I bought the El Capitan set awhile back and really like it. I run it in conventional with the CAB1. Just bought another A powered unit and now have a problem to get it to run in reverse with the other A unit going forward. I have a powered Aunit a unpowered B unit and another powered A unit turned around to give it the classic ABA look of forward, then the B unit, then the powered A unit with nose facing the passenger set. Problem I have is that I put it the reverse unit in reverse on the test bench and lock it there in reverse. When I get it to the track and have the other A unit on there it defaults and goes in forward even with the reverse unit in the locked position. Is there any way short of taking out the motors to rectify this situation? Thanks in advance.
I had the same problem with a set of K -Line powered alcos.If you trace the wires to the motors from the (electronic) e-unit on one of the engines,it will start in revese.Don’t worry about locking the e-unit.This unit will just start in reverse and do everything else normally including running by itself.Just remember it will default to reverse.
Got the A unit and B unit (very hard to find), along with the 3 cars plus dinning car for a great price. Guy came in my LHS and wanted to trade all this along with the transformer and fast track and switches for a Lionel SD 70. BARRY sold it to me for $250 minus track and trasformer. I just saw a B unit go on ebay for 100 bucks.
I suppose you could block a section of track under one of the A units and use track/block power cycling to get the A units sync’ed up. This would work for one running session then as soon as you stopped for an extended period they’d revert back. I’d consider doing a wire mod like has been suggested so’s you don’t ever have to worry about it again.
The FT has DC motors.You reverse a DC motor by changing the polarity to it. The reverse board in an Ft is a direct current reverse unit(DRCU) which also converts AC to DC.There will be two hot wires that go to the motors,one to the front and the other to the rear motor.These are the wires you have to switch.I don’t know if there is another board for the sounds or if the two are combined in one.If your train guy doesn’t want to do it let me know and I’ll take my FT apart and let you know which wires to switch.
Laz, I had the same kind of problem with a Williams F7 diesel, what I did was to take out the circuit board and replace it with a 6 amp bridge rectifier. Wired the motors straight from the bridge rectifier, had to test to see what direction I had. Only drawback is that you lose the direction changing feature.
With a Williams engine you just cut the blue and yellow wires about two inches from from the reverse unit,then connect blue to yellow and yellow to blue.It will now start in reverse.This works on Williams diesels.I’m pretty sure steamers use the same board.
I find it easier to solder the wires than the motor terminal.Also,it is easier to see the fix if you want to change it back later.The blue to yellow wire is very obvious.That’s only my perception.
Well I changed the polarity or switched the wires and the result is perfect. Ran the ABA Santa Fe FTs last nite for half hour all runs great. I ended up cutting the wires and then resoldering them together. On the motors they were soldered then had shrink wrap on them so I didn’t want to mess with that. A BIG THANK YOU GIZ.