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This morning I went to fire up my four legacy locos as a train but one of the 4 didn't have its wheel moving. So I powered everything down and removed them from the tracks so I could reset/reprogram the locomotive having trouble. I followed Lionel's instructions for reseting the loco but it would not respond. Instead the heating element got red hot and smoke billowed out like it was at full load with the throttle at speed step 200. I powered the track down and put the loco in program mode but it kept the heating element red hot once I powered the track back up.  I shut  it down and removed legacy from the layout. I wanted to see if i could run it in conventional but instead I get the forward and reverse lights on at the same time. The heating element was red hot again. I let it sit for an hour or two then came back to it. This time I deleted the loco from the cab2, added it back as new, and it ran but I heard a weird noise like a pop inside the loco. It ran in legacy but now I am worried it won't last long like there is a problem with the electrical board. Any suggestions? I had had it for a little less than 2 years.

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I'll ask the age-old question, what is the exact Lionel product number?  Your symptoms suggest you have an earlier Legacy locomotive with the separate smoke regulator that has just crapped out.  However, without the actual Lionel product number, we'd all just be guessing.

One thing I can say for certain.  If you EVER look down the stack and see the smoke unit resistor glowing red, shut down and don't power up again until you isolate the cause of the failure!  You can only do more damage by continuing to run, in some cases a lot more damage!  For diesels, the heat of 40-50 watts in the smoke unit when the regulator fails is enough to melt and deform the plastic shell!

Last edited by gunrunnerjohn

I've personally watched two locomotives when the regulator shorts.  It does yield spectacular smoke for a very short time!   The one was at our club, the 10-wheeler went in the long tunnel smoking normally, when it came out, it was AMAZING.  The owner was perplexed when I went for the kill switch as soon as I saw it and realized what had happened.  Ended up replacing the smoke unit PCB impeller, fan motor, and of course, the voltage regulator.  It took no more than 15-20 seconds max to totally destroy the smoke unit.

Did I mention the smoke is IMPRESSIVE for a very short time?

Oh, and yes, a couple years later, I can still smell the burnt fiberglass from the smoke unit on his 10-wheeler.

Diesels are much more serious as the other regulator I saw go was a diesel, and I was able to save the shell by killing the power in that instance as well.  I've also gotten one for repair where the owner wasn't so lucky, and the shell has a large melted spot right under the smoke unit.

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