Morning gentlemen (and ladies): It is Saturday morning here in the "Land Down Under", and I have a problem with the most recent addition to my American steam locomotive collection.
I purchased this MTH Railking Camelback from a collector in the States, and it finally arrived a couple of weeks ago after its long journey. Unfortunately time and unforeseen circumstances (caught in a 14 day Covid lockdown in another state....don't get me going!!!) has prevented me from putting the loco on the layout to see how it performs, until yesterday.
I know it is a PS2, and it has the funny double AA batteries, but the manual said to sit it on the tracks, apply power up to 10-15V for 15min and see if the sounds are muffled/distorted, or if the start-up sound is normal. Everything seemed to check-out, and the start-up sounds were clear and distinct. The loco moved forward from the neutral start-up position when the power was shut down and fired-up again, and was easily controlled using the Direction Button on my transformer, moving back into neutral, and then into reverse. I run all of my MTH diesel and steam loco's from the transformer this way in conventional mode. Yeh, I know, I am a dinosaur from the Jurassic Era, just ask my kids!!!
Anyway, the problem I have is the dang fooled whistle just keeps blowing constantly, be it in neutral, forward, or reverse. I can't get the whistle to shut up no matter what I do!!!!! The whistle does seem to drop off some if I increase the speed of the loco and get it up past 15V, but the loco is going too fast for my liking, and for the layout of my track.
The other thing I found is the electro-coupler at the rear of the tender won't fire open, no matter how carefully I follow the instructions in the manual - 1 press on the BELL button, followed by 3 presses on the HORN/WHISTLE button.
I even tried to do a "Factory Reset" following the instructions in the manual - to no avail!! I never hear the "two horn blasts" the manual describes to confirm the engine has made the change. In the end I gave up and carefully wrapped it back up, and put it back in its box where it and I cannot harm each other.
Can someone with a lot more knowledge of these things (rituals in black magic) point me in the right direction........or is it a case of the PS2 sound board being stuffed!!!
I have attached photos of my "troublesome child" with and without the body on the tender, as well as the info on the carton flap, and the type of Lionel transformer I am using.
Thanks to anyone who wishes to enter my nightmare........Peter (Buco Australia)
