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TheLordsServant

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Well, I finally did it. I've been eyeing the MTH Big Boy with Protosound 2.0 in my local hobby shop for a very long time. I managed to work out the numbers as to how I could buy it, and negotiated 10% off the price, and went ahead and bought the thing. I don't know why. I have nowhere to run it, I have no prototypical cars to run behind it, and it was stretching my budget. But I bought it anyway. After my Aristo Mallet escapade last fall, I took a break from G scale and dabbled a bit in N scale, and purchased an Athearn Big Boy with sound and DCC. So, now I have two Big Boys, in very different scales. I gotta say, the MTH is just simply gorgeous, it really is nice to look at, and the lighting and smoke are absolutely fantastic looking. The sound even sounds very well, though on high volume settings, it's well, loud. DUH!



One question: I know for a fact that this locomotive has sat in a display case for at least one year. My brother, who generally knows better than I do, said I probably didn't need to lubricate it. However, below about ten SMPH, it seems to not run as smooth as I think it should, considering what I have heard from other owners. So, should I go ahead and lubricate the gears and siderods? I'm thinking yes, but don't want to do anything that may damage it. Are these locos supposed to be smooth at low speeds? I know Rayman has a lot of experience with these locos, so if he'd like to step in and give me some advice, I'd really appreciate it. Also, obviously, if anyone else wants to step in, PLEASE do. EDIT: I did forget to mention that I don't think the drivers are out of quarter, as it seems to run exactly the same both forwards and reverse.
 
Discussion starter · #8 ·
Yes, at low speeds, the engine is a little jerky. It's not awful, just a little bit of "hesitation" so to speak. I watched Rayman's video of his with out of quarter drivers, and it's nowhere near as bad as that. It also appears to run the same forwards and backwards. I'll try lubricating it and run it some to see what happens before I go further with it.
 
Discussion starter · #17 ·
To answer a couple questions, I have no idea what the MTH service center is going to do with the locomotive, they said they would "check it out when we get to it." I do not know if this means they will simply run it on their test track and see what happens, or if they will attempt to make any repairs.

markoles: The track has been cleaned extensively because of this problem, as I originally suspected that dirty track was likely the cuplrit. The track is only slid together, with no clamps or anything holding it together, however, all my other locos seem to run beautifully, including some old Bachmann ten-wheelers (from train sets) which had power pickup that could best be described as flaky. I've heard that the MTH Big Boy is not picky about power pickup in the slightest, so I would imagine that, assuming it was working perfectly, there would not be a problem. I was not able to obtain pickup from the front set of drivers when I performed a test. We'll have to see what the service center says, they told me it would be around two weeks or so.
 
Discussion starter · #19 ·
The track is indoors. Brass LGB Code 332. It has been deployed for, hmm, probably at least 10 years. It was outside at one point, but when we put the layout back indoors, we cleaned it all thoroughly, and the track received a good cleaning before we tried to run the Big Boy on it. It's so shiny I could almost use it as a mirror :) I have asked the service center to take a look at the quartering to see if they notice any abnormalities. I'm hoping it can be fixed, it's really a beautiful engine, and I can't wait to get it running right!
 
Discussion starter · #22 ·
I received my Big Boy back from the service center, and I am happy to report that all is well. The guy at the store told me that the main board was bad. One of the power traces was incomplete, indicating that it was a manufacturing error, and the other side was melted, which I probably caused. He bypassed the board with some wires and all is well. I think the hesitation was mainly due to the power pickup, not the quartering.
 
Discussion starter · #25 ·
After three hours of running, the Big Boy is back to not running well at all. There's a burned electronics smell coming from it now, and it hardly picks up power at all again. I'm going to try and receive a refund on Tuesday when the store I purchased it from reopens. I think I've had enough frustration already.
 
Discussion starter · #28 ·
I'm not sure how the layout wasn't designed for a Big Boy. The locomotive is approved for use on R3 curves. I am not sure that the PWC caused the damage to the board, it also could have been because of the pickup sliders shorting on a switch frog. Even so, after the locomotive was repaired, it seemed to run fine for around 3 hours, with the power supply set to linear, and yet the issue has returned. There were no shorts on a switch that I witnessed, indicating there is probably a short occurring within the engine. All my frogs are unpowered, so that isn't a factor in this incident. The retailer's return policy states I have thirty days to return a defective product, so I shouldn't have a problem returning it to them for a full refund. Either way, I think I'm returning to my old thought that perhaps large scale locomotives just haven't reached the quality that the smaller scales have attained. My Athearn N scale Big Boy has run better than any of the four different articulated locomotives I've had the displeasure of owning in large scale. I hate to sound so negative, but after my very similar incident with the Aristo Mallet last summer, my frustration level is increasing. Especially considering I just spent my savings from the last year on a product that hasn't worked the way it was designed to since I purchased it.
 
Discussion starter · #35 ·
I have to disagree with Robbie (Brothers, ya know what I mean?) But I do not currently believe the locomotive is picking up power. When it stalls, the lights and sound cut out. Once it stalls, the only way to get the thing to move is to push it forward a few feet at which point it will resume running at the same speed I had it set for before it stalled. It will continue to do this pretty much everywhere except on exceptionally clean sections of track where it will run decently well, making four to six feet of track before stalling out again.

And Nick, I actually have tried keeping fish, but had a small problem with water and my dad told me to get rid of the aquariums. You all should probably stay away from me, I'm extremely unlucky.
 
Discussion starter · #37 ·
I talked to my parents some, and they think I should try and stick with this thing and get it sorted out. I have no fuses on the locomotive itself. I'm going to try and take it back to the MTH ASC on Tuesday (They aren't open tomorrow) and see if they can have another stab at it before I just say it needs to go back to MTH directly, which I suspect is probably what's going to happen anyway, but I'd prefer not to do that unless all else fails.
 
Discussion starter · #42 ·
First of all, my real name is John

Second, the fuse between the power supply and the track is a 20amp. We don't come out to the Kansas City area very much, but I do appreciate the offer. If we end up coming to the show in August, I'll bring it, but I hope and pray that it's resolved by then, but if it's anything like the Aristo, I'll still be dealing with this in September. :)
 
Discussion starter · #55 ·
Just wanted to add my own thoughts in here as well.

First of all, just to second Robbie's comments, I cannot thank Rayman enough. He spent five hours repairing my engine, and ensuring that I won't have any more problems in the future, and then asked nothing in return. He is one of the most intelligent modelers I have ever met, and I can assure you that you won't meet a nicer person anywhere.


Second, a Bridgewerks power supply is way out of our budget right now, I'm still recovering from the sticker shock after buying the Big Boy. It would be nice to upgrade to a new power supply in the future, but at this point, we're frankly pretty stuck with the Aristo, or the PH Hobbies that Robbie previously mentioned. I do think installing a smaller fuse, like a 5 amp, would not be a bad idea at all, as even with multi-engine lashups, we've never hit 2 amps. After using Rayman's DCS setup for a little while, I definitely agree that it's the way to go if you have an MTH engine, so a DCS setup is definitely in my future now.
 
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