My experience is just the opposite. The direction button without a doubt works best for me in order to get out of the initial 'Reset' state that the engine enters upon power up.
But this depends on the vintage of the piece. It's been brought up often on the Forum that the instructions for starting up for PS-1 units changed from the earliest production to later models.
Here are the options. Concentrate on the yellow and orange highlights, because they contradict each other between the documents:
1.) Everything but the earliest models -- I got my inspiration from the instructions that come with the Lionel version of the TPC and also with each Legacy Powermaster. These have additional features specifically for operating PS-1 locos. This method for getting underway works for me 9 times out of 10. Nothing else even comes close in terms of success. It bears noting though that both of my PS-1's are not from the earliest production:
2.) The earliest models -- It seems very strange that an expensive locomotive can be damaged or confused so easily by features and settings common to all premium postwar transformers, regardless of the manufacturer, but that's precisely what these instructions, apparently from MTH, say:
I'm glad to see that we each eventually found a way to get out of 'Reset' and on the roll, even if we had to use completely different methods.
Mike
