John Rowlen posted:My Pennsylvania Lines #1709 with Lines West Tender is a nice running engine. The sound has had an issue of popping and crackling, but after I add a YLB battery I expect that problem to disappear.
No crackling but my 1288 tender was very sensative to any slightly dirty areas of my fastrack and would intermittently drop sound over turnouts. Railsounds makes a pop when it loses power.
I applied some electrically conductive oil to the pickup roller pins, ran the locomotive a bit and the problem seems to have gone away.
Maybe these rollers have some contamination or something between the pin and roller from manufacturing.
I picked up some Bachmann EZ lube conductive oil a couple years ago after a forum recommendation. I use it on anything with pickup rollers. It alsp stops flickering from passenger cars and cabooses and it eliminates any squeaking from rollers as well.
Atlas also makes a conductive oil.
Fwiw ,Atlas turnouts are notorious for power dropouts.
Some conductive oil may be an easy first step . Have you opened your tender to make sure there are no bare wires possibly causing the issue?
