Loci Motor???

[finnman]

Got the Thoroughbred RTR HO package for xmas.  set it up and ran fine until evening of 26th.  when issues began, switching to reverse loci would die. inspected track, powerpack - all fine.  loci appeared OK, pulled casing off and nothing out of order.  cleaned track. lubricated loci.  if it sits for a while seems to start ok... until today, now seems will not start foward or reverse.  Any ideas, or did I just get a lemon?

[jward]

is this a dcc locomoyive?
sometimes the decoder will go into thermal shutdown.

not sure if there are similar components on a dc locomotive's circuit board which may be overheating.

to me, the key to the problem is that when the locomotive cools down it runs fine. sounds like something is overheating somewhere.

[richg]

According to the Online Product Catalog, this set comes with the
F7 diesel locomotive with operating headlight
and is operated by the standard DC power pack. No indication the set is DCC.There would be no components of the PC board that would affect the motor. The PC board for the basic DC loco is used to tie everything together and probably has a light bulb..

Sounds like a defective loco or power pack.

Rich

[finnman]

Yes is DC as noted above.  Powerpack seems ok as we also running accessories on it and it lights up.   If I need to send the loci back, I should send the whole package.  I was hoping to hold the track set up so it wouldn't be missed too much.  Thanks for the input

[Joe Satnik]

Dear finnman,

It is possible for the accessories (16VAC) portion of the power pack to work, but not the variable DC (track) portion. 

A quick test of your (upside down) loco would be to touch the wheels (of a single axle) with the terminals of a 9 Volt battery.   

Wheels should spin in one direction.

Try various axles.  Don't run this test for too long, as it will drain your battery.   

Flipping the battery over and touching again should cause the wheels to spin in the opposite direction.

If this works, either your power-pack, power-pack to track cable, or rail-to-rail connections are bad.

A lit passenger car or caboose and voltmeter would help to further troubleshoot. 

Hope this helps. 

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik   

[finnman]

Joe,
Thanks I will try that too.  Good to exhaust all aspects to diagnose the problem

[finnman]

OK. I tried the 9volt battery on the wheels, but no response.  While monkeying around with the casing removed, I was able to get the engine to go forward if i manually spun the drive shaft a couple times.  But had to be done each time engine stopped, and would not work for reverse.  I flipped the track cable, and with assistance the train goes forward in opposite direction, still would not go in reverse.  appears i have a dud.

oddly it worked the first day and a half, but since then nothing.  very frustrating.

[n6vc]

I bought the same train set for my grandson. It did the same thing your loco is doing. I looked in the instruction manual and one of the troubleshooting tips was to check if the headlight was on, but the engine made noise and didn't run. It said to check the track end of the feed wire for continuity. Sure enough, we fixed this and it's running fine.