Hi everyone,
Just bought the first track of my adult life, a nice Tomy/AFX Super G+ set from ebay, circa 1995. I set it up and get nothing, no movement from the cars at all. I replaced the wall-wart and still have no power.
My question is: In what order should I start checking/replacing stuff? Or is this a good opportunity to get some nice new controllers and cars? :tongue:
I don't really want to sink too much more money into parts if I don't know what the problem is.
thanks! -Dave

First plug in the power pack. If you get close to it...you should he it hum. Than let's you know it's on. Then hook it up to the terminal track.

Second, hook up a controller and see if you can rev the cars. If that doen't work, you may have a bad controller.

If the pack and controllers are good, make a little test track.

Now take the little sandpaper in your set (if there is none, use a coin, razor, or a train eraser) and rub the rails to ge them clean (Caution...unplug power pack before doing this with a razor or coin).

This should help.

Wow.
Just went over the first few sections with sandpaper and the cars came alive. Apparently, there was so much oxidation on the rails that the cars wouldn't move AT ALL. I'm off to do more sanding.
Thanks!!

The object is to clean the top of the rails...
Not grind them down...
Scott

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Thanks guys.
I used 600 grit sandpaper and will be going to town on the joints with the dremel shortly. Just running the cars for a few laps seemed to take care of any slow spots as well.

I used to use my old junked up Lifelike cars for rail cleaners. They'd seem to run regardless. Hit the rails with a few laps from one of them and any other car would run fine. :eek: rr

Get yourself a Walthers "Bright Boy" rail cleaner. Those work the best. Then go over the rails with a dry cloth. :thumbsup:

http://www.billsrailroad.net/bright-boy.jpg

Scotchbrite pad work well also......but will leave little shards behind.....


Kind of funny semi related story......

I vacuumed my track with a shop vac a while back. Put the cars back on the track. They ran like crap........Scratched my head for a while........Finally figured out the plastic nozzle on the shop vac deposited a thin layer of plastic on the rails during vacuuming......Had to clean the rails to get the cars to work right........Then I needed to vacuum again.........Moral of the story, be careful what you use to clean the track.....

Of all things to clean your track with- The golden rule is NEVER use steel wool or say bye-bye to your motors... :drunk:

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