That Damn Short is Back

Yesterday when I went to the shed to fire up the layout, I encountered enough another short when I fired up the layout.  Yes it was in power district 5 again - the Acacia Ridge to South Brisbane section.  So in an effort to quickly divide and conquer, I disconnected the DS64's and still had the short.  I did some more investigations and eventually about an hour later I tracked it down to a section of track in the southern end of Clapham Yard that had expanded in the recent heat and the short section of rail about 1" long, had jumped out of a plastic insulated joiner and was touching the frog end of an electrofrog point.  I replaced the insulated joiner, and cut about 2mm off the troublesome short section of rail and replaced it.  I then did another test and everything was working as designed.

I also spent some time looking at power districts 3 and 4.  Section 3 is from just south of the Cassino Meatworks to north of the Kyogle Stock Siding, and section 4 is from Cougal Spiral to Acacia Ridge Yard.  Well it seems these two sections of track are interlinked somehow.  If I turn them both off, they are isolated, but if I turn just one off, then power is still in the sections.  I traced one of the power buses, but could not find any cross wiring to the other section of track.  There is definitely a section break between the two sections.  I will put this on my to do list so hopefully I will have this resolved in the next few weeks.

Last night I did a bit of maintenance on a dual gauge point I had made a few weeks back now.  I adjusted the third rail slightly and then re-glued it down.  I then ran a few 12mm bogies through it and then a standard gauge bogie and it seems to be running better than ever.  This point was the last point I had installed in the northern end of Clapham Yard.  This was the first point removed as the suspected culprit of the recent short in the Acacia Ridge to South Brisbane section a few weeks back.  I will eventually get around to replacing that point in the next week or so.