2e0dtoeric

Ah - Poliss beat me to it while I was typing that lot out!

I don't know what you have been looking at! From what you put, you have very little understanding of electricity, so if so, PLEASE get help from someone who does, before you hurt yourself or your equipment! I'm assuming you are thinking about DCC control, not ordinary dc 12v. It would be easy to explain if we could post pictures on here, but - From the mains wall socket to the transformer is one cable, but it has three wires inside it, in a flexible tube. DON'T MESS WITH THIS! Mains electricity can kill! From the transformer to the controller there are probably two wires, coloured red and black, or it might be a single cable ending in a plug of some description. Inside the cable are two wires. (That depends on what transformer and controller you are using). Your controller probably has six connections on the back, not counting the one for the power from the transformer. It will have two connections to go to the track, two connections to go to the programming track, and two connections for lights and such, around the layout. Again, it depends on which controller you have. Ignore the last two sets for now. Now - the bus wires. First-off, if you only have a small track, (that doesn't mean 'N' or 'Z' gauge!) you don't need this, just the two supplied wires from the controller to the track. The bus wires are two thicker wires, (provided by yourself), that run all around the track underneath the boards. (Thicker wires 'lose' less electrickery than thin wires). Each piece of track on the board has two short thin wires that drop down through it, (fitted by you), and connect to the bus. All it does is by-pass any possible bad connections between pieces of track, and 'evens out' the power that reaches your loco's. You have to make sure that all the connections to the bus are the same way round!! Get a piece of paper, and draw on it, one red ink circle, and one black ink circle, one inside the other. That's your imaginary track. Now draw a red line across the bottom, with a black line next to it. That's your imaginary bus. Picture your two circles are made up of small sections, as the track would be, and join each section to the bus - red to red, and black to black, and then transfer the image to your layout. If you get one (or more) crossed over, the controller will see a short circuit, and turn itself off, so you have to take care to get it right.

Which year? :-)

It's a bit like trying to race Formula 1 cars on a go-kart track.

Mucklestone - Don't take your track to the edge of the baseboard, unless you have it at ground level. Leave a bit of space for derailments, rather than have expensive bits toppling to the hard floor.

As Graskie said, watch the loco very closely as it runs over the point, as slowly as it will go, and see what is happening. Then you may be able to see the cure!

Kwai have we still not got an 'edit' button?

Isn't that a bridge too far, though?

p.s. Especially in a 'busy' area, ie a marshalling or fiddle yard, where there are a lot of sets of points interconnected.

I do - I soldered droppers to the toe-end, which is more or less the same as Flashbang's method. It's probably not strictly necessary, if the track sections either side of the point are droppered, but it reduces the chance of a dodgy fish-plate contact.

I may be wrong, but I read somewhere amongst all the spec sheets that a DCC chipped loco should not be used on a DC track. Perhaps it was a Loksound chip I saw it on?

DCC loco's will NOT work on a dc controller, you will fry the decoder chip! You need to provide dcc power to your sidings, the same way you did to the main track. You can use the old dc controller to TURN the t/table, but DO NOT power the track with it.

Lakes - check for muck where the axles go through the chassis, bent con-rods, muck in/on the pivot bolts, etc. Try turning the wheels very slowly by hand, to see if there is a tight spot, or whether they are stiff all the time. It might also be the 'quartering' that has slipped out of alignment.

And the loco's run more smoothly at very low (unbelievably low) speeds!

Sorry - pushed the wrong button then! AFAIK, all Hornby steam outline tender loco's have the sound chip and speaker in the tender, where there is more room for a decent size speaker.

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I may be totally wrong on this, as my railway is still under construction, and I haven't powered up my Elite yet, so hopefully someone will jump in and put us all right - but doesn't the Elite require a four digit code to re-programme a chip - ie zero zero zero four?