Lionel Legacy 4-6-2 Pacific - Malfunctioning?

What exactly do you mean by "dying out", just the sound, or does the locomotive stop dead on the tracks no sound lights or anything?

 

Is it dying out in the same spot every time, or random spots?

 

Does the headlight or cab light flash when it "dies out"?

 

Have you checked the connection of the legacy command wire at the track and base?

 

Is you base plugged into the wall or the power strip, some powerstrips can degrade the legacy signal, tray plugging the base directly into the wall.

 

 If you haven't cleaned your track lately, wipe it down with some  90% or higher isopropyl alchohol on a paper towel. Clean the loco pickup rollers as well, newer lgacy locos are sensative to dirty track/rollers.

 

You could also try reprogramming your loco by following the instructions in the manual.

Thanks for the reply! When it "dies out", it goes completely dead: no movement, sound, lights, etc. If II halt the controller and cycle power to the PowerHouse, it seems to allow the locomotive to be able to be restarted. It's dying in different areas of the track. I will try your suggestions and report back. Thanks!

Although it may be a long shot here, I always clean the track and then the wheels and rollers very well before concluding I have a problem.  I have had several Lionel Legacy locos that wouldintermitantly stop or stutter and slow to a stop sort of randomly.  All behaved well once I really cleaned up the wheels and center rollers well.  In every case I have found cleaned the center roller wityh a Brightboy track cleaning eraser seems to help.  Just my 2 cents . . .

Try a reset, its in the manual.

 

If that doesnt work call LIonel on Monday and get a RA number, send it to them and have them do a free waranty repair.

Are you able to check whether or not there is power to the track when the locomotive 'dies'?  By the symptoms which you have described, I am inclined to think that the problem may be further upstream.

Make sure you haven't inadvertantly set the TPC to conventional. You could be dialing the voltage back to zero when turning the throttle back.

Beautiful loco; I have the earlier TMCC version...so:

 

1 - Do the reset function as in the manual.

2 - if nothing good comes of that, remove the tender shell (easy) and press all the boards together. The boiler shell is not difficult to remove, either (mine had a faulty Pittman motor right out of the box; unusual). See what boards are in there. Generally just go through the loco and check all the plugs, etc. I'm not real familiar with Legacy hardware;

TMCC I have seen a lot.

 

Unfortunately, this is usually not the problem - but in 10% of the cases (voice of experience), it is, and well worth 20 minutes of checking. Your warranty situation? Dunno.

Thanks for all the great suggestions, everyone! I had a free moment and cleaned the track and pickup rollers with the Lionel Maintenance Kit (eraser and fluid). Unfortunately, there was no improvement. I also noticed that when it is running, the top speed (before it dies) is severely limited. I'll try the reset procedure next and report back.

Sorry for my delay in providing an update.  All seems to be back to normal now after performing the reset.  Prior to doing that, I did confirm that power is a constant 18v, even when the train was stalled out. 

Thanks for all the help!