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I recently purchased from one of our highly regarded Forum Sponsors, a Railking Imperial Proto 3 Baltimore & Ohio Pacific Steamer, MTH Product # 30-17691.

I was thrilled when I took it out of the box. It has extraordinary detail and a gorgeous appearance.

However, after I lubricated it and primed the smoke unit exactly as stated in the Operator's Manual ("manual"), I put the engine on the track, connected the drawbar (on the back of the engine) into the little socket (in the  front of the tender), pushed the drawbar up with my fingers until I heard the click mentioned in the manual indicating the drawbar connection is properly seated into the socket, gave it 9 to 10 volts from my Z4000 for 20 seconds exactly as stated in the manual, and absolutely nothing happened (no lights, no sounds, no smoke, no movement, absolutely nothing).

I called the store which sold me the engine. The man I spoke to was the MTH O Gauge expert for the store, he was very nice, and he and his store seem honorable. If I can't get the engine to run, the store will take it back and either fix it, or get MTH to fix it, free of charge to me.

The man at the store told me to try one more time to get the engine to run by putting it back on the track on my layout, make sure that the connection on the drawbar is properly seated in the socket in the tender, which should happen when I hear it click into place, and then give it 18 volts (not 10 volts) for at least 30 seconds in order to hopefully get the engine to wake up. I plan on doing this tomorrow morning.

Any ideas what the likely cause of the problem is? Any thoughts on how to fix it?

Since I only bought it yesterday, I will not open up the engine because it is well within the warranty period. The store is willing to have it fixed and make me whole.

Arnold

Last edited by Arnold D. Cribari
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I'd be interested to see if it starts up in DCS (command) mode. I've heard of issues when locos are running DCS, then they try to run conventional or vice versa. Someone more knowledgeable may have more info on that.  Do you have the DCS system setup to try it ? Also, might want to turn the engine on it's side and verify the drawbar is fully connected. It's easy to think it's in and sometimes needs to be forced a little.

Last edited by MR_P

I have 2 more thoughts to share about this puzzle.

My initial thought was that maybe I did not get the engine drawbar connector fully seated into the tender socket. I tried several times to conect, disconect and reconect the connector into the socket until I heard the click, and try starting the engine, but it remained dark and silent every time.

Then, I remembered that I read the expression, dark and silent, in Barry Broskowitz' book about DCS. It appears on page 28 of that book when it discusses the start up button on the DCS remote handheld.

Is it possible that MTH or the store that sold me the engine used DCS to shut down the engine, so I need to start it up using the DCS start up button to wake it up?

What do you think?

Arnold

@MR_P posted:

I'd be interested to see if it starts up in DCS (command) mode. I've heard of issues when locos are running DCS, then they try to run conventional or vice versa. Someone more knowledgeable may have more info on that.  Do you have the DCS system setup to try it ? Also, might want to turn the engine on it's side and verify the drawbar is fully connected. It's easy to think it's in and sometimes needs to be forced a little.

Will do what you recommend and report back, probably in the morning.

@Arnold D. Cribari It is not really a puzzle. MTH Proto 2 & 3 locomotives start up silently whenever there is a DCS signal present. So, your locomotive is actually working properly. It is waiting for you to send the start-up command from the remote. If you want to operate the train conventionally, you will need to remove the TIU from the layout.

To operate the locomotive with DCS, do the following:

  1. Turn on your remote.
  2. Hit the MENU button.
  3. Scroll down to SYSTEM and click the thumbwheel.
  4. Click with the thumbwheel to select Engine Setup.
  5. Click with the thumbwheel to select Add Engine.
  6. Finally, click with the thumbwheel to select Add MTH Engine.
  7. The remote should look through the TIU and find the engine and add it to your remote.
  8. Then, hit Start Up (3 on the keypad) and you are ready to run!

It works!  You guys were 100% correct. I can't  thank you enough.

The engine runs beautifully on DCS.

As I mentioned on other MTH threads, I just acquired the DCS Remote Control Set last weekend. The wiring on my layout works, but is not well organized so it took me considerable time and effort last weekend to install the TIU, so I am reluctant to ever disconnect it. I also acquired the Barry Broskowitz DCS bible last weekend and am in the process of reading it from cover to cover. I was going to do that before running any more Proto 2 and 3 engines on DCS because the 2nd engine I added to DCS derailed, and the circuit board got fried.

Anyway, after getting your advice, I decided, what the heck, let's take a chance and run this drop dead gorgeous Proto 3 steamer on DCS. If I burn up the circuit board, then one of you train doctors will make a little more money when it gets repaired and that is not such a terrible thing.

The engine is phenomenol. I will post a photo and video of it on the Forum tomorrow. I will also start a new thread about it in this directory.  Arnold

Last edited by Arnold D. Cribari

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