Thanks for the great replies and ideas. Soo Line, I think you're right. I decided to open up one of the faulty Amtrak turbocoach cars. This car was causing all cars behind it and the rear power car to lose power. I found sandwiched between the floor of the car and the interior floor a maze of wires and a board. The wiring was contorted and bent just about every which way. I saw no wires unattached. However I gave a wire connector an added twist, carefully moved wires into less contorted positions, and reassembled. That coach now only loses power to its own lighting and no longer affects the rest of the train...an improvement. I will revisit this coach this week suspecting the wire connector as culprit. The wiring seems very frail and complex.
Kj356.. you are correct on this train doing better on wider curves. I have only ran this on the prescribed O72 and is all I use on my layout. But even O72 seems tight for this set.
L.I. TRAIN, thanks for the good word on the layout. I have lots more plans of things to do with it, but I do enjoy where it has gone so far.
In regard to MTH, as I said, 95% of my MTH is great fully reliable equipment. Similar to my Lionel. One of my regular running locos is the very first MTH Genesis with Proto-1, it runs flawlessly. This unusual Turbotrain product obviously has issues right out of the box.
