Loco stalling over previously reliable electrofrog points

[Richey1977]

I wonder if anyone can help.

I’m currently building my first layout, and I have some Peco electrofrog points.  I’ve fitted them according to the best advice I’ve been given – i.e. to use metal fishplates on the stock rails, and insulated joiners on the v-rails.  When I tested the layout prior to ballasting, everything worked a treat.  But since ballasting, my loco stalls going over one of the points.

I’ve given the rails a good clean, and inspected the wiring and soldering, and everything seems to be in order.  I have one of those ‘track testers’ that indicate that a current is travelling through the rails with an LED, and that’s OK.

Does anyone have any ideas what the problem could be?  It seems to be more pronounced when the loco travels along the ‘straight’ route, and seems to be more reliable when the points are thrown to the left.

It shouldn't make a difference, but the loco is a brand new Bachmann Farish Class 42.

Thanks for any help.

[Oldman]

Check for tiny bit of glue on top  of the track or a small bit of ballast stuck to the rail.

[Richey1977]

Thank you.  Would a tiny little bit of ballast affect conductivity if it wasn't touching anything else?  Could the ballast between the tracks conducting electricity and causing a short?

I'll go over the whole thing again, and ensure that everything's ship-shape.  I used pre-soldered rail joiners, so my concern is that the connection between the wire and the joiner is broke.  But even then, there should be some electricity feeding through the stock rails becuase I put enough dropper points elsewhere in the layout to cover it.

[EtchedPixels]

Check there is power to the frog in all cases - the blade contact is a bit flimsy and cleaning between the blades and the stock rail edges may help, especially if a spot of ballast or glue has sneaked into the gap.

[Richey1977]

Thank you all for your help.  I was making a bit of progress yesterday evening, as I used a very fine sandpaper and some very cautionary scraping with a knife to remove some paint and ballast from around the frog.  It was making some difference, but then my controller (A Gaugemaster Series D) packed up.  It wasn’t sending a current to the tracks as I cleaned it, so not sure what the problem is.

I was going to replace it with a DCC anyway, but I’m a bit bothered that it’s failed now.  I daresay it was something I did wrong, and it’s frustrating when you learn things the hard way, but it’s all part of the learning process, I suppose.

[Richey1977]

Yes - I've done that before, sadly.  The metal craft knife is usually the culprit.