New MTH CP Christmas Stage Boxcar Up in Smoke

Update- Great customer service from Charles Ro who sent me a prepaid return shipping label and will try to fix it for me.

Better than trying to rewire it myself. 

These are apparently very tough to find. 

Hope they can repair yours.  One of my CP holiday LED cars from last Christmas  had to go back due to a faulty diode. LEDs lit for 1 second then went out.

I was also excited to finally receive my MTH Rail King Canadian Pacific Holiday boxcars on Friday. I ordered them last year along with engine and the CP engine arrived last fall, but no cars. Charles Ro indicated that they sold out of the cars, but held the order until the next shipment arrived.

I just put car 30-7094A on the track to test along with a post war steamer powered by a Lionel CW-80. The lights were fine for a couple of minutes, then glowed brighter for a second. The blue and green LED lights stopped working, but the red and yellow lights are continue to work. I am now afraid to test the remaining three cars.

I will call Charles Ro on Monday for a replacement. Are these cars are compatible with Lionel power supplies?

Thanks!

Only about half of these cars came in - more on the water and expected shortly.... 

Bmurphy20 posted:

I was also excited to finally receive my MTH Rail King Canadian Pacific Holiday boxcars on Friday. I ordered them last year along with engine and the CP engine arrived last fall, but no cars. Charles Ro indicated that they sold out of the cars, but held the order until the next shipment arrived.

I just put car 30-7094A on the track to test along with a post war steamer powered by a Lionel CW-80. The lights were fine for a couple of minutes, then glowed brighter for a second. The blue and green LED lights stopped working, but the red and yellow lights are continue to work. I am now afraid to test the remaining three cars.

I will call Charles Ro on Monday for a replacement. Are these cars are compatible with Lionel power supplies?

Thanks!

I'm wondering about a possible reason for your car's failure, Bill. Were you running that engine in conventional mode using the CW-80? I'm asking because Trainland's Kenn Jr. mentioned in another thread that 18 volts is optimal for powering these boxcars. So, if you were running in conventional mode, maybe that car worked fine while the engine was powered at less than 18 volts but when the engine's speed and the accompanying voltage was increased beyond 18 volts, that's when the LEDs suddenly brightened and went out? If that's what possibly happened, through no fault of yourself, Bill, then perhaps it would be advisable for MTH to publish a cautionary warning that their LED equipped rolling stock have a risk, however so slight, of being damaged if the track voltage should exceed 18 volts.

I SERIOUSLY doubt that 19-20 volts should affect a properly designed product that is designed to run on 18 volts.  If it does, it's NOT properly designed!  I believe the reference to 18 volts was simply because they were optimized for command operation, and lower voltage affect how bright the lights are.

As always, Gunrunnerjohn, thank you for clearing this up with your valued expertise.

Question on that MTH CP "Stage Door" Christmas car mentioned by the OP (20-93751). What exactly is it and what's inside the car? Does the door operate automatically or manually?

I have the 4-car LED lighted set from last year and was curious about this one.

Thanks.

https://www.facebook.com/acces...eos/751402188269230/

If you want to see how the original looked during the final appearance in Pennsylvania, (2014) this video gives a good view.  The location is Nicholson, PA, and the train is on the Tunkhannock Viaduct. This was the one and only time the performance took place on the bridge. 

Tim O'Malley posted:

https://www.facebook.com/acces...eos/751402188269230/

If you want to see how the original looked during the final appearance in Pennsylvania, (2014) this video gives a good view.  The location is Nicholson, PA, and the train is on the Tunkhannock Viaduct. This was the one and only time the performance took place on the bridge. 

Thanks, much appreciated.

It would be a bit of work to make this one look like the original!

gunrunnerjohn posted:

It would be a bit of work to make this one look like the original!

Agreed, John.

I think I may pass on this one now that I've seen it. I've got the CP 4-car box car set from last year and I'm very happy with them. Can take the $$ I'd spend on this and pick up a couple of those North Pole flats with the LEDs.  Really like those!

johnstrains posted:

Question on that MTH CP "Stage Door" Christmas car mentioned by the OP (20-93751). What exactly is it and what's inside the car? Does the door operate automatically or manually?

I have the 4-car LED lighted set from last year and was curious about this one.

Thanks.

I saw this car at Trainfest last weekend. MTH had it in their booth. Almost the entire side of the box car flipped down and created a ramp. There was nothing on the inside. 

bigtruckpete posted:

 There was nothing on the inside. 

Which is where MTH missed the boat...er...train!

Bmurphy20 posted:

I was also excited to finally receive my MTH Rail King Canadian Pacific Holiday boxcars on Friday. I ordered them last year along with engine and the CP engine arrived last fall, but no cars. Charles Ro indicated that they sold out of the cars, but held the order until the next shipment arrived.

I just put car 30-7094A on the track to test along with a post war steamer powered by a Lionel CW-80. The lights were fine for a couple of minutes, then glowed brighter for a second. The blue and green LED lights stopped working, but the red and yellow lights are continue to work. I am now afraid to test the remaining three cars.

I will call Charles Ro on Monday for a replacement. Are these cars are compatible with Lionel power supplies?

Thanks!

Update - I called Charles Ro today, and they asked me to ship the car back to them for repair or replacement. I shipped it back this afternoon, though no offer was made for a prepaid shipping label.

I bought the MTH 30-7094 set and out of the box, one of the cars was strobing between normal and magnesium white intensity and was emitting smoke from the tiny circuit board. Immediately called Charles Ro and the representative surprised me by asking if they just spoke to me about this issue - No, they had not... this is my first time calling in. A return label is on the way. I was advised to "burn in" the remaining cars...

Just curious what the resolution was for the cars with lighting issues? I paid to ship the first car back to Charles Ro, and then a second car failed (tested with a Lionel power brick/TMCC). Last week, Charles Ro indicated that they will email me a return label for the second car. Since I didn’t receive a label, I called back today. Charles Ro is trying to get MTH involved to replace the entire 30-7094 set as they cannot repair the defective cars.

WOW this is scary. My daughter just bought the 4 car set and railking engine and we are running it at my house. I just got a note that the Stage door box car was being shipped to me today from Pat's trains. We are running in conventional with a small MTH transformer. The announcement feature is perfect with a french Canadian accent.

I received my MTH 20-93751 in January of this year.  However, I haven't run it until now as by the time I received mine, I'd already pulled the Xmas train items down from the layout.  I placed it on the track with the 4 car CP box set and it worked great, for about a minute and a half. 

From the smell, I'm guessing a fuse blew or maybe a wire burned up?  From visually inspecting it, it doesn't look like any bulbs are burnt out and the wire looks ok.  Does anybody know if these things have fuses?

I'm running a DCS setup with the CP Xmas matching locomotive.  All else is running fine.  This was the only car that burnt up....