2e0dtoeric

The arrow appears to be pointing at the commutator. If there is oil on that, it WILL smoke! The oil will also ruin the brushes which rub on the commutator, and apply the volts to the coils in the right order to make the motor spin in the required direction! Also - running a smoke unit 'dry' can burn out the heating coil in it that creates the oil vapour, and that could be causing the short-circuit.

Graphite is a lubricant, not a cleaner! Graphite, archaically referred to as plumbago, is a crystalline form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a hexagonal structure. It occurs naturally in this form and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Under high pressures and temperatures it converts to diamond. Graphite is used in pencils and lubricants.

If you have the room, use flexi-track, to get a more realistic huge sweeping curve, rather than a sharp 'toy train' bend.

What controller are you using? What track are you running it on? The controller itself could be making the motor buzz. If it is on modern track, being an older Triang model, they had coarser wheels, and it might be the 'pizza-cutter' flanges rattling over the 'chairs' that hold the track to the sleepers. What oil did you use - not 3 in 1 I hope, as that can attack plastic parts, and over time turns into nice thick gloopy gunk! Use proper model rail oil, or sewing machine oil. WD40 is NOT oil, it is a penetrant - an oil remover! (and it also can attack plastics and paint).

Firstly - it's a shunter, not a racing car! You are running it way too fast - but it IS your railway! That knocking sounds like something catching somewhere, but the camera was too far away, and the model too fast, to see what or where. As it is new - take it back, tell them it is faulty, and ask for a replacement. It might be something silly that can be fixed in seconds,if you know what you are doing, but you say you are a new modeller. If you take the 'lid' off and start poking about inside, you will void the guarantee.

When looking for something else, I rediscovered a few photo's of my track cleaning train. The loco and 'power-car' are not shown, as that is an irrelevance. The 'power car' contains a rechargable battery, a radio control receiver and the motor controller, so there is no need of track power to make it work - therefore the track can start out mucky! The green coach is an ancient junk-box triang one, with a hardboard 'skate', pimply side down, and weighted to apply downward pressure. The two visible bolts stop the 'skate' from rotating, and are free to slide in and out of the coach floor. It needs a fairly heavy loco to drag the combo around, but it works, and was all assembled from spares and junk box bits - total cost = nothing! /media/tinymce_upload/2eb37da44e6908c8e3055647c9059c82.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/d0702f7f7e49c08c6dbd7d2156ddf6b5.JPG

There's nothing special about point motor screws - just use whatever you can get that is a slack fit in the holes in the frame.

Your thoughts coincide with mine, then. I can only presume that the modeller in question was very lucky, because as far as I could tell, nothing was removed or disconnected from the track - and everything seemed to work afterwards.

Not 37's, but Colas - https://www.dawlishbeach.com/2020/06/busy-day-at-dawlish-with-non-passenger-trains-june-5th-2020/

Watching a well-known You-tube modeller, the other day, applying static grass. they clipped the 'negative' wire to one of the rails of the track on a large DCC layout. - Now - I know that the high voltage track cleaner devices can kill decoders, but does the high violtage of a static generator not affect them or the controller, equally badly? - Does anyone REALLY know, no speculation, please, I can do that myself!

Try escape again, but then power down the Elite AND the transformer. Remove the track wires from the back of the controller. Give it a couple of minutes, then re-start, leaving the track wires disconnected, and see what happens.

You need to download a circuit diagram of YOUR set-up, so we can possibly see what you have done. It's usually something silly that you have missed. - (Similar to writing a long speil about something, and no matter how many times you re-read it, as soon as you have 'posted' it, an error glares at you, because you check-read what you thought you put, not what you really put!)

If I recall, they were electrolyic can cap's - rated at 10v, (possibly an assembly or design error?) which on a 9v or less voltage were quite happy, but on 16v pseudo ac, they were overstressed, and literally blew their tops off!

If you look up Jennefer Kirk on You-tube, you can watch a series of how-to's from the very beginning of a new layout in her loft. Lots of construction tips, how-to's (and what with's!) for scenery, etc. https://www.youtube.com/user/jennyemily667

Although not directly connected, Dapol's DCC sound water tower had a similar problem - a faulty capacitor. When run on a lower dc volltage - no problem, run it on DCC and eventually it went BANG in a big way!

The point motor does not have to be immediately in contact with the point, if there is no room. Use a wire push-rod from the motor 'slikder' to the point tie-bar. The motor can then be hidden in a lineside building - or under the 'mountain' etc. I put photo's on here, ages ago, showinghow to do this.

Lowey hasn't said which manufacturer his 66 is, or which radius point he is using. Bachmann 66's don't like 'standard' points, the bogeys can't turn far enough without getting stuck on the frames.

Shane says he will have to employ his trusty soldering ~ GUN I do hope you mean soldering iron - those instant heat guns will kill a decoder instantly. They are great for soldering tin cans, but not electronics, they are WAY too fierce - AND have a significant voltage present on the copper tip. Watch one sparking if one of the narrow 'legs' to the tip burns through! The heat will cook the decoder, and the excess volts will fry it! So you've got a doubly-dead decoder!

Some things don't change! 😎 the expense of upgrading an existing layout was considerable.

Unless I'm picking up the soldering iron by the hot end - don't 'speed-steps' ONLY affect the motor behaviour, and not any of the other functions? ie - (a very crude example) a two step control would give either off or full power - a three step off-half-full? So the more speed steps, the smaller the increments - over the same range of off to full - giving a smoother response? - It is more likely that the Marklin decoder is not recognizing the data commands for the auxiliary functions - due to it being pre modern standards. - It would be interesting to couple up the 'twin centre' (not familiar with that controller) and an oscilloscope, to see what wave-form is being generated, and compare that to the output of the Elite. - Just a thought - is the o/p confusing 'speed-steps' with 'frame-rate' - the number of data signals per time period?

Here's part 2 -

I wondered where it had gone - someone has changed the title! 😛

Although totally irrelevant to the topic, our model flying club field has an avjet pipeline running below it, going from Stanlowe refinery to the tank farm at Manchester International. We occasionally have silly discussions on a method of tapping into it for free clubhouse heating, or fuel for the model turbines! 😛

Look up Jennifer Kirk on You-Tube - she's done a lot of Pecketts, and shows you how.

Just guessing - as we cannot SEE your layout, lumpy points won't help, but it could be that you have connected the controller - to - track plug in the wrong place. The points are also a switch, and send the power the way they are set.