I recently purchased an MTH HO Dreyfuss Hudson. It is a beautiful well detailed model, but upon testing it I noticed that the lights were not turning on. I am currently only using DC, but plan on purchasing a DCC system in the future. The man I purchased it from says he never tested it personally, but it was tested at the hobby store he bought it from. I trust the seller and do not think there is anything underhanded is going on. I am wondering, if the Hobby store tested it using DCC or DCS, and turned it’s lights off using one of those systems, would the lights stay off when the locomotive is used on DC? The fact that all of the locomotives lights, from the front, cabin, and tender are not turning on seems to suggest that instead of there being a physical problem, that instead they are deliberately not turning on when the locomotive reaches the appropriate voltage.
When using DCC, there is a constant voltage of about 18 V on the track, so the lights are usually on, unless they are shut down via a command to the decoder. When you run your loco on DC, the lights should be on and increase in brightness with the running speed. I am not sure, whether this is also the case, when the lights have been shut off in DCC mode. The best is to test this on DCC.
A word to the MTH DCS system. It is MTH´s propriatary system and you can run only MTH locos with it. You can run MTH locos using DCC, but the functionality is somewhat limited.
My first locomotive was a BLI Hudson with QSI. I didn’t have DCC at the time, but used a DC power pack for some hours of fun before I decided it was time to move on to DCC. I don’t recall what I had to do to get the headlamp to illuminate on the Hudson while it was in use with DC current, but it was a discrete step. So, I suspect your MTH manual will have an entry about the lights management while using your engine in DC.
Note that MTH steamers are notorious for needing lots of front-end voltage before they begin to move. This was noted in an early test about four years ago in our host magazine.
Yes. It sounds like they probably ran the engine on DCC and pressed F5. If you can find a DCC layout to run the engine and press F5 again you should get them back. BTW, the staring voltage on MTH engines is 6.5 volts. The lighting is all LED and operates at 3 volts on a constant voltage circuit. Once you get the lights back the only dimming you should see in DC operation is when the Rule 17 lighting cicks in when the engine is stopped.