On the club layout one of my K-Line Mikes just refuses to run any faster than a crawl, at home it operates smooth as silk. Some of the signal issues at the club have been rectified but not enuff to satisfy this one recalcitrant engine.
In an effort to try to resolve this I am thinking of utilizing the tender shell itself as an antennae, which brings me to the question. The current antennae are the handrails on the loco itself with the connection to the elctronics also inside the loco shell. Doing continuity tests showed no grounding to the loco shell and no breaks between handrail and internal connections. If I use the tender shell this will require an additional tether between loco & tender or does anyone know if there mite be a connection inside the tender where the electronics are located ? The tether appears to be the biggest question, isolating the shell from the frame looks pretty straight forward
Could it be possible that the club where you run the K-Line unit has a wiring problem or is running an older system? If it runs fine at your house try it on another layout somewhere else before doing any major work like you are suggesting! Also track connections could be a problem on a larger layout.
When you have a difficult problem sometimes you need to go back to square one to find it!
Lee F.
The other locos that I run there as a rule of thumb have no problems at all, a couple will give you the occaissional headlight flicker in a couple of spots, But this engine aside from starting up will give virtually no response to commands. My other K-Line mike runs fine.
The fact that your other identical engine works fine means you could have a flaky radio board (R2LC) in your Mike. Some seem to not be as well “tuned” as others and require a stronger signal. I bet if you put in a different R2LC it would be fixed.
Neil
Got this early today and forgot to post.
Dick Teal: contributor to CTT [especially on TMCC], Toy Train repairs author and Toy Train repairman.
The problem is probably an antenna one if it runs OK on the home track; fixing the engine is one approach but it may not solve everything. Fixing the layout and the engine would be my approach.
The radio board could be the problem but it’s probably more than that. I’ve found that the sound power board causes interference with the signal and the best way to fix it is to install the new style that Lionel introduced a few years ago. You can see the difference in the old and new; there is a shield over a large coil on the new one and not over the old one. This fix is pretty expensive so I usually try and add antenna improvements first. Lionel never explained why they changed the sound power board but now you know why.
Here’s the order that I try when fixing signal strength. I’ve kept a section of my layout with a bad signal so that I have a known area to test the engines. I haven’t had to do any this last year and I thought that most of the problems were fixed.
- Check the current antenna.
- Add additional antenna inside the shell of diesels. Sometimes I’ve had to add antenna’s to the handrails.
- Change the sound power board.
- Change the radio board
- Add an antenna to the tender shell of steam engines.
- Have the customer fix his layout.
Hope this helps,
Dick Teal
At one point in the past, I was having trouble with a K-line steam engine in the manner you described, and came up with an alternative antenna that seemed to be relatively effective.
In the end, my problem came down to earth ground issues, and I reverted the engine to its factory configuration. The design worked well while I used it, though, and so you might give this a try.
Basically, I took a single piece of 22 gauge solid copper and tucked it along the bottom of the locomotive, right along side the pickup rollers. To secure it, I added loops of electrical tape which were in turn placed under the screws securing the pickup rollers.
This wire was then spliced into the antenna connection. In my case, I disconnected the handrail antennas, although it would probably be fine to leave them.