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I have a railking decapod item no. 30-1503-1 that's stuck in neutral and I'm wondering what I can do to get it running again. I never had any trouble with the locomotive up until about a year ago when it would stop unexpectedly during running. I'm pretty sure the connections in the tether were responsible for this (but because the locomotive won't run I don't know for sure). The other day I took the shell off the loco and tender and found one of the pins in the tether had a loose connection so I tightened it up. I went to test it and the loco wouldn't move. Here's what I tried:

-I let it charge on the track for about an hour (DCS)

-Did the 1 whistle and 5 bells reset (Conventional)

-Did the 1 whistle and 3 bells unlock (Conventional)

-Put it in forward and turned the flywheel by hand (DCS)

-Jiggled the tether a bunch

None of that seemed to help so I took a video to show what the loco does currently. My question is does it seem like the electronics are fried, or could there be a simpler solution to get it running again?

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It's a PS2 3V and it boots and makes sounds. Not to mention, it boots up and responds to DCS. So generally, NO the electronics are not fried.

The tether does carry motor power from the tender up to the engine, so yes, if you have a bad or broken tether pin and it so happens to be motor power- then no it won't move or even attempt to move.

Some notes after reviewing the video again:

Again, engine starts up silent with power on the track. DCS remote commands startup sequence, the headlight turns on and sound begins. You scroll up the speed thumbwheel and no movement. Then you hit direction button- notice the headlight went out!!! I also so the smoke kick on and off also looked like it was related to direction change.

Motor wiring ALSO provides PV at the engine side (power for smoke and headlight) in many engines via the diodes in the harness.

So yeah, I highly suspect a tether issue. Does this engine have the replaceable tether section? Otherwise, you have to splice all 10 wires

https://www.mthpartsandsales.c...lists/131?type=lists

If you connect a DC can motor to the yellow and white wires of the 2 pin harness on the PS2 3V board, that also would show the board to be good and this probably is a wiring issue.

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Success!

@Vernon Barry I took your advice and attached some wires from the 2 pin connector on the 3v board to the locomotive motor and she runs!

I checked continuity between the 2 pin connector and several points on tether and it all seemed fine. However the yellow wire on the PCB socket was giving mixed readings so for good measure I resoldered the yellow and white wire connections. That seems to have done the trick! Good as new

Thanks for the help!

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@H1000 any info on how to go about making one?

Gun Runner John has a good post on this:

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...2#161208612977296172

The 3V BCR is simply a 1.5F 5V supercap and a couple of wires.  When I take the old battery out, I just clip the wires at the battery, solder them to the supercap with a little heatshrink for insulation, and I have a replacement battery with the correct connector.  Remember, red to positive on the supercap.

Here is a link to a supercap on DigiKey that should do the job: https://www.digikey.com/en/pro...22C155PSBA0H/6166275

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