No Power

[bubba100]

I just set up my Big Hauler Northern Lights Edition for the season. When I try to send power to the engine nothing happens except the power light on the power indicator goes dim. Can someone help?

[richg]

When the controller light goes dim, that is usually a sign of a short.
Remove everything from the track. Is there still a dim light?


Rich

[bubba100]

No light gets bright when I take it off. It dims with engine only. Not with any other cars on the track.

[NarrowMinded]

Sounds like your gears are gummed up, you may need to pull the cover plate off and clean and lube it.

Nm

[bubba100]

Will that drain the power?

[richg]

Will that drain the power?

If the motor was running free, not much power being used and the light will be nearly full brightness because the voltage is near maximum the pack can deliver.
If the motor cannot turn, a lot of power being drawn from the pack which lowers the voltage so the bulb is a lot dimmer.
With a direct short, the bulb would probably be out and the pack would hum a lot and get hot quickly.
Others can explain this better than I can.

Rich

[Jim Banner]

The Big Hauler 4-6-0 locomotives have a quirk that sometimes causes this problem.  The front truck (the 4 small wheels) can turn around 180 degrees and when it does, it can short the tracks.  There should be an arrow pasted to the bottom of this truck and it should point forward when you put the locomotive on the track.  If the arrow is missing (and they often are,) turn the truck around and see if this helps.  If it does not help, put the truck back the way it was, then carefully examine the wiring from those small front wheels to make sure it has not lost its insulation where it passes through the top of the truck.

Jim

[Joe Satnik]

Dear Bubba,

Is it a 2 piece power pack (wall-wart transformer and square controller) like this?

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=1301

I have fixed one of those with the same symptoms.  

When everything is working properly, the wall-wart transformer sends about 16VAC to the controller, where it is changed (by 4 separate diodes connected in a "bridge" configuration) into DC, then speed controlled, polarity switched and sent to the track.

I found that one of the diodes in the bridge was shorted.

I used an Ohm-meter to find the bad diode, then replaced it with an equivalent one.  

The power pack worked fine after that.

Consider fixing it (or having it fixed) if it is out of warranty.  

Contact me via this forum's personal message system if you want more details.

It is surprisingly cheap to ship just the (very light) controller in a padded envelope via USPS.  

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik  

Edit: Grammar

     

[bubba100]

yes it is just like that. I get absolutley no power to the engine. No lights, nothing.

[bubba100]

The Big Hauler 4-6-0 locomotives have a quirk that sometimes causes this problem.  The front truck (the 4 small wheels) can turn around 180 degrees and when it does, it can short the tracks.  There should be an arrow pasted to the bottom of this truck and it should point forward when you put the locomotive on the track.  If the arrow is missing (and they often are,) turn the truck around and see if this helps.  If it does not help, put the truck back the way it was, then carefully examine the wiring from those small front wheels to make sure it has not lost its insulation where it passes through the top of the truck.

Jim

Arrow is pointing in proper direction.

[NarrowMinded]

Is it the light on the power pack that dims? I thought it was the headlight.

[Joe Satnik]

Dear Bubba,

If you have an old HO power pack, hook it up to the track and try to run just the loco with its smoke switch "off".

You might need to give it a "bump" to get it going.     

Let us know the results.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik   

[bubba100]

It's the light on the powerpack.

[bubba100]

There is zero power to the engine. No lights on it or anything. The others car get power (lights) it's just the loco.

[Joe Satnik]

Bubba,

1.) With nothing on the track, note the brightness of the controller LED throughout the throttle range (0 to 100?) 

Return throttle to zero.

Put only the tender and the caboose on the track. 

Turn up the controller til the tender and caboose decorative LEDs are satisfactorily bright.  (Perhaps half throttle?) 

2.) Note the throttle setting.

3.) Note the brightness of the controller's LED (compared to nothing on the track).

Turn the throttle to zero. 

Unplug wall wart power from controller.


Put Loco on track, all wheels railed correctly. 

Plug wall wart back into controller.

Return throttle to previously noted position.

4.) Compare tender and caboose LED brightness to previously noted brightness.

5.) Compare controller LED brightness to previously noted brightness.

Thanks. 

Joe Satnik