What am I seeing? (electrical problem)

[ezdays]

I guess I fixed it. I went out this afternoon armed with meters, plastic bags (to put under the track to isolate it from the ground), and a determination to find the problem. Put the meter on the track and all showed good. Got the train out and it ran like a champ. Go figure.

At this point the only solution I can think of is that there is dirt somewhere that has dried enough to eliminate the short. I may soak the track good with the hose and see if the problem reoccurs.

Thanks to everyone who contributed ideas, suggestions, questions, or silliness (I've had some of that in some of the forums). Your contributions are all greatly appreciated.


Tom (still scratching his head)

Just to save you a bit of time, but dried dirt will not be more conductive than it would be if wet. Wet dirt is more likely to cause a high resistance short than a direct one. Some "dirt" can be magnetic like if it had a hight content of iron oxide, but it still would not cause a low resistant short across your tracks. Remember though, the earth is used universally as electrical ground reference and that could possibly cause some problems depending on where your tracks are.