For Christmas, I gave my elder son a Williams Die-cast, Scale Hudson Cab #5205, Stock # CS100W.
Some previous owner had upgraded it with Ott Machine Works sound.
Other than a tendency to pull apart the tether connector between the engine and tender, it ran fine for several days.
Then, one day, it stopped running. The lights continue to come on, and the sound continues to function: the chuffs apparently are controlled by voltage because, though the engine sits still, the chuffs respond to the throttle. I have included pics of the guts of the tender and the motor.
If the tether is disconnected from the tender, the lights work, but no sound and no movement (this was true prior to the current malfunction). Now, even with the tether connected, no movement. The flywheel turns, and turning it moves the wheels with no problem, so the mechanism is not jammed.
The collector wire from the center rollers on the engine goes through the tether to the tender, and three wires come back to the motor. One is soldered to a connection on the case of the motor, and two are soldered to insulate connects, one on either side. I found out accidentally that, if a connection is made between the insulated terminal on the engineer's side of the motor and the case, the motor will run. This is NOT true is the same bridge is made between the case and the connector on the fireman's side.
From this, I deduce that the motor itself is working. Is this a safe deduction?
There must be a disconnect between the power and the motor, but I don't know if the problem is ion the board in the tender or the wiring. I confess that I am not up to tracing the circuits in the boards. I have fiddled with the tether connector while applying power to the track, but without any hint that a loose connection exists there.
I assume that one of the boards is the sound board and the other one is the electronic reversing unit. I have included two pics, one of the tender guts and one of the motor. The only documentation on the engine I have is a download of the manual from the WBB version, and it shows nothing of the original electronics, and so I don't know exactly what I have here.
Any advice will be appreciated; I would like to get my son's engine back in operation. I can troubleshoot the older stuff, but this baffles me.