Baffled on this

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hi Guys,

I have been having this problem for a while and have been trying to narrow it down.

I can run a loco fine, stop it go to reverse it and then its dead, wont move at all. I then flip the reverse switch again and it will run in the previous direction mentioned. Try to repeat the steps and same thing??? If I tunr off the power to the back and turn it back on everything runs fine.

The thing is I can run trains for 10 minutes,10 days, 10 weeks before the problem might show itself again? I for the life of me cant figure it out?

Sometimes when a loco acts “dead” If I crank on the throttle it will take off like a f1 car. The throttle im using is a MRC Tech 4 260. Would any of you guys have any idea as to what could be causing this?

Thanks

Jeremy

Could it be dirty commutators on the locs’s by anychance?

2

Sounds like the tech 4 to me. I would attach a light bulb in place of the track leads. It should light in either direction.

3

Does the headlight stay on during this problem? Does it do it on more than one locomotive?

4

Jeremy,

I have a feeling that it may be your Tech 4 also. Is there a way for you to test the output,with a meter? Like a multimeter. Test fixed output, AC/DC,should be 16 to 20 volts and test DC variable output,starting at zero and see if it goes up when move the throttle slowly,not jerky and no dead spots and then jump up…If possible,try to do that when you experience,the problem. The dirt problem you mention,could actually be in your pot. on your throttle.

Cheers, [D]

Frank

5

Jim,

You should turn on your Private Message feature so you can receive PM’s.

Rich

6

Thanks for the tips guys, never thought of the light bulb test.

Yeah it does it with more then one of my loco’s. I have a older Tech 4, should give that a go.

7

Just noticed that when I push the direction switch over, if I give it a slight push down as I slide the switch it seems to have helped. I will keep doing that and see what happens. Like I was saying if this one dies I have a older one for a backup for now until I can figure out what way to go next. I see MRC is coming out with a new line of DC packs. Id like to go DCC but that would be alot of converting of older locomotives.

8

Rich,

I have several reasons why my PMs are disabled. For one, at work I am subjected to IMs, emails, and also customer help requests. Then there is personal email and VM to deal with. So, the last thing I need are more messages.

Another reason is I was once the recipient of some IMs from a couple of the forum psychopaths. So, I prefer not to have the feature turned on.

And absolutely no disrespect to you or others.

9

Sounds like your switch is going bad. I don’t know if that’s user serviceable or not (probably not). But you can wire in a dpdt switch between your pack outputs and the track and use that for your reversing switch. Then just leave your pack set for the forward direction which seems to still work. It’ll also save additional wear on the packs reversing switch.

Good luck

Paul

10

Nuts, there are times that I would rather communicate privately than publicly on certain issues.

It is possible to only allow PMs from forum Friends.

Let me know if you reconsider at some point.

Rich