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I purchased this MTH Amtrak F59Hi Phase IV Locomotive with Rail Sounds.

Locomotive that I purchased.
You will need to scroll down a bit to see the expanded item that I ordered.

I bought it because I have been looking for one of these in the Phase IV paint, as I have quite a bit more Amtrak equipment in Phase IV.

As soon as I received the loco, I took it down a tried to run it, but it would only go very slowly, even with no load.
I contacted the Ebay Seller, who told me that my Z-750 was to blame, and explained that the MTH conventionals need more power than a Lionel, and that I needed to get a Z-1000, which would make it run properly.
He also told me how to reset it to run more like a Lionel, but that it would shorten the live of the boards and motors.

I kind of wanted an excuse to buy a new Z-1000, so I humored the seller, and ordered one, brand new and at a great price, from Model Train Stuff.

The Z-1000 came in yesterday, but I was not able to triy it out til today, and to my surprise, the engine runs much more normally.
I will now go faster that I care to run it, where it just crawled, when powered by the Z-750.

This is my first MTH non DCS locomotive, so can any of you guys speak to this scenario, and give a little detail of what is happening here?

Thanks in advance,
Roger

Last edited by RWL
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First of all, its Loco sound, the lesser sound system that is about 20 yrs old but I remember some items in MTH yearly catalog that still listed Locosound engines up to around 2004 or so.  

The z750 should have run the engine just fine, of course the z1000 has another 25 watts and is a great transformer.  Most sets came with the 500 or 750.

I had a Z750 with a bad controller I bought used. Mine was either off or full throttle I seem to remember? I sent it out for repair and was told to get a Z1000 controller. Maybe something different in it's design?

I think you aren't getting full power to your rails with the Z750 for some reason? Sounds like the Z1000 works fine.

I bought the Z4000 to run conventional MTH trains.

Off topic a little, but you might try a Mr. Clean eraser on that slight scratch. Use it lightly, but it often works for me to clear up minor scratches on silver painted locos.

Good luck with your other issues. Fortunately, it doesn't sound serious. Just need the correct amount of power to run the thing.

Take care.

I have the Z-750 all boxed up for sale.
However, I remember that 16v was about 4/5 of the dial, so It should have had plenty of room to get the required power for an MTH with loco sounds.

I could also run all of my Lion Chief and conventional Lionel locomotives (using the Z-750 controller), as well as all of my DCS locos (Direct from Z-750 brick to Remote Commander receiver box).

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