Any body ever have a train that was a dud!!

Yes. The MTH Turbo Trains.

Don't get me wrong -- they're actually nicely done. However, I had an idler gear break on one of the trucks on both trains and the tether wire gauge is actually too thin to support the prototypical number of cars in the Amtrak configuration of two locomotives and three coaches. I feel for anyone trying to do the correct 9-unit VIA set (though it would look awesome). The lighting sound, and smoke are great, but I don't think it was their best engineering effort. Fortunately, it is fixable and I'll re-engineer them at some point.

Pretty sure most of us have.  I know I did recently.  No need to name the brand - they've all had issues at times.

I just received an email from Fedex stating a recent order from Charles Ro arrived today.  I'm hoping it does not fall into this category!  

-Greg

These things today are quite high tech little things, and subject to flaws out of the box. The older, simpler engines had much less to go wrong. The world we live in. 

I have had many glitches with newer engines. Frustrating to say the least, but not uncommon. If you desire today’s features, you accept the occasional failures. 

TURBOTRAINS !!!!

all 3 of mine are dead, again, and the story has been told in other threads of my nightmares with these!

Not MTH, but the wires inside of my original Lionel Canadian Pacific F3's broke a few days after Christmas morning 1960.  My father repaired them quickly and they were running again.  He told me what happened, years later (as I was only four at the time).

Not so much a dud out of the box, but, after less than an hour of run time, some smoke units would fail (largely due to my mismanagement); however, if you have ever taken the boiler off a modern loco and looked at all the small components, am amazed all the electronics and mechanicals that do work.  What Dave W. said.

Good reply keep them coming.

seaboardm2 posted:

So I had to send it back to MTH.About a week later I got it back.It been running ever since.It came back with a note.Saying some thing wrong with the wireless tether/factory defect.So guys have you had any thing like this happen to you?

That's not much of a dud!  A real dud is one that continues to have problems day in and day out.  One little issue is pretty normal nowadays.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

seaboardm2 posted:

So I had to send it back to MTH.About a week later I got it back.It been running ever since.It came back with a note.Saying some thing wrong with the wireless tether/factory defect.So guys have you had any thing like this happen to you?

That's not much of a dud!  A real dud is one that continues to have problems day in and day out.  One little issue is pretty normal nowadays.

Agree with John.  I've had maybe 5% of my trains not work and sent back for repair.  Once they came back they all worked great.

Except one  It was a MTH P5a Modified.  They put the tach tape reader on the wrong motor resulting in slippage with even short trains.  Sold it and bought a newer version with the corrected configuration.  Works great.

Lionel MECTA SD40-2

Nope, no duds for me on the trains purchased through my local dealer. Tested before purchase, yes, but never had to swap for another engine. Coincidence? I think not. 

Charlie

The only loco that I would call a dud was a Lionel RS-3 that I had a few years back. It had dual motors and couldn't pull much of anything, so I sold it. 

I have had several locos with issues. Some new, some old, some I bought with issues. All are fixed and running. No locos with multiple issues or recurring problems that I would call a lemon.

3 P3 MTH/LCT 384's with the wireless drawbar have died shortly after getting them. The drawbar is a real POS. I have many without the drawbar and they are great.

Steve

I have an Mth PS3 greenbrier that has been a total POS.   Has many serious gremlins.  Mechanical and Electrical.  Its a beautiful engine however.

jeremy ferrell posted:

I have an Mth PS3 greenbrier that has been a total POS.   Has many serious gremlins.  Mechanical and Electrical.  Its a beautiful engine however.

I find the wireless tether to be a headace.You have to be very careful with it.To tell the truth I did not mind the tether.

My buddy Picked up a defective Lionel Legacy Mougal pretty cheap about a month ago. The seller was was pretty angry when he got it from a show and was told it was a repaired unit from Lionel only to find out it wasn't.

I had MTH PS3 EP5 that arrived DOA from the dealer, they sent me new right away with a shipping label to return the bad one. My Lionel Cupola Cam arrived with a broken pickup wire and the dreaded blurry plastic window in front of the camera.

seaboardm2 posted:

jeremy ferrell posted:

I have an Mth PS3 greenbrier that has been a total POS.   Has many serious gremlins.  Mechanical and Electrical.  Its a beautiful engine however.

I find the wireless tether to be a headace.You have to be very careful with it.To tell the truth I did not mind the tether.

Had to get acquainted with the wire tether on my 2010 Challenger that I got some weeks ago; at first, a pain to re-connect when reconnecting the loco on the track; but, you eventually develop a procedure - easy.

I've had dozens that turned out to be duds. They have all been modern era Command Control locomotives. When purchased new, they ran and operated well,but as time passed,issues with the electronics or paint or materials began to appear. Bear in mind that these were all top of the line scale $500+ locomotives and bought new.My dealer tested each one before he shipped them. After a few months of light operation,something started to fail and it was usually the command control or the smoke units.Some NIB diesels and electrics started to have paint crack and flake off even some shells began to deform. So regrettably,I sold off most of these problematic trains over the years. I've had the least amount of trouble with the Lionel pre-Legacy offerings from 2000-2007. The scale S1 and T1 Duplexes,The Blue Comet,Southern Crescent and the JLC offerings(except the GG1) to name a few, have been fairly reliable and stable so I have kept them. I've also had the fewest issues with the early Samhongsa built MTH steam locomotives. Many still have the QSI protosounds and all have BCR's. They have held up well for being nearly 20 years old or more. 

Two  fresh from the mfg. 

One, a brand new 2-8-2 Mike with a bad lighting/direction board fresh out of the box; 

Two, another brand new  loco with an attachment point on a brass engine which was epoxied instead of soldered  which effectively isolated the tender pick up.  Nobody knows how that slipped thru the mfg. process???

Both promptly repaired by the mfg.  Two problems out of 62 new purchases, all in all not a bad ratio.

On the used side it was much worse.  Once discovering 2 rail 0 scale in 1994 in that very first month I purchased  five "slightly used" brass engines purchased simultaneously from four different sources of which all five were dead on arrival.  Newby nightmare.  Plus a well meaning "repair specialist" sat on them for 6 months with nothing done.

Thanks to the late Gordon Whitlock, he swooped in and all problems were remedied promptly.

As far as nuisance problems, the most discouraging problem occurred as I purchased some premium priced brass engines with cold soldered detail pieces which shook loose all around the layout.  Due to the difficulty of finding all the missing parts and the lack of development for a brass magnet plus the need to repaint after resoldering I happily sold off all the $3,000 engines.   What a waste!  Certain brands-NEVER AGAIN !!