MTH R142 subway set question

       
       

I never done it before but i would imagine
U would just merge the wires at the trucks woth the
Other wires

Thanks for the site, I assume you will tie these on the top metal contacts used for the interior lighting. Would be a pain if I has to wire to to the truck.

no the wires to the truck make contact and are kept in place with a screw 

this is non powered cars were speaking of the only thing in there is a black and a red wire just merge them at the screw on the truck, if you would go take the body off the r142 non powered u would see its quite simple 

Pictures would be great. Much thanks.

IS any one else dissatisfied with the R142A? The headlights are white in both directoins + The 4 does not have a circle + The headlights direction light up in the wrong direction. I feel like they were really lazy on this set.

       
       


I Agree i feel they focused on the r-17
More then this set and its kind of sad

Did anyone contact MTH to return for service? Get the proper LED's installed.

       
       

I will probably call them today, cant imagine they
Will do anything for the lights , one of my cars had a short
But train world took care of me

Sine this is my first R-142 set, curious why some feel they did better job on the  R-17 this time around...

I thought this set was just a new run of the earlier R-142 set except its 4-car and PS3. I dont see much difference with the earlier run based on looking at youtube videos.

what really bothers me is the no reverse lights 

Putting the "4" within a circle may bring it into the realm of trademark (the MTA trademarked all the number/letter designations so far as how they appear on maps, signs and the trains themselves...firms have gotten cease-and-desists for copying the look and feel of these too closely), and since MTH hasn't yet re-acquired the license they originally made these trains under...

The white taillights are indeed a goof. Having red LED's for markers on other trains leads me to believe it's an oversight on MTH or their factorys' part.

 

---PCJ

When the power car goes into reverse do white lights come on or no lights at all?

       
       


White lights go on for both directions
I called mth and told me there was no fix for it
As they were designed like that and there was nothing he can do

That's strange; If the bottom lights go on white when they should be red in reverse why couldn't the white bulbs be replaced with red ones and plug into the board?

Does MTH actually have any subway cars where the last car has functional directional headlights?  It seems this would require a tether between cars (as is done with their multi-unit diesel engines) to send a directional lighting signal from the main unit with the PS2/3 electronics to the trailing unit(s).

 

Wouldn't these tethers even be prototypical if this photo is correct?

 

 

In a recent subway thread about an MTH subway set, I was amazed at how noisy the cars are - in part from power pickup rollers - so that you couldn't clearly hear the engine sounds.  If you guys were willing to run tethers from the main unit to the other end, and perhaps even switch to overhead LED lighting, you could get directional headlights from the main PS2/3 electronics board, eliminate roller noise, and save on track power requirements (incandescent vs. LED lights and the drag of rollers and outer wheel contacts).

 

Just curious about how lighting is done in subway sets...

       
       


I know the mth R34 had a switch on the last non
Powered car which u would be able to switch the lights
But this r142 is ridiculous not even the power car is right

 

Seems kind tedious to continually flip a manual directional lighting switch in an out-and-back setup but whatever.  I am simply inquiring how-is-it-done to understand the problem from an electrical perspective.  And whether or not MTH or anyone for that matter, has figured out how to practically (economically) send the directional information to the last car other than by using a daisy-chained tether whether it be wired or wireless.

 

I'd also think someone might have cobbled together a mechanical direction sensor in the last car that would detect forward or reverse wheel motion to control the red light.  That would eliminate the need for a connection to the main powered unit to pick up the direction info.  Yes, it would take a few inches of track motion to pick up on a direction change but seems like a reasonable trade-off to eliminate the tether.

I want to thank those who posted in this thread the issues related to MTH's R-142 subway set. Minutes ago I received my pre-ordered set. After reading the above posts I was disappointed in this model's apparent poor production, but at least having read the above I was alerted to actual and potential problems with the set - and some potential fixes. I'll be doing my test run tomorrow and will report back any issues I encounter. Stay tuned. 

I have a friend who runs two powered sets back-to-back with the trailing unit at the end of the train--with its motor leads reversed. That took care of the reverse lighting issue, but that was on the first-run 5-car sets.

 

As for the reverse lights on the newest set, I can't imagine a technical reason why the tail lights could not be fitted with red LED's. The only "no official fix" I can think of may be that no harness-equipped red-LED's were manufactured specifically for these cars (which really sounds like a mis-communication at the design stage and the MTH rep didn't know any better). It should be trivial to swap the existing white LED's with same-sized red ones on whatever wiring harnesses are plugged into the PS3 electronics.

 

On the unpowered tail cars, I can only think of two solutions--a tether system that taps the headlight/tail-light leads to light user-supplied LED's in the tail car. This would be somewhat prototypical--at least in terms of control wires hanging under the couplers, since the prototypes have cables hanging beneath the drawbars connecting a five-car set. Dallee sells* miniature two-wire connectors that would do the trick--one wire to power each color LED, and the return/ground can be provided at the tail car. I'd run this by our local PS2+3 electronics gurus to make sure it won't cause any problems with the lighting circuits.

 

 The other workaround would be fitting an inexpensive electronic E-unit into the rear car to power the two sets of lights, leaving it up to the user to sync them properly. I believe this system was demonstrated on a user modification to a Lionel M-7 set.

 

---PCJ

(*...at a substantial mark-up--you could probably find similar connectors cheaper at the usual assortment of online electronic parts stores (Mouser, Digikey, etc))

 

Just got my set today. I'll be taking it out for a run tonight. Already ordered red LED's for the rear lights and the number board.

what size led did you order ?

I ordered 3mm in red as I suspected would probably work.

Chris -

Where do you order number boards from?

Sorry I may have said that wrong; I mean the number 4 at the top of the cab. I'm going to light that like the one on the power car. I'm still learning about subway trains.

Any pics of installing the led?

Yes; I just installed the lights yesterday and took some pics. I'll post them a little later in a separate post.

So this six car set cost me more than the last seven cars set cost me and I have to put time and money into it to get the features the cheaper set had?

 

THATS WHERE THE SAVINGS WENT,RED LENSES COST MORE.

Everybody has to get on board and call MTH 410 381 2580 and complain about the wrong colored

lights. Only myself and one other person has called. If we want a fix we all have to complain.

Right now all I get from MTH is there is no know fix yet and call on Tuesday Wednesday or Thursday and talk to a Tech. There is strength in numbers.

everybody should call twice not like they would notice they don't really ask for any information. they should know better most people who purchase subway sets ride the subway did they really think that no one would have noticed that 

Got my R142 set today. No red lights when putting it on reverse. 

 

 

It's a shame, not really digging the sound file either.

SURE GLAD I PRE ORDERED THE 1ST BATCH.1 WOULD THINK MTH WOULD GET THINGS RIGHT AFTER THEY HAVE MADE THOUSANDS OF SUBWAYS.