Lionel 82247 Lionmaster Santa Fe Class A Steam Loco stops suddenly !

Hi phil,

So, out of the blue, it shuts off, like a complete loss of power, lights and all ?

It comes to a complete stop; sound off, smoke off.  Track is still powered.  Without touching the engine, I select the engine in legacy hand held remote, and it starts up and runs fine again.  Phil

Start with the easy stuff like cleaning your track, and the pickup rollers of the locomotive.

Could be a power/low voltage/connectivity issue.

After the above, I would check all sections of track on your layout with a DVM to insure that you are getting a solid 18v everywhere.

Some TMCC/Legacy components are fussy about losing the ground/outside rail connection for just a millisecond or so.

The pilot and trailing trucks usually have wires to them and phosphor bronze contacts riding on the axles. Check to see if any of those wires are broken, or the contacts not touching the axles.

Gentlemen:  Thanks for your replies.  I have done some more inspections as per your suggestions.  All seems to be well.  I have numerous other Legacy engines running throughout my layout.  In several areas of my layout, I have encountered ground plain issues  (that often result in flickering lights) and have corrected the problems with remedies learned about on this forum.    I do suspect  this engines problem is related to very quick loss of the Legacy signal.   Could what I loosely describe as the Radio Board that is listed for this engine and costs about $40 be worth a try?    Does replacement of these boards sometimes correct a less than perfect TMCC signal?  Phil

You could run a test to see if it is a loss of signal - when the train is running working fine disconnect the power to the base and see if you get the exact same behavior.

These used that oddball BEMC that used EMF to do speed control rather than the flywheel counter type used with the modular and RCMC Legacy designs.  These BEMC engines don't MU (lashup) well with others.

I haven't had to work on one of these yet, but do own the Heisler that used a BEMC.  The radio board is the same as the RCMC types but it doesn't actually process the commands the BEMC board does.

If you do purchase the radio board try to do it during the part sale coming up.

50% OFF Parts Sale: November 6th – November 8th: Lionel Customer Service is offering 50% off parts orders during the weekend of Friday, November 6, 2020 (12:01 a.m. ET) through Sunday, November 8, 2020 (11:59 p.m. ET).

Jim

Thanks Jim.  I tried your test and the engine immediately stopped.  So unless anyone has a better idea, I will await the parts sale (thanks too for that heads up! )  The part listed is 691-RCDR-121, RCDR Radio Reciever.  Phil

Double check the wiring to the handrails - especially under the heat shrink tubing where the wires hook to the handrail wire inside the boiler.   If a intermittent connection then you'd see the same behavior.

Also make sure that radio board is fully seated - they do loosen up at times.  Just push it down to make sure it is snug.

Jim

The BEMC board is a funky board. Check all board grounds, and serial connections between both RCDR and BEMC. I did notice if the BEMC looses serial data it goes dumb.  If you are loosing sound you most likely have a bad power pick somewhere. It maybe not be the actual wheel pick up but maybe a bad chassis ground to the board.