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Hello, I've come across an issue on my new 6-18052 Lionel Torpedo that has stumped me for now.

The rear electrocoupler won't fire, no matter what feature code I set to the locomotive. I tried resetting it to code 34, 43 (should be the same), 74, and 4 and none fired the coupler. I can hear the Railsounds sound effect of it firing, but it simply won't work. I tested the coupler outside of the tender, and it works fine just by feeding it raw voltage.

I also checked continuity of the brown wire from the LCRU 2 to the tender, and it's connected just fine. One of the electrocoupler leads was in a wire nut with this brown wire from the locomotive, while the other was connected to frame ground on the tender. The tender isn't grounded, so the ground is also supplied from the locomotive.

Is there a diagram for the tender wiring so I can check if this is correct? Is there any diagnostics I can perform to check whether something has gone bad on the LCRU 2? Is there a specific feature code for this locomotive I'm not aware of?

All other functions work just fine, including smoke on/off, headlight on/off, and all Railsounds functions. It runs without issue as well.

I'd appreciate your advice.

Original Post

After some more experimenting, I've found the problem.

I switched the rear electrocoupler lead on the LCRU 2 to the front, and it operated flawlessly.

I then took a closer look at the LCRU 2, and the rear coupler MOSFET was completely blown! The engine was supposed to be "New in box", and even had the covers over the tender harness, so it may well have been a factory defect.

I guess I'll switch the forward and reverse MOSFETs out (This locomotive doesn't have a front coupler anyway).

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