@Norton posted:Its beginning to look like these fan control boards are the Achilles heel of Legacy. I had one fail in my Vision Hudson and a friend had lost two in his Vision Niagara. Just like the AC regulators failing on older engines.
Pete
Well if Lionel offered training classes and technical data for this generation of Legacy...we could repair a lot of this at home! 2 hours looking over the board and testing everything in the circuit
That really stinks. I wonder how many others have had these blow(fan control boards)? Heck, I wouldn't even know where that would be hiding even if I opened the engine up.
@Bruk posted:Well if Lionel offered training classes and technical data for this generation of Legacy...we could repair a lot of this at home! 2 hours looking over the board and testing everything in the circuit
Component level repair was never part of Lionel Service training in the past. It was only how to diagnose bad boards and replace them. Boards are treated like black boxes with inputs and outputs. Anyone who does do component level repair has to reverse engineer the boards themselves. With boards even harder to repair these days with everything surface mounted I doubt these skills will ever be taught.
Pete
If Lionel would just release the schematics of the board I could fix a lot of issues with many of these. However, trying to reverse engineer a multi-layer board is way too time consuming to make it worth while.
In Bruk's case, it's the RCMC that controls the smoke unit, so that whole board will have to be replaced.
Update:
I haven’t ordered a new board for my loco. I wanted to get another large batch going because of the wait time. I have a batch of parts arriving Monday. So I will be starting two more T1 conversions.
But in the mean time I have been playing around with some ideas.....
Ive been busy working on more than mine recently, Ive got two more on my table. Cool to see the them side by side and all wired up.
I ordered a new board for mine and it ended up being the wrong one. I took a gamble on a EM1 board. So the chuff is off. Oh well.
@Bruk posted:Ive been busy working on more than mine recently, Ive got two more on my table. Cool to see the them side by side and all wired up.
I ordered a new board and it ended up being the wrong one. I took a gamble on a EM1 board. So the chuff is off. Oh well.
Nice workhwork Bruk. What board did you use before?
I like the stack extension, I'll bet that would work for the TMCC JLC Challenger, it would certainly improve the smoke flow. 
@gunrunnerjohn posted:I like the stack extension, I'll bet that would work for the TMCC JLC Challenger, it would certainly improve the smoke flow.
I agree John, I think later ill take mine apart and rework the funnel design lionel used and offer it as a upgraded part for the public.
I'd be first in line for a couple of those! I have a Challenger on the bench right now, everything is working perfectly, but the smoke flow out the stacks sucks! I haven't been able to figure out a workable solution with the Lionel parts.
could this mod be done on a 3rd rail T1?
Bruk, why "green" class lights!!?
Ron
@Bruk posted:I found reading some pennsy operations info that Red was only used for end of train or reverse operation. But it can be easily fixed if its wrong???
You are correct. But green class lights means it is a section not the complete train. I guess it was possible that a PRR T1 might be pulling a section but with it's power it would had to be one long train. I would have used clear and that actually would be for night time. Daylight hours clear lens not illuminated.
Ron
As information concerning prototype operating practices, regardless of railroad:
1) White = Extra train (during daylight hours the locomotive would be displaying white flags, and at night, white class lights).
2) Green = Second section following (during daylight hours the locomotive would be displaying green flags, at I night the class lights would be changed to green).
3) Red = Rear, i.e. the locomotive would be operating in reverse.
4) No class lights, and no flags = regularly timetable scheduled train.
Bruk, Hot water as an actual Railroader in 100% correct. And by the way he is a fantastic modeler. He Models the very best track weathering for steam/ steam-diesel era.
But in our toy train world not practical and do not believe a remote controlled system could be made that would let us deploy a white and/or green flag set at will. So as said I prefer using clear (white light) for the front end class lights. Even in a well lighted train room they are somewhat subdued and in the dark well they be indicating an "Extra." Years ago Lionel impressed me with a GG1 that had clear class/marker lens. Depending on the direction of the Motor's travel they would illuminate white or red.
Now as a majority MTH runner, MTH's DCS system has a soft key (for some locos) feature that that allows turning the class/marker lights out.
One question for Hot Water if he will jump back in. Prototypically are marker lights illuminated day and/or night when a consist is coupled up to the rear of a locomotive???????
Ron
@PRRronbh posted:Bruk, Hot water as an actual Railroader in 100% correct. And by the way he is a fantastic modeler. He Models the very best track weathering for steam/ steam-diesel era.
But in our toy train world not practical and do not believe a remote controlled system could be made that would let us deploy a white and/or green flag set at will. So as said I prefer using clear (white light) for the front end class lights. Even in a well lighted train room they are somewhat subdued and in the dark well they be indicating an "Extra." Years ago Lionel impressed me with a GG1 that had clear class/marker lens. Depending on the direction of the Motor's travel they would illuminate white or red.
Now as a majority MTH runner, MTH's DCS system has a soft key (for some locos) feature that that allows turning the class/marker lights out.
One question for Hot Water if he will jump back in. Prototypically are marker lights illuminated day and/or night when a consist is coupled up to the rear of a locomotive???????
Ron
New Lionel engines are going to have the ability to change the color of the marker lights, so this will allow for the desired control some of us would like. It also gives everyone the color they would like.
At some point I was going to go back and add a red LED to indicated reverse operation. I was going to tie that into the back up light circuit.
I finally found a SMD LED that puts out white/red/green. I have not had the time to play with it.
@PRRronbh posted:Bruk, Hot water as an actual Railroader in 100% correct. And by the way he is a fantastic modeler. He Models the very best track weathering for steam/ steam-diesel era.
But in our toy train world not practical and do not believe a remote controlled system could be made that would let us deploy a white and/or green flag set at will. So as said I prefer using clear (white light) for the front end class lights. Even in a well lighted train room they are somewhat subdued and in the dark well they be indicating an "Extra." Years ago Lionel impressed me with a GG1 that had clear class/marker lens. Depending on the direction of the Motor's travel they would illuminate white or red.
Now as a majority MTH runner, MTH's DCS system has a soft key (for some locos) feature that that allows turning the class/marker lights out.
One question for Hot Water if he will jump back in. Prototypically are marker lights illuminated day and/or night when a consist is coupled up to the rear of a locomotive???????
If you are referring to a double header steam locomotive consist, no the class lights on the second or third locomotives are turned off. This also applies to an MU'ed consist of diesel units, where all the lights, i.e. class lights, cab lights, headlights, walkway lights, and ground lights, are (or should be) turned off on each trailing unit. Having all those extra lights turned off really helps crew visibility to the rear at night.
Ron
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