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I have had this engine for about 2 years and recently it isn't not working as well as it should. There is a spot on my layout where the sound keeps dropping out, and it just stops going anywhere. If I move it backward I can get it to work again until it get's to that spot again. The other day I added a power drop to that area to see if that could help solve the problem. 

That did not help with the problem. My other trains go through that area without any problem. I was running a N&W 611 J class on my layout and that one didn't have any problems at all.

I will try to get a video up later, it may not be today, but definitely this week.

Last edited by tcochran
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Sorry for the Triple Post, but here are the videos I was talking about for my engine problems.

The one that is marked sound dropping out, where the sound drops out is usually where the engine stops. Though sometimes it will go fine for a while without any issues, and then all of a sudden stop

Sound Dropping Out

This one is mainly to show my other MTH Premiere Steam Engine works just fine.

Any Thoughts as to what is causing it to do that, or tips for getting it working again.

 

Attachments

Videos (3)
EngineStopping
SoundDroppingOut
TwoEngines

A couple of things I might look at..... Continuity betweencenter rail rollers. perhaps only one roller is working. If you don't have a meter you  could place a piece of electrical tape ( 3 inches )  on the center rail and park a roller  on top of it. The other roller should  pick up power.  Reverse procedure

Add feeders to both outside rails or  jumper outside together with alligator clips  as a test

Same issue with my friends big boy- stops and dies. It is the tether, but specifically, it can be on both ends of it. It could be the plug under the cab, it can be the plug under the tender. Most likely its just one loose pin, possibly the pin for the ground wire. That was found after some run around. This locomotive is about 7 years now, and has a few thousand miles under the wheels.

Engineer-Joe posted:

Hmmm. I keep thinking of my G scale Challenger, where the board's in the engine. So when the tether went, the speaker would cut out just like that.

I just re-soldered the tether socket and it was fine after that.

I wonder if the tach is losing signal thru the tether? Are you running in conventional or command?

Engineer-Joe I am running completely command control

Gregg posted:

A couple of things I might look at..... Continuity betweencenter rail rollers. perhaps only one roller is working. If you don't have a meter you  could place a piece of electrical tape ( 3 inches )  on the center rail and park a roller  on top of it. The other roller should  pick up power.  Reverse procedure

Add feeders to both outside rails or  jumper outside together with alligator clips  as a test

I do have a meter I can use to test continuity, so I can just see if there is a continuity between the two rollers. 

The meter I use has a setting in the OHM section   something like )))))).  If you touch the red lead with the black lead you'll get  constant pitched   sound.  To test the rollers the engine must be off the track otherwise the track acts as a piece of wire connecting them together, and as mentioned above the electrical tape method...

Is there a broken wire? I don't know but this is an easy first step before getting into cold solder joints etc.

Thanks for the help I figured it out, it seems to be working alright know, not exactly sure what I did though. I touched up the pins with some solder, tightening the wire nut that seems like the one connecting the pickup rollers. Unscrewed and reattached the pick-up rollers, I have one switch that occasionally has the sound drop out sometimes, but that could be because it is an 0-72/0-54 curved switch.

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