possible DCC system problem?

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Might sound strange but have you cleaned the wheels latley?? Brass loco have very poor pick ups from the truck wheels to the loco.
Most of the time they only use one side of the truck wheel on one truck to pick up one rail and then use the other one to pick up the other rail.

the engines are brand new, but yeah, i checked, they look shiny. I'll give them an extra scrubbing to be sure.

that is the configuration of pick up on these models. Its annoying, lol. I wish i could wire it up to pick up better. even though its a 6 axle unit, only 4 actually pick up power.

Chris,

Are there differences in how the layouts are wired? For example, if you've got more feeders at home, that might explain why the loco runs funny at the club.

technically i do, because my small layout used to be block wired, but at the same time, there are feeders and soldered rail all over the club layout. There does not seem to be a loss of power anywhere on it.

Is anything else different? Do you take the shell off for any reason?

Nope, but i'd been meaning to add weight. the only thing i did change was to add a some traction to a wheel set that didn't pick up power (of the six axles, the leading axle each way do not pick up.) I don't think this could effect it, but that was the only change between the first and second time running. I can always remove this and see how it does.

Do you change any of the CV's between club and home?

not on this unit, but i've had to do that on some in the past.

Does transporting the loco seem to factor into this problem?

I put it in it's original box and foam between movements, i don't know if that would effect it.

Are you coupled to different rolling stock and maybe introducing an intermittent short through the couplers (has been known to happen with brass locos + metal framed rolling stock)?

The car right behind it was one of my Walther commuter cars. While it has metal Kadees, the couplers are mounted right into the plastic, and i cannot see how it would conduct. the weights inside don't extend to the vestibules. the trip pins have been bent up so not to get caught on anything, but it still dies on tangent track with no turnouts or anything.

That's all I can think of for now... Keep us updated!

Andrew

Have decoders ever acted funny like this on your layout? perhaps my decoder is off. I'll send an Email over to TCS.