New loco, problem's everywhere!

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Just got a H 10-44 Proto series loco on ebay for $108.00 thought it was a great deal, $175.00 to $275.00 everywhere else i found it. Supposed to be new, box and loco appeared to be new. Ok, i am running it on Dc for now till i get my dcc going. It has dcc and sound. Problems

1 Clicking noise, the faster it moves the more rapid the click is?

2 Sound and speed slow down at furthest point away from hook up to power.

3 I have a mrc duel 280 controller.

4 Have to turn up to 50 to get sound and 75 to move

5 Will ocasionally stop and restart

6 Is their not enough power to run it, is it also broke.

7 I already reset it factory default it said “reset” but no changes.

Any help would be great!

Ken

2

  1. Sounds like something catching on the gears. Take the shell off and sheck adn make sure none of the wires is rubbing, that could get worse very quickly if it’s a wire rubbing a gear, and it wears through.

  2. You need more track feeders. Rail joiners are not enough to provide power to the whole layout, especially if it’s sectional track.

  3. Generally regarded as a quality device. Good choice.

  4. Totally normal. There are sounds it plays when not moving. Therefore it is designed so that you can get enough voltage to teh track to run the soudn board without the motor turning. After that, the motor starts to turn. Downside of runnign them on DC, there’s not much usable control range. This will not be an issue with DCC.

  5. Dirty track or wheels, or maybe the noise in #1 is a wire from one of the pickups that came loose, so you’re not getting 8 wheel pickup.

  6. The 280 should provide plenty of power, it just has to actaully get to the loco. It is possible that the noise in #1 is caused by something broken

  7. Good idea though, always a good idea with anything as complex as a sound decoder, if it acts wierd, try a reset. Sometimes there are wierd settings left over from factory testing, or amybe someone had it out of the box previously to test it out or show it off and they changed soemthing. So that was an excellent troubleshooting step to take, sorry it didn;t work.

–Randy

3

I am not familiar with this model, but if it has an axle with rubber tires, that could very well be a large part of the problem. However, I don’t believe it does, and would agree with what Randy has said. At least one pair of extra feeders at the far end would help, but make sure the wires running that far come off a bus wire of appropriate gauge to carry the voltage or use thicker feeders to avoid voltage drop. I would also go at the rail tops with some acetone, or Goo Gone, some 800 grit sand paper, even a steel washer would probably scrub them clean. It will not be oxidation so much as dust, dried glues or paints in overspray,…that kind of thing.

I know this can be very frustrating and disconcerting. I have found that most new introductions require a substantial adjustment from me, the layout, or both. In the most recent case, a new UP TTT Hybrid from BLI, I had to redo a large curve because the superelevation that had worked fine for all items for two years was not consistent enough for the tender. I have it fixed, but it required all the rip up, clean up, relaying, soldering, ballasting, and weathering that had looked so good and worked so well for so long!!

Welcome to the club! [8D]

4

Ah the pitfalls of ebay the exact reason why I won’t buy anything from there anymore. That being said it could in fact happen even if you bought it from a LHS or a reputable online store but you would have some recourse. I would first remove the shell and get out your magnifying glass and give it a good visual once over. It does sound like gear clashing or maybe even a piece of foreign matter in there some where. In any case do not continue running it as you may damage it. It’s my understanding that DC will generally draw more amps to run then DCC but don’t quote me on that as fact. If you don’t see any obvious problems it may be worth your time and money to send it back to Walthers. Tell them it was a gift or you purchased it from a friend etc. I honestly don’t think they will care. If it is a manufactures defect I believe they will still honor it if not spend the few dollars to get it fixed right if not you have an expensive paper weight

5

IF it is very fast clicking (probably almost becoming a buzz) then it is probably something hitting the drive shaft. If it is a slower click probably something hitting a wheel or gear. Possibly flashing on a gear. Possibly a cracked gear. I have a GP7 that does this. After it runs continually for about 20 minutes it goes away. If you run it and it doesn’t go away after a while, disassemble and examine the gears for

Not necessarily a problem. First make certain the track is connected with heavy enough wire. Something like real electrical wire not Bell Telephone wire. Is the track in a loop? How long is the track? If this is steel track it might need another set of wires connected from the power to the track.

Perfectly normal. This is now the DCC sound units work when run on DC power. It should say this in the DC operations part of the manual that came with the locomotive. Have you read it?

Probably dirty track. Or if the power drops below a certain point (see #4 above) it will shut off like this.

see #2

6

P2K had the cracked gear issue and now it seems Athearn has it too. They get supplies from the same manufacture. Check the wheels first. If you can turn a wheel with finger pressure than the axle is cracked causing the clicking noise. The other issues have been answered by the other posters.

Pete

7

Walthers, and Life Like before that, claimed tha tthe cracked gear problem had been solved long ago. Most of my P2K locos are older ones, so of course the gears cracked in all of them.

As for ebay, totally disagree. I’ve purchased a literal ton of stuff the past couple of months, and every single time my items were promptly shipped, well packaged, and exactly what the seller claimed them to be. My latest came today, which included two Stewart locos, new in box (still had the palstic sealed up). One of which was one of those superb Ajin-made Baldwin switchers with the Canon motor, which I paid well unde rhalf the original price for. The key is a reputable seller, adn knowing what you are lookign at. Pity the sucker who buys those Stewart F7’s, AB set, being listed seperately, claimign the B is powered (it’s not) and asking $200 EACH. Yes, $400 for a pair of $100 F units. (original price was about $100 for the AB pair, one powered)

–Randy

8

The click is pretty classic cracked gear sound in my experience. I would clean the drive gears and examine with a loupe. My money says one is cracked. Check the gears on the wheel axels first, thats usually the one…

This is IMHO so no rants plz. LOL

Rich