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Reply to "ZW-C Problem"

After some more testing with a Legacy engine, I think it is a control board within the ZW: In both conventional and Legacy, my Legacy test engine starts up immediately when the PowerHouse is turned on (lights and sound system start up) and the bell immediately begins. The engine won't run, failing to respond to Legacy commands or through the ZW handles.

So: Does Lionel still fix these (are the parts still available even)? Any forum members? Or am I out of luck with this?

So I recently installed a used ZW-C system with 2 x 180 W power bricks on my layout.  ( 3 months ago ),  I ended up having to tighten down the lock nuts on the potentiometers as mine has the original plastic mounting brackets, then I did  the reset procedure to ensure that all throttles, went to 0 VAC and were in sync....   

I just had these exact symptoms occur with my new Lionel Hybrid Brass ATSF 3222 Legacy Mikado,  ended up emailing back and forth with Dave Olsen at Lionel.    Engine started up with sounds, lights etc, but no response from any Legacy Cab-2 command...

Oddly though, this new ATSF Legacy locomotive worked fine with my prior postwar ZW -  CAB2 Legacy system.   Very shortly  after installing the ZW-C the "won't respond to Legacy commands issue" started....

 After trying a whole bunch of fixes, he suggested I use command 99, which talks to all Legacy locomotives, that worked, although by default the 99 command brings it up in CAB-1 TMCC mode.   

Next he told me to reprogram the engine .... I took the lazy way out first and simply re-numbered the ID to engine 22, which matched the profile I had already programmed into my Legacy controller....   Voila !!!!   engine works just like the day it was delivered from Lionel..  Dave explained that the logic inside the Legacy control in the loco sometimes gets scrambled,  "my word, not his"...  In any event, it turned out not to be a ZW-C problem...  You should try this as it's a very small investment in time...   

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