My Lionel Legacy GP-7 apparently burnt out a board just after it went out of warranty. It still runs but no headlight or marker lights. The smoke had been gradually diminishing so I may have overfilled it with smoke fluid. But smoke fluid is mainly mineral oil and would it conduct electricity enough at relatively low voltages to short out a circuit board?
Mineral oil is an excellent insulator. It is used to fill large power transformers. To quote Wikipedia:
“Transformer oil, or insulating oil, is usually a highly-refined mineral oil that is stable at high temperatures and has excellent electrical insulating properties. It is used in oil-filled transformers, some types of high voltage capacitors, fluorescent lamp ballasts, and some types of high voltage switches and circuit breakers. Its functions are to insulate, suppress corona and arcing, and to serve as a coolant.”
Let it dry out and see. I had an Atlas that “acted up” one time. I found smoke fluid on the board. Dried it out and it was OK. Now as Bob says, it is suppose to be an insulator in big transformers. Can take shell off and see. If you do, try to clean it up or blow it off with compressed air. Worth a try. Not sure about your engine but some have springs that contact a flat “board” to make contact for lights [used instead of “hard” wiring to shell]. I have had one that had to be realigned and I streached the springs. It went back to work. Good luck.
Unfortunately some circuit board is definitely fried because I could smell it and see the smoke when it burnt up. Emailed Lionel and they said take it to a service station for repairs. Since I only paid $330 new for it and think the cost of repairs would be at least $150 I’ll just run it as is.
Wow what a labor charge. Boards aren’t that much.
Lionel in their email reply to my describing the problem with the GP-7 said the trouble could be in multiple boards. I was assuming $50/hr shop rates. If it could be repaired for $100 or less then I would have it done.
Back in the early 1990s when I was in a model railroad club back in my hometown, I had a Bachmann HO scale N&W J (#611). During one of our open houses, I’d taken it out of the box and was running it back and forth in the yard. Smoke was coming out of the stack from the smoke fluid, and everything was fine. Suddenly, the locomotive stopped, the overload light on the transformer came on, and smoke just poured out the sides of the locomotive. Kids going past saw it and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Apparently, there’d been some fluid in the reservoir when I’d brought it up to the club from home. While in transit, the locomotive had leaked out and worked back to the motor. It never did run again.
Kevin
Are you sure the TMCC receiver board hasn’t just been scrambled? There are usually 3-4 boards in a TMCC loco; The receiver/command board, motor control board, sound processor, sound amp. The lighting and most aux effects are on the receiver board. If it’s truly failed the loco shouldn’t even move. If you have access to a TMCC setup you may want to try a reset procedure and see if the lights start working again.
Kevin, what happened to you is very similar to what happened to me, the loco stopped running for a moment, the overload light came on for a moment and smoke and burning smells came out. The loco still runs but with no lights or smoke. Could the opposite had happened to what I thought, could the smoke fluid cause one electrical path to become opened allowing too much current in the remaining path?
Chuck, I’m running in conventional mode and there is no TMCC set available to me. Got an Lionel Legacy loco in the first place because they run and sound better than any previous Lionel loco. Never fear, got two more Legacy locos on order.
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Wow what a labor charge. Boards aren’t that much[/quote
I just paid $200 plus labor for an MTH board but I don’t know about Lionel prices. My board was one that controlled a main engine plus a slave unit, however. I understand that they are more expensive than for a single unit.
Ray