NOT FIXED - MR S3 No 261 sound dropping out?

Take it apart and see if the board is loose in its slots

Sorry, thought about this after I posted the last one. I had a GS-4 that kind of did the same thing, turned out that mounting bracket for the sound board had come loose in the tender and would occasionally touch the sound board and short it out, could be something similar going on in yours?

Thanks Tim,  I'll have to open her up and take a look tonight when I replace the battery I just added.

Just noticed that when I tried to open the rear coupler that it didn't respond. I moved the tender by hand slightly while it was powered up and it worked. Also that the sound came back on for a second, than off. Could there be a short or disconnect in the tether? I have no idea how they work....

Anything is possible at this point, I would just look it over very carefully for anything that looks loose or "just not right".

C.sam, open tender up locate sound chip look around entire area where sound chip is inserted make sure all metal contacts are engaged correctly non bent or mis aligned.

i had issue with my Lionel  legacy 765 and that was the problem can't hurt to look as mine would cut in and out at will. 

As a side note I made 2 pair of 90 degree elbows for steam cylinder effect mine now blow straight out not down.

$oo

Check the alignment of the infra-red connection between the locomotive and the tender. Loss of loco-tender connection could cause the symptoms in question. I seem to recall that the drawbar on mine was bent down when I took it out of the box and I had to bend it into its proper place. 

Thanks a lot guys for the helpful suggestions. I replaced the battery I installed earlier this evening with a new one and touched everything I could find on the boards and plugs. I suspected the tether as the slightest movement seemed to kill the sound. Everything appeared normal.

Fired her up and all is well!  Probably a bad battery but who knows.  I really LIKE this locomotive and haven't even tried the steam blowdown yet...

Thought it was OK but she's started acting up again - the sound keeps disappearing and often won't come back on after repeated attempts. Sometimes it will restart with a normal reset (in TMCC) but can take several attempts an have to cut power to the layout. This is becoming aggravating.

Our Legacy Mikado will occasionally drop out but has always come back on with hitting the whistle since adding a 9v battery per Mike Regan's instruction.

Mike - what do you think about this one please?

Try a DROP of oil on each end of the pickup rollers so it makes its way to the rivet it rides on. Turn the rollers by hand to work it in.  I have a few locomotives that need this done or power is lost erratically. I do this to all my pickups...I've been told this is good maintenance and might be worth a try in your case.

Hi Sam:

I am not sure what the problem with your engine is but if it is simply a case of loosing power over a switch, a friend of mine had the same problem with his Legacy Challenger.  There were discussions on the forum about 8 months ago covering the problem and the advertised fix was to place a battery in the tender but then it was learned that a flaw in the circuitry caused the battery to continue to drain even after the engine had been shut down. (which kinda means that every time you run the engine, a new battery is needed).  As I recall, Lionel had a fix for this issue but I never heard for sure. Using the Legacy system, there is an icon for resetting the engine (I believe it is the 0 button) but this brings the engine to a halt and resets it in forward.  After much angst about the frustration this caused, I finally placed a wire tether between the center rail rollers on the engine and the center rail rollers on the tender.  This has solver the problem and all is well.

On a side note, my Legacy system is down at the current time and I am running using my TMCC system.  I have found that without a battery, if the sounds drop out on my newer Legacy engines, I must turn power off to the track and cut it back on before I can restore sounds.  This problem along with my dislike of the newer engines lack of engine specific announcements has frustrated me to the point I am selling them off.

Good luck and happy railroading,

Don

Atlas turnouts are one of  the most common culprits of sound dropouts on legacy locos, the "dead spot" is too large. What are you using to clean your track sam? Sometimes liquids are not enough, it helps to run an abrasive track cleaning block first then wipe with a liquid. I've found an abrasive track cleaner like lionels track cleaning eraser removes the "ground in" oxidation on the center rail that liquid alone will not.