Hi Brian
I should have added that on the diagram the black lines diagonal to the track left of the turnout represent the gaps that are cut in the track to isolate the power districts.? So the frog is only connected to booster 1 and is isolated from booster 7 by the gaps/cuts in the track.? The power to the frog is controlled by one of the SPDT switches in the Tortoise that moves the points.? If the switch is set against you, the phase of the frog will be opposite of the rail your loco is on as you come up the hill from Quarry (assuming my diagram is correct).
All of the switches on the layout (over 250 of them) are power routing.? Generally if you try to run through a switch that is set against you, the DB5033 booster will show a short and the power is off in the power district controlled by the DB5033 that is showing a short (as expected).? Based on testing this is the only place on the layout where a we don't get a short when we try to run through a switch that is set against us - the big difference here is we are crossing between power districts in this case.?
My best guess without knowing the capabilities of the DR5033 to sense phase problems is that neither booster 1 or 7 see the out of phase as a short, and hence don't shut down.? If anyone has more knowledge in this scenario and can share it would be helpful.
The layout was converted from DC to DCC 3 years ago.? No one recalls seeing the problem we now have a Zorra until about 3 weeks ago - it has probably been there for the full 3 years, just not as visible.? Now every loco approaching Zorra with a switch set against it stops dead.? We would have run hundreds if not thousands of trains through here over the last 3 years and I find it hard to believe we had the switch set correctly every time until 3 weeks ago. There have been no wiring changes in this are for the full 3 years.
Thank you to everyone for any insight or suggestions you can provide.
Jay Lennox, Toronto.
