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We called MTH and they said it's a known problem and the onboard circuit board is fried; tested it and it's only picking up power from the pickup shoes, and nothing from the drivers.

Oops?



We thankfully have an MTH repair center only about ten miles from our house, we're dropping it off in the morning and it should be a week or two, but this time we can verify that it works unlike the Aristo Mallet.



I will also say that this engine is unbelievably massive, and that R3 curves are useless. Time for some AMS flex and another garden railroad?
 
Mark:

We flipped it in the box and tried the Kadee wheel cleaner; no power except through the shoes. Track is PHENOMENALLY clean, we tried that first; scrubbed it until even the Lionel 0-6-0 runs without stuttering.

It's currently at a local shop for a warranty repair--I think I'm going to pick up a K-27 there also :D
 
We set up a 10x50 foot oval on our driveway, singular R3 turnout on a straight, one that has a wide enough plastic frog that the pickup shoes can't touch it. The Big Boy ran fine for three hours on this track before literally going nuts--it'll be at full power before randomly stopping, starting, jerking, everything, while the sound system goes absolutely insane. It sounds horrible and I'm sure cannot be good on the gears. No shorting in those three hours--we completely disassembled the indoor railroad for this test. The engine smells completely horrible, it's hard to get near it without gasping for breath. It appears to be picking up power, but you just can't control the thing.

Oh--and at 24 volts it's doing MAYBE 30 scale miles per hour. The old Bachmann Plus 4-6-0 is at least double as fast. I don't understand it?
 
Considering that as of about 15 minutes ago, John was scheduled to meet with Rayman...

The track is LGB and has been used for 15 years. There are no rail joiner screws on LGB track.

The frogs are unpowered, but the pickup sliders are wide enough to zap on the opposing rail ACROSS THE FROG. For that reason we ripped out all the LGB turnouts. Didn't fix the problem.

PWC was indeed used due to ignorance at first, but was turned off as soon as we found out about the issues associated with such. The repair made the engine work, but it quickly died again despite running linear with no turnouts. This implies to me that the repair failed; any other thoughts?

Considering everything else we own and have ever owned(Aristo Pacific, U25B, FA1, USA GP38, LGB Mogul, Bachmann 2-8-0, K-27, Lionel 4-4-2, 0-6-0, 0-4-0) runs, I'd say it isn't a track issue. We have cleaned our track until a Bachmann 4-6-0 with pickup from nothing but the front axle will run; and yet the Big Boy has issues. If there was a way to fix it, I'd try it, but at this point it's not a track problem, it's a loco problem. And though I'm heading off to college to major in mechanical engineering in a few months, there is no way I feel confident tearing apart someone else's $1200 steam locomotive in an attempt to fix a problem I don't understand.


EDIT: I forgot to add: We're running a 20 amp fuse in the Train Engineer due to a funky problem a few years back where any engine would blow it despite no track short. The TE is fine, we even tried another, but same problem persisted, so therefore we run 20 amp fuses. No problems until this.

And regarding the fuse, the transformer(Aristo/Crest 10 amp--tried two different ones) never shows over 2 amps power, and usually stays well under 2.
 
I just tried a 10 amp in the newer TE(only used the old 1997 or whatever variant(two channel) with the 20amp) and it appears to work all right.

I'll leave that plugged in for the time being.

The older one seems to work at the moment, but then I haven't tried it with a 10 amp fuse since the last outdoor railroad.
 
I would like to give a HUGE thanks to Rayman for fixing the Big Boy! It apparently had a blown connection on the rear driver set. I need to speak more with John to get more details, but that's where it stands at the moment.

I would go 5' radius if we could. The issue at this point is the 12x20 foot barn the railroad is in--by the time the walls tilt in, it's 11'. I've tried, 5' radius will NOT fit. 4' is pretty tight as it is--Big Boy clears by 2-3 inches on each side.

If I could afford Bridgewerks, I'd buy one; as it is, it appears Rayman has talked John into looking into the MTH DCS system---we shall see.

Railclamps are unlikely due to 600 feet of track(most of it stored) = several thousand dollar investment when I'm going to be at college in two months. Not likely, and when any movement of the railroad is temporary(read: a day or two, most), I see that as a major hassle. Sorry, but we've survived so far.
 
Would a PH Hobbies transformer running through the TE help? I have one of those, dual 5 amp outputs, easily tripped circuit breaker inside. I don't know the model number, but there are two PH Hobbies transformers on the MTH recommended transformer list. I really don't want to buy a transformer for my brother's engine and therefore put off my AMS coaches by a year :)" align="absmiddle" border="0" /> Though the MRC may work, I just have to think about it a bit more.

And bigger thanks to Rayman--from what I hear now, he virtually rebuilt the engine :)" align="absmiddle" border="0" />
 
Ran it tonight with the PH Hobbies and the TE(one of five....). Ran fine, just need to do some track cleaning(some of the track has been in storage for six years after being outside...it's desperate), but other than that it's fine. Runs great, completely silently. I think we have an LGB beater?
 
There are no switches at the moment. The sliders do not, however, hit; the screws appear to have been the issue. The sliders miss on the frog every time.

I managed to dig up enough track to run a full-time circuit on the back driveway along with our railroad in the barn--I figure it's good enough for now. All we have to do to run the Big Boy is haul it outside with a transformer and some cars. I don't consider that to be too big of a deal.

At the moment--I think we're fine!

And yeah--Raymond is the TOC of MTH repair
Image
 
Four new vids:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG_LYzueYfw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeN69-bYxYA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj2Pzv_rJQg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o4jbQuTbYM

And a nighttime vid I already posted in the Beginners Forum:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_e0x76o9Xg

Good stuff :)" align="absmiddle" border="0" />

Oddly enough, when running at night, the firebox/ashpan glow shines on the track sliders and makes a sudden flicker that looks VERY much like a one inch spark. Scared me half to death the first time I saw it!

And we CAN verify that a Big Boy can haul three dead LGB Moguls before wheelslip occurs. Hauled 20 freight cars(Bachmann/USA/LGB), five AMS 1:20.3 cars, and an AMS brass caboose with no issues.
 
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