Troubleshooting Turnouts (And More) On My Layout With A Cool New Tool!

A techie tool for troubleshooting track troubles... On this episode of Toy Train Tips & Tricks. And hello again! This is Mike. And please ignore the mess going on behind me. I have multiple projects going on at the same time today. So, in working on the new Phase 2 section of the layout here... With the staging yard and this collection of turnouts... I've run into some tricky track problems. Some things that are nagging... That some cars will derail on some spots, but most others are fine. And you're trying to fine-tune and find out... Well, what is exactly going on here? One of the problems has to do with these turnouts. I'm using these Caneline 042 track diameter, but 027 reel height turnouts. Of course, these are no longer available since Caneline is no longer in business. But you can still find these out there at shows and on the Internet and such. And what I find with these switches... And the same phenomenon happens with some Lionel switches as well. So, this is a knock on Caneline. And often happens with Menard's Rolling Stock... Although, as you can see in this clip, it happens with Lionel as well. Check out the spark on this tank car. So, something mysterious happens with certain cars at certain times with these turnouts. Now, I've addressed a solution to this earlier, but... I wanted to see what EXACTLY is it that's causing the problem. Where EXACTLY are we having the issues? That causes this huge electrical spark and sets off circuit breakers... And creates all kinds of havoc sometimes... And then other times the trains run through just perfectly fine for some reason. So, my thought was... What if there was a way that we could shrink down to Leputian size... And from that very small perspective, look down and see exactly what's going on in real time. Now, I tried this with my phone camera... And while I could, you know, really zoom in tightly... I couldn't access some of these hard-to-reach places... Like, in this case, actually under the car while it's rolling... To see what was going on. For that, we need a different kind of tool. And by sheer coincidence, I was contacted by a company that makes such a tool... And they offered me the opportunity to give it a test drive. And already having a need for such a thing, I thought... Well, sure! So, here it is! And this is the Anykit Model 8430 Articulating Borescope... Also known as an inspection camera. In full disclosure, the folks at Anykit did supply me with this model... And their only stipulation was that it was included in a video... Which I'm gladly doing, because I have found it to be a useful tool. So, when you unbox, what you will find is a top piece of foam... In the bag, you have your instruction manual... Well, and safety warnings. Things that tell you this is not a medical device. Do not try to inspect things inside the body. That would just be weird. A USB cable. This is both for charging the unit... And for transferring data from the unit to a computer... If you want to see it on a big screen. And some cleaning wipes for the camera lens. So, here in our unit, we have this handheld unit... With a, I believe, 4.3 inch viewing screen. Lots of buttons for control. Over here on the side... We have our USB cable, where that attaches. And an included 8 gig micro SD card. That's nice that you don't have to buy that separately. But that supplies the memory... For the photos and videos you are going to take with the camera. And then, again, either store them and view them on here... Or send them to a computer. And here we have our camera cable. This is 3... A little over 3 feet, it appears. On the end, we have a little lens cap. Don't lose that. And inside is a very, very small camera. And surrounded by an array of LEDs. So you get even lighting on your subject. So, in operation, we have the power to turn it on. You can change from photo mode to video mode. You get a live picture here of what's out of the camera. You can turn the LEDs off. You can make them brighter. And the coolest thing is... Once you're into a really tight viewing area... You can use the lever here... To adjust the viewing angle of your camera. So, maybe not as useful for model railroading... But certainly for some other projects around the house. Do you really want to know what's behind that wall? And you're seeing a live feed of what's coming out of... The camera here is a camera picture of the camera. And there I am. And you see right here, it is in photo mode. And we're going to hit the mode button. Now it's in video mode. Or in playback mode of stuff that I have shot before. So, on camera mode... You zoom in and... Oh, look, we are upside down. There we go. You can flip the orientation right there. And on the back, right here, is our shutter button... To take the picture or to start the video. And so, if I wanted to zoom in and... Oh, I'm upside down again. I'll turn it this time. And I wanted to take a picture of that. I would just click on the back. Boom. And I have a photo. Yep, there we go. As I mentioned, you can brighten and dim