Excellent video, as always. Thank you and hello from France My experience is those tracks can be made pretty reliable by: - removing the transparent plastic lever and cleaning exactly as you show - make sure the contact blades are straight (the portion nearby the transparent actuator) with a distance of 10 mm between the contacts - install back the lever and adjust to two "axle holders" so that the transparent actuator is exactly in the middle (not touching the side of the rail bed cut-out, nor the stud bar. Make also sure that there is a side play of 0.5 mm NOTE: excessive force by the contact will cause many sliders to "take-off" (causing a current pick-up stop) because you have 2 springs working against each other (the spring of the contacts and its transparent actuator and the spring of the slider). The slider spring is the master (i.e.: is adjusted for an optimal pick-up and a minimal wear) so the actuator must collapse gently when any slider comes nearby.
Excellent video and much needed. My layout is quite large M/C track. Some of my contact tracks 5146/47 are 50 years old and I have serviced some of them in this manner over the many years. Cheers!
@@roguico Well done! Nice to see to see the video was helpful :) If you are going to permanently screw your track down on the layout, I would leave this type of track loose, along with one or 2 pieces of track before or around them, so that they can be easily accessed in case they need adjusting again at some point. Or may may use some hot glue instead of screws.
Informative as always. In the many of these units I have there are several that are so “high miles” that the lever section that protrudes through the track is very worn from repeated contact from the slider. I imagine that this part could be 3D printed.
Thanks, I normally use my mobile phone, wait for this..., a 5 year old Blackberry KeyOne! This was shot on an even older device: a 10 year old Panasonic Lumix G3 with its standard lens.
Have you ever run into a situation where the plastic lever does not stick up high enough above the center rail for the pickup shoe/slider on the engine to activate the circuit? I have a number of pieces of track, particularly with the 5147 that suffer from this.
Not across the board, and I have never had a worn lever. I do get situations when one locomotive or one car will not actuate the lever, whereby all others do. This usually means the pick-up shoe is misaligned or has lost its shape and needs adjusting or replacing. If the switching track lever still stands above the pukos in neutral, then I'd look at the springs, and see if they can be adjusted so they stand closer to the track base when in neutral, this would reduce the travel distance needed by the lever to push the spring against the base and close the circuit.
It all depends on whether your transformer can handle it, and that in turn depends on how much is connected to it, and how much spare capacity is available... The simplest is to simply try it, if the transformer trips, then you'll need to stagger the triggers, for this you might need an additional switching track.
Excellent video, as always. Thank you and hello from France
My experience is those tracks can be made pretty reliable by:
- removing the transparent plastic lever and cleaning exactly as you show
- make sure the contact blades are straight (the portion nearby the transparent actuator) with a distance of 10 mm between the contacts
- install back the lever and adjust to two "axle holders" so that the transparent actuator is exactly in the middle (not touching the side of the rail bed cut-out, nor the stud bar. Make also sure that there is a side play of 0.5 mm
NOTE: excessive force by the contact will cause many sliders to "take-off" (causing a current pick-up stop) because you have 2 springs working against each other (the spring of the contacts and its transparent actuator and the spring of the slider). The slider spring is the master (i.e.: is adjusted for an optimal pick-up and a minimal wear) so the actuator must collapse gently when any slider comes nearby.
Bonjour du Grand Londres... Thanks for your time today.
Excellent video and much needed. My layout is quite large M/C track. Some of my contact tracks 5146/47 are 50 years old and I have serviced some of them in this manner over the many years. Cheers!
Glad it was helpful!
Hi 3rd Rail. Thanks for replying so quickly to my email regarding Bells on German Locomotives. Much appreciated :-)
Any time!
Very informative again
Thanks again!
hello, a nice video of the switching tracks, well shown and explained, greetings Kai😊👌👍
Thanks! 😃
Excellent clear and informative! Managed to repair 3 in 10 minutes, that’s fast for me!😁
Nice work, you are faster than me :)
Thank you very much for this video which I was eagerly awaiting. Very insightful. About 20 units await me.
Best of luck!
Today I found the time and fixed 10 control tracks thanks to your helpful video, now I can continue with my layout.
Thank you again.
@@roguico Well done! Nice to see to see the video was helpful :) If you are going to permanently screw your track down on the layout, I would leave this type of track loose, along with one or 2 pieces of track before or around them, so that they can be easily accessed in case they need adjusting again at some point. Or may may use some hot glue instead of screws.
Thanks, great advice! I will try that, too
You're welcome!
Hello. Klasse video. 👍👍👍. Fim 🚂👮♂️✋
Spasibo!
Informative as always. In the many of these units I have there are several that are so “high miles” that the lever section that protrudes through the track is very worn from repeated contact from the slider. I imagine that this part could be 3D printed.
I am sure it could be 3D printed.
Love your films and hang with anticipation for the next one! Would you have any suggestions on how to fix a K track 2129 please?
Glad to hear that, 🙏. I don't know about the K-track version I am afraid.
@@The3rdRail Thank you 👍
Real knowlegde ! 👍👍👍👍
thanks!
Really enjoying your videos as i get back into Marklin !. What type of cameras do you use? Excellent focus up close !!!
Thanks, I normally use my mobile phone, wait for this..., a 5 year old Blackberry KeyOne! This was shot on an even older device: a 10 year old Panasonic Lumix G3 with its standard lens.
Have you ever run into a situation where the plastic lever does not stick up high enough above the center rail for the pickup shoe/slider on the engine to activate the circuit? I have a number of pieces of track, particularly with the 5147 that suffer from this.
Not across the board, and I have never had a worn lever. I do get situations when one locomotive or one car will not actuate the lever, whereby all others do. This usually means the pick-up shoe is misaligned or has lost its shape and needs adjusting or replacing. If the switching track lever still stands above the pukos in neutral, then I'd look at the springs, and see if they can be adjusted so they stand closer to the track base when in neutral, this would reduce the travel distance needed by the lever to push the spring against the base and close the circuit.
I set up a couple of these switch tracks. Each one actuates one signal and 2 turnouts. Do you think it’s reliable to actuate 3 solenoids per switch?
It all depends on whether your transformer can handle it, and that in turn depends on how much is connected to it, and how much spare capacity is available... The simplest is to simply try it, if the transformer trips, then you'll need to stagger the triggers, for this you might need an additional switching track.