Has anyone experienced many problems running brass steam DCC locomotives on club layout or modular layouts? I was informed the lead trucks, trailing trucks, and tender trucks often derail and cause shorts, halting the whole system. Have you experienced this? If so, how did you modify the loco to resolve it? "We don't allow steam" is one valid answer. I am kind of hoping for more positive solutions.
Never. If the track work is good, you shouldn't have an issue. I belong to the Pasadena Model Railroad Club and were just going DCC we have no issues with steam and our track work is over 40 years old and one of the largest layouts. Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
Not so much derailing (altho the brass ones seem to do that more than plastic) but depending on who made it, when, and what scale....shorts from piping and such touching the wheels can and does cause a lot of issues. Once you have "sorted" the specific engine on your home DC pike (and replaced the fuses) it should be fine on the club pike. Remember, lots of ex-spurts tend to try to tell you the facts of life when they have no clue....like removing sintered wheels from old pull-your-teeth out Athearn engines because they are not "dcc compatible".
Thank you. That is encouraging. I continue to find the occasional short circuit after changing over to DCC. One of the engines had an intermittent issue, a driver would contact a bit of nearly invisible brass trim. I filed down the trim, touched it up with black paint, and no more shorts.
I suggest the "club" isolate trackage so if a problem arises the only section that shuts down is where the problem is. This also helps track down and isolate issues. It gives you some time to investigate closer rather than grab the loco and remove it. The rest of the layout keeps running.
