Hello-
Our local railroad club recently acquired a Lionel PRR Mikado Jr road number 9631. According to the instructions, it has TMCC and Railsounds 5.
It was running fine, with great sound and smoke and F/N/R/N sequencing all functioning correctly. Bell and whistle worked fine as well.
We do not have TMCC and are running CONVENTIONAL with the supplied CW-80 transformer with Bell/Whistle controls. Also tried with Postwar ZW with upgraded diode for whistle control.
We were running it and then shut down to go to lunch. Came back and the sounds started up as normal but the locomotive is braindead. No headlight, no smoke, no movement. Whistle and bell sounds work as normal. Crew talk can be forced using the proper whistle/bell button sequences. Steam sounds cycle through the shutdown sequence normally when the transformer throttle is closed.
Tender has a fresh 9v battery.
We opened it up and carefully checked for loose connections on circuit boards and connectors. Looked for char marks or similar damage. Didn't notice anything unusual.
Tried all combinations of the two switches in the cab (Smoke on/off and Reverse prg/run). Nada.
The instructions read that, when running in conventional, the loco will hunt for TMCC availability and if it finds none within 3-8 seconds, it will default to conventional. We no longer observe the headlight flickering while it is hunting, suggesting that it is not even attempting to initialize.
We disconnected the motor driver and hooked up DC direct to the motor terminals via a benchtop supply and the motor runs fine fwd/rev. AC is present at the pickup wire and frame when reassembled and on the track with open throttle. Have not traced AC through circuits since I have no schematics.
So. Any ideas? I poked around on the forum and found another thread where someone had a similar problem but the thread withered away and no resolution was ever posted.
Are the switches in the cab reliable? Haven't pulled the reverse switch yet to see if it doesn't have contact for some reason but that is next on the list of things to check.
I'd like to perform a reset but we do not run TMCC and do not have the CAB control that Lionel says must be used when performing a reset. Is it possible to reset in conventional mode somehow?
Again- it was running perfectly. Shut it down, went to lunch, came back and it was dead. No one had access to it during our absence.
Many thanks!
Darrin