Need help with PRR 6-4-4-6 Lionel 6-38024

Have you thought about sending it to Lionel or perhaps an Authorized Service Station for repairs? It would be better than guessing what hooks on to where (and risking more problems).

Actually Art, I did think about the Lionel Service Center... about 30 minutes AFTER getting on I-80 when I left their open house last Saturday.

Getting old ain't all its cracked up to be let me tell ya!

Thanks for the info... sad part is, now I may have to ship it to someplace I was just at 5 days ago!

Best,

Dave

Dave  Garman:  To answer your question;  The antenna wire that plugs into the circuit board is only one (1) wire ANT.  No ground (Gnd) wire is used at this spot.

          As regards the two wires from the shell and the single wire to the circuit board; yes, they get tied together. Lionel did this in two ways, either with a plug taking the two wires from the shell/handrails, and fitting them into a connector and the wire from the circuit board with a mating plug and plugged them together. The alternate way was to use a wire nut and splice the three wires together.

          A word of caution - be sure that the connections that the two wires are made to (usually the loco's handrails), are insulated from the body; otherwise the signal will be lost/messed up.  In some instances, the body shell was the antenna and it was insulated from the chassis.  I don't remember about yours.  If the two wires are screwed to the boiler body, then the chassis needs to be insulated from it.  If the two wires go one each to a handrail, then be sure that the handrail passing through the body and all its supports are keeping the handrail away from the body.  Be sure to do a reset of the radio board as this unit may have been sitting for a while without power or use and could need to be reset to factory default.  Hope this helps ,  Dennis M.

Dennis,  thanks so much for the reply - its EXACTLY what I was hoping for!  Your anaolgy about my loco is spot-on.  The two black wires coming from the body shell are actually coming from the wire handrail - one on each side of the loco.  I used an Simpson 260 to check resistance from each black wire going to each handrail TO body shell and basically got infinate.  So, the handrail (antennae) ARE isolated from the body shell.

Secondly you told me that there is NO ground wire in the little white connector that plugs into the circuit board - I couldn't have gotten better news!  I guess someone just removed the wire nut that connected the 3 wires together.

Also, thanks for the 'heads-up' on doing a reset on the loco once it's back together.

Now all I have to do is find ALL of the parts to come up with a tender for this beast.  John at NL Trainworks found me a body and a frame but that's it.  John tells me that Lionel currently has all of the other parts and they can be ordered directly.  Gee, just what I wanted to do... buy a Cadillac over the parts counter - one piece at a time.

Maybe someone out there in OGR land has a tender they would like to sell - a complete one!

Thanks again for your help with my new found toy, you're the best! 

Dave

Dave "Johnny Cash" Garman,

At least you can tell your friends (some day) that it is 2001, 02, 03, 04, 06, 07, 08, 09, 2010 PRR T-1!

Seriously, the socket on the motherboard that i labled "GND/ANT" is the antenna socket. One side is antenna (and connects to the handrais) the other pin is ground and should have nothing connected to it.

The original thought process in the design was to put antenna and ground on the same connector so a jumper could be used to ground the antenna out (which would render the loco "conventional only"). The hole in the connector for "GND" should be empty and ONLY a wire in the ANT side, wire nutted to the handrail antennas, for proper operation in TMCC.

Hope this helps clear things up a bit.

Mike

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the response and the "straight skinny" as we used to say in Uncle Sugar's Canoe Club".

I did wire nut all 3 ends together but then thought twice of it and decided to get a confirmation from the nice folks here on OGR.  Too bad I didn't think of asking you last Saturday - you & I spoke just as the TV camera man arrived and for a while  thereafter, then I left and THEN while on I-80.... (oh well, another senior moment)

Thanks also for a wonderful time at the open house, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute and could have spent days!  You and your entire staff did a bang up job!!!

Best,

Dave "One Piece at a Time" Garman