OK, I’m bewildered. I bought a second N scale Walthers Proto 2000 0-8-0 USRA switcher when they went on sale because the first one I had ran so beautifully and was easy to convert to DCC (there’s an 8-pin plug in the tender). I cut away enough of the weight for an NCE N14IP decoder to fit, just as I had done with the first one. When I put it onto the track, it ran a short distance in reverse, then stopped and began to overheat. I immediately took it off and looked for the problem, but couldn’t find anything wrong. Replacing the jumper plug on the DCC socket, it ran perfectly under DC. Plugging in a Digitrax DG 125PS, the system read the decoder info OK, but the loco would not move. Reinstalling the N14IP decoder, the system wouldn’t read the decoder at all; I’m sure it’s fried. What’s going on here? What should I try next? – Tom
Contact Walthers customer service and ask them. They may have had some with an improperly wired decoder socket.