I can be very one determined person at times. So, I brought the Santa Fe Dash 9 home with me from the store and hoped I would get her running. I put her on my track and applied power and all I got was a cab light flashing and that's that. I pushed the horn button and the horn started to blast, but would not stop. When it did, it sounded as if the locomotive was going through it's shut down procedures when power is taken away.
I decided to try and roll the wheels manually. The rear trucks wheels moved okay, but the fronts were very tight and stiff. I thought maybe I was onto something, so I next opened her up by taking the top shell/body off part way. When I did this, I had access to the can motors. The one in the rear moved real smooth like. The one in the front was locked up as if the motor was seized up. This is a brand new locomotive and I thought that cannot be the issue, so I tried manually turning it and viola, she broke loose. I put the shell back down and set her on the track and applied power. She started up like she should in conventional mode. I gave her some throttle and off she went. Thinking I fixed her up, I put the four screws back in that hold the shell and once again, I put her on the track. The cabin lights flashed and that was that. LOL I thought wow, I have a locomotive with a sense of humor on my hands. LOL
I took the screws back out and put her back on the track. She came on normal with the engine start up. I decided to run her a little around my layout and then try again. I did so after about several dozen times around. After that, I placed the screws back in and put her back on the track and now she runs perfect.
I mean really.......LOL
Anyway, I share this with all of you because I actually love figuring out things. What's wrong and trying to fix them up so they run. Also, I love the Santa Fe Dash 9 with the War Bonnet theme livery. Such a beautiful paint scheme and likely the most popular ever in railroad history.
Well, I put her through my own personal test and she passed all of them with flying colors and now I have a really first rate locomotive. Even though, she though it was stand up comedy time on my layout........LOL
Pete
