An attack of the mini Triffids.

[KeithT]

This afternoon because the weather was good I decided to try a photo shoot of the whole fleet of locos.

I left the Sachsen running whilst I humped them all out.
I noticed though that from time to time the Sachsen would stall on a Piko R5 point but then recommence running.
I have had a minor problem with a Piko point and a skate on this loco so I added a bit of sellotape to the offending bit of rail and all seemed OK until.....the loco stopped and the MTS indicated a dead short. After checking that there was power reaching the track feed I removed each of the locos - all 26! - one at a time with no success.
Next I dismantled the point - it is in a particularly awkward spot adjacent to two other points forming a crossover and a siding. Still no success but then i had an idea, I have a small, vigorous low growing plant around the edges of the track, it resembles a tiny fern and is brown in colour - there has been correspondence about it on the site and a warning about letting it get out of hand.
i hauled up more track and tore out much of the plant which had set runners under the track.
On reassembling the track all was well.
It seems that the moisture in the plant was shorting out the track; each time the Sachsen crossed the offending section it shorted momentarily until eventually it went to a permanent dead short.
By the time I resolved it it was too dark to take any photos.:wits:

 

[MR SPOCK]

Typical that getting dark without warning,!​

​

I was running a train up my old branchline yesterday and a Ivy tendril decided to attach itself, it stopped everything I only found it after lifting the loco off the tracks and having the train run away down the hill , no camera as well.​

 

[Doug]

This afternoon because the weather was good I decided to try a photo shoot of the whole fleet of locos.

I left the Sachsen running whilst I humped them all out.
I noticed though that from time to time the Sachsen would stall on a Piko R5 point but then recommence running.
I have had a minor problem with a Piko point and a skate on this loco so I added a bit of sellotape to the offending bit of rail and all seemed OK until.....the loco stopped and the MTS indicated a dead short. After checking that there was power reaching the track feed I removed each of the locos - all 26! - one at a time with no success.
Next I dismantled the point - it is in a particularly awkward spot adjacent to two other points forming a crossover and a siding. Still no success but then i had an idea, I have a small, vigorous low growing plant around the edges of the track, it resembles a tiny fern and is brown in colour - there has been correspondence about it on the site and a warning about letting it get out of hand.
i hauled up more track and tore out much of the plant which had set runners under the track.
On reassembling the track all was well.
It seems that the moisture in the plant was shorting out the track; each time the Sachsen crossed the offending section it shorted momentarily until eventually it went to a permanent dead short.
By the time I resolved it it was too dark to take any photos.:wits:

That would be one of these then:

 

[KeithT]

This afternoon because the weather was good I decided to try a photo shoot of the whole fleet of locos.

I left the Sachsen running whilst I humped them all out.
I noticed though that from time to time the Sachsen would stall on a Piko R5 point but then recommence running.
I have had a minor problem with a Piko point and a skate on this loco so I added a bit of sellotape to the offending bit of rail and all seemed OK until.....the loco stopped and the MTS indicated a dead short. After checking that there was power reaching the track feed I removed each of the locos - all 26! - one at a time with no success.
Next I dismantled the point - it is in a particularly awkward spot adjacent to two other points forming a crossover and a siding. Still no success but then i had an idea, I have a small, vigorous low growing plant around the edges of the track, it resembles a tiny fern and is brown in colour - there has been correspondence about it on the site and a warning about letting it get out of hand.
i hauled up more track and tore out much of the plant which had set runners under the track.
On reassembling the track all was well.
It seems that the moisture in the plant was shorting out the track; each time the Sachsen crossed the offending section it shorted momentarily until eventually it went to a permanent dead short.
By the time I resolved it it was too dark to take any photos.:wits:

That would be one of these then:

Yup that is the culprit.

 

[KeithT]

Vigourous? Not in my garden. What do you feed it to get it to run like that?

Obviously it feeds on track....

 

[Doug]

Its quite slow growing. Its growing in a mix of loam based compost mixed with sand and mulch (had to top up the flower bed by 3" a couple of years ago)

 

[Richie]

The plant is in the Cotula family and called Leptinella Platts Black , have lots of it on my line so easy to propagate just remove abit with roots and place some where else