Power drop after crossing Kato WX310 crossover

[Sheffie]

I've got the super crossover installed and it all seems to be working okay. I've spliced my power lines so that the controller is plugged into feeders on the inner and outer loop. The train runs on each track, and crosses from inside to out and back (Möbius track!) without much difficulty.

 

But.

 

When the locomotive crosses the crossover (in "straight-on" mode) it slows down considerably. It looks like the track is broken by an insulator in the very middle of each straight section. That means that power is having to go all the way around the loop to get to the loco. Is this something that can be fixed? There doesn't seem to be any power routing configuration screws on the underside of the crossover, like there is on the points... and I'm reluctant to open it up unless I know there's something worth working on inside.

 

Has anyone else encountered this, and are there any good solutions?

(Buying more F62 feeders isn't really "good", but it's better than experimenting with a $50 piece of track)

[katoftw]

You are feeding a lot of track with one throttle. See what happen just feeding one loop with one throttle.

Edited January 30, 2019 by katoftw

[Kiha66]

Yep, there's unfortunately no power routing on the inner rail of the crossover in the thru direction.  I'd recommend either a second power feed, or placing your single power feed on the far end of the loop from the crossover as you can, so that each side gets equal power drop and the slow down isnt as noticeable. 

[Sheffie]

19 hours ago, Kiha66 said:

I'd recommend either a second power feed, or placing your single power feed on the far end of the loop from the crossover as you can, so that each side gets equal power drop and the slow down isnt as noticeable. 

 

I've moved the feeders to the opposite side of the loop, and there's now no appreciable difference in speed. This is great.

It does make my wiring situation a little bit more complicated. I have wires going under the track in four place now, and the controller in the middle of the table. This will only improve when I get a baseboard and drill holes in it to feed the wires under everything, but that's something that has to happen anyway, because the bridges lift the track up too.

[Ochanomizu]

Hello,

 

Ideally, you should have several feeders per loop.  When I used to be DC, I had a couple of terminal blocks in the centre of the layout and feeders radiating out from there.  One every 2m or so usually works well.