I received an MTH F7 Unit yesturday in the mail that sat outside in 20 degree temperatures for 5+ hours before I was able to get home. Upon unpacking it and test running the locomotive, it ran extremely herky-jerky. I let the unit sit overnight hoping this would take care of the issue. When I get home this evening will I see a different unit, running smoothly as expected? For my sanity, please tell me this will be the case! Thanks guys.
I can’t tell you your particular model will be alright, I can tell you that cold does effect performance. I don’t get jerky operation just slow to get going and after running 10 minurtes or so, my locos do get better.
I’m pretty sure whatever lubricant was used by the mfg is not rated for cold weather service. Once it’s warmed up, it should be OK. You may still find that it’s a little stiff when first run, as that is normal, too, until the unit warms to operating temp in the train room itself. This occurs even with my broken-in and well-running locos.
After five hours in near-ambient temps in a home, the model should have warmed sufficiently to run smoothly if the lubes had hardened somewhat. If the package were still as received, wrapping and all, it might have taken longer to get heat through the foam protection inside the box, but if the model were on a counter or sat upon rails for five hours, that would have been plenty.
Sometimes a model does better after a break-in period of running in both directions for an hour or two. However, I have only ever tried to do this on one jerky locomotive, a Bachmann Spectrum J Class 4-8-4. After four hours of running, it didn’t get any better.
I also agree, from experience, that a loco that has minor lurching while just started out will improve as it warms. For example, if you are in DCC, and set your CV2 (V-Start) using the proper prodecure, it will perform much the way you’d expect…when it’s warm again. Next time you go to use that loco, and expect it to begin to creep forward at Speed Step “1”, you will find almost certainly that it won’t budge. You’ll need at least two, maybe up to four speed steps to get it to move. And it will lurch. Ten minutes later, after a couple of runs around your layout, Speed Step “1” should work, and you’ll find it smooth and faster at Speed Step “4”.
Start off with cleaning the wheels, Then proceed to break in and enjoy. Very few of my pieces ever performed perfectly out of the box.
Warm things expand, cold things contract. It’s possible that some metals contracted moreso than others, resulting in intermittent connection. If everything’s as it should be now that it’s no longer in freezing cold, I wouldn’t worry about it.
Goods news, everything is working great… except! The A unit and B unit were both programmed to the road number 315, instead of forming a consist for simplicity reasons, everything ran great for about 20 minutes and all of a sudden the B unit went dead; I removed everything but the B unit from the track and pulled up the locomotive, nothing, but when entering 0003 it worked, somehow resetting itself to factory settings while in operation. I reprogrammed it back to 315 and off both units go. Can anyone help with this, and why that can or did take place?
No experience with this brand. I do know that every manufacturer handles consisting a little bit differently, so making both loco decoders assigned to the same address sounds like an attempt to avoid any problems with varying DCC systems, yet still run together right out of the box.
Sounds like you’re running DCC. Electronics are affected by the cold. That’s why cell phones can stop working in winter. It may have taken more than 5 hours to warm up if they got cold enough.
I always try to be around the house when I’m expecting a package delivery to minimize any exposure to the elements. In these parts, it can sometimes get down to around 50 degrees at night!
Boy… 50F sounds good. I have 20F. Colder tmrw… And don’t even get me started on the snowfall…
-1or -2 in Milwaukee this morning. And that isn’t all that cold for the freezy bit of winter here. (Not to mention what the UP can get)
hi,
I knotice that if my loco’s are cold, they run slow. If they are in a warm eniroment or are warmed up from cold, they run better.
Even in a cool basement or garage the gearbox grease can get so thick that it will cause the motor current draw to increase significantly. If the decoder is close to the rated capacity and the motor is trying to push all that grease that could cause the decoder to cook.
I know it’s not possible for all of us to have climate controlled layout rooms but if your locomotives are really cold it might be a good idea to keep the ones you plan to run in a warmer area for an hour or two to help that grease to flow easier. This condition can be even worse on an older engine with already crusty grease.
If I get a chance I’ll see if I can do an experiment with an old DC engine and make current readings at different gearbox temps. Might be a fun experiment.
Glad your engine came back to life! Ed