagon or coach as shown here. (Masonite

 

is hardboard.)

http://wpporter.worthygems.com/trackcleaner.php

[Rog RJ]

PD1 said:

I'm trying to help out a young lad who's has just been given a Western Master kit.(new)
He's running the train on an old layout that he used to run his old DC. The old layout ran OK.One outer and one inner loop.In certain parts

of the track the train "stutters" and then carries on OK.
Can I assume that maybe the "digital" signals are less tolerant of dirty track and bad "fish plate" connections.
I have read some comments in this forum re-applying more than one point of the

track with one power connection and soldering a wire across the "fish plate".
We are going to try and borrow another train to check that the original supplied train is OK.
A voltage measurement around the track is 18v AC. I am tempted to do resistance

tests around the track.
As with all these things the part where the train "stutters" is not easy to get at and the track has been fixed down.

Any advice great fully received

PeD1

DCC is very sensitive to loss of power/signal which

can be caused by dirty track or wheels as Poliss has said. If you are using a power clip or power track to connect the controller to the layout then make sure it is one of the digital types. The analogue ones have a radio interference suppressor (a capacitor)

inside them which will degrade the DCC signal. The capacitor can be removed to make it suitable for DCC use but the best connection is by soldering the wires from the controller directly to the underside or outside of the rails.

[Fishmanoz]

Good point by Rog on DC power tracks not working properly on DCC. In fact, some Western Master sets were delivered with the wrong track.

 

As Rog says, remove the capacitor which you can find by flipping open the little cover between the rails adjacent

 

to the connecting clips. Snip off both legs with side cutters or just bend back and forth until they break. If there is no capacitor there,then it is a DCC version.

[Gregd99]

something that can also be worth a look is the setting of your decoder for back-emf cutout. I have had examples where having this enabled caused jerky loco movement.