The garden railway includes a couple of Trainline45 points in the station area and over the last couple of years, they have started to play up - electricity isn't flowing to all the places it is supposed to and limited use of the loop to one side.
Finally, I bit the bullet and lifted them (not difficult) and had a look underneath. On one, the exit track wasn't getting power. Looking underneath, one wire had come adrift from the connection to the frog. A cleanup and then re-solder and all is well. A chunky iron is a good idea, but my Antex 45W does the job.
On the other point, the rail between the switchblade and frog was power-free. Given a bit of a run, the LGB 0-4-0 managed to clear the gap, but it was hardly ideal.
Again, the fault was a duff soldered joint, this time in the connection that runs between this rail, the switchblade and stock rail.
All working, but I wonder why large scale points aren't self-isolating? I'm going to have to figure something out with insulated fishplates and a switch so we can have a train in each side of the loop. Not difficult, but I wonder why? Reliability? Tradition?
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