We were running trains for a couple of days inside. We ran several different engines for fun. I had both 2 rail MTH Alleghenies on the 2 mainlines. The older PS1 to PS3 version that I had converted slammed to a stop and seem to be shorted out. I couldn't find a reason. Tried applying power again and it seemed to draw as much current as I applied while bringing up a handle of a Z4000 (5-6 amps).
I took it off the rails and put her on the bench. Couldn't find any short? I tried just applying power to the tender but nothing. I connected it to the engine and still nothing. I thought their was a short with the smoke unit so I had unplugged it. I believe it was just the elements heating up without any fan running.
Anyways I finally decided what the heck. I left it powered up on it's side and tried repeatedly to do a conventional reset. On about the fifth time I jumped as the engine sounds sprang to life. It didn't run correctly so I did the reset one more time. I got a couple horn toots reply and then it ran good.
After testing everything as best as I could, I plugged the front headlight and smoke unit back in while it's still laying on it's side. It ran good for a time or two and then I noticed it chuffed a couple of times after that with nothing moving? I think somehow the board got severely scrambled and it may recover? or maybe not. At least it runs. Seems like the smoke output is higher than anything else I have!
So I'm left guessing on what happened. I believe it may have been some intermittent power making the board get confused. It seems like the boards ran the smoke elements yet wouldn't do anything else. I don't know why the high current draw happened or what made it slam to a stop. I will keep searching for some short. It has an old PS1 smoke board that was cut at the traces. So I took my saw and cut that whole end off incase that's what shorted to the shell somehow. I will apply tape to what's left.
My post ongoing
..nice keep us posted what the fix was.