the light. Dim, dim, and off. In full power. You can flip the orientation. And you can zoom up to 1.5x. And then we have other features. Resolution, if you want the date stamp. All that other stuff is in here in the settings. We have the OK button here in the middle. And power on the side. So, how am I going to use this on the layout? Well, let's go take a look. So, what I'm going to do here with this AnyKit device... Is that I'm actually going to take the camera with the light on. And I'm actually going to put it right down here on the ties themselves. Right down here in the track. Whoops! Getting caught on my mic cord there. And I'm watching what I'm doing here on my screen. OK. And I'm going to get right in here and see what's going on in this part of the turnout. And you're going to see this on your screen as well. All right. So, I'm in here and I pull the car over. And it rolls through and nothing happens. And that's what goes on most of the time. Most of the time these cars go through this turnout with no problem whatsoever. But, let's say we have a longer train going on. Especially here with the staging yard coming up this grade and a locomotive here. It's going to put some stress on the coupler as you can see here. With a little bit of force added to the truck that would be imparted by a heavy train. Now let's look at what happens. And if you look right there. Let me get in even closer. You can see right there. If I can get it in focus. Focus. Maybe I can zoom in. Whoops! That's upside down. This is zoom. There we go. Let's zoom in. And you can see right there. You see how the wheel is actually making contact with the center rail. So, the other side of the wheel is sitting here on the outside rail. Or common. And now the inside of this wheel is making contact with the center rail. And that creates a spark and a short circuit. And depending on what transformer you're using. How sensitive your circuit breaker is. You probably just lost power to your train. And probably caused a derailment if you were going fast enough. So again, most of the time it runs through with no problem at all. But under stress, under a load. Look how it hits right there. See that? So here is one of the K-Line turnouts in question. This is an 0.42 diameter, 0.27 trough height turnout. And you can see how I have already modified this. I had featured this solution in a previous video. But remember that then I was guessing as to exactly where the problem was. I knew there was an electrical contact issue. But without being able to look under there with a camera. It was just a guess as far as where the location actually was. So, you can see where I added this red nail polish everywhere. Not just on the center rail, but on the inside of our swivel rails. Over here. And really this is not necessary. Looking with the camera, we just need it right here. And right here. Because these are the contact spots for the wheels when they are under duress. And again, this acts as an insulator. This is nail polish from a dollar store. But you can use good acrylic paint. You can use liquid electrical tape. Anything that's going to both be an insulator between the wheel and the center rail. And also be durable enough that you don't have to come back and do it every couple of days. So, that's one of the reasons I chose the nail polish. And you can use whatever color. The red shows up best on camera. But obviously something that's like black or even clear if you can find it. Would probably be the best choices. And again, this is not just for K-line turnouts. This is also sometimes a problem with Lionel, and I'm sure with others. And the wider the radius, the more of a problem this geometry becomes. And the more likely you are to have a problem. And the sparking turnout is not the only problem that the Anikit AD430 has helped me troubleshoot. I also figured out a problem for why this particular caboose kept derailing at this particular rail joint. While others didn't. And it turns out it is in fact a problem with the track. I'm surprised more cars weren't derailing there because of the problem. And another trick I discovered is when you have items in those hard to reach places. Whether it's a tunnel or the back of the layout and you need to use your grabber tool. Well, tape the bore scope onto the handle of your grabber tool. And then not only can you reach the distant objects, but you can see what you're doing while you're doing it. And obviously this handy tool has more uses than just on the model railroad. Lots of things you can do around the house. For plumbing, electrical, even automotive repair. Looking down into the nooks and crannies of today's engines. Just any project you can think of where you might need to see into places you normally can't get to. And I found these to be surprisingly economical for what you get. So, if you're interested in more information about the AnyKit AD430 Check out the link in the video description. As for me, I have one more tool to help me keep my trains running. And you do the same, and we'll catch you next time with more toy train tips and tricks.