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MTHTrains HO 4-8-8-4 Big Boy Engineer's Manual

Steam engine
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M.T.H. HO 4-8-8-4 Big Boy
Steam Engine
(Ps3)
ENGINEER'S GUIDE
Congratulations!
You've just purchased the most
feature-rich and technically advanced HO Steam
locomotive ever produced! This highly detailed model
3
includes a broader range of features than you'll find on
any other HO scale steam, including smooth
performance from a three-scale-mile-per-hour crawl to
full throttle; "cruise control" for steady speeds regardless
of curves, switches and grades; built-in decoders for
DCC and the M.T.H. Digital Command System (DCS);
and a full range of prototypical sounds. If you're looking
for motive power that's accurately detailed, smooth
running, and a great deal of fun to operate, it doesn't get
any better than this!
** Ps3 model operates on 18" Radius Curves
PFA
Passenger/Freight
Sound
PLEASE READ BEFORE USE AND SAVE

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Summary of Contents for MTHTrains HO 4-8-8-4 Big Boy

  • Page 1 M.T.H. HO 4-8-8-4 Big Boy Steam Engine (Ps3) ENGINEER’S GUIDE Congratulations! You've just purchased the most feature-rich and technically advanced HO Steam locomotive ever produced! This highly detailed model includes a broader range of features than you’ll find on any other HO scale steam, including smooth performance from a three-scale-mile-per-hour crawl to full throttle;...

  • Page 2: Table Of Contents

    This product may be protected by one or more of the following patents: 6,019,289; 6,280,278; 6,281,606; 6,291,263; 6,457,681; 6,491,263; 6,604,641; 6,619,594; 6,624,537; 6,655,640. ©2013, M.T.H. Electric Trains®, Columbia, MD 21046 Rev.: HO ChallengerPS3 6/20/2013 M.T.H. HO 4-8-8-4 Big Boy Steam Engine...
  • Page 3 QUICK START GUIDE Of course, you should read your manual over before running your Steam Engine. But if you just can’t wait, choose how you want to run below and enjoy!! It is important to pay attention to which model you have purchased and to make sure you are following the proper instructions for your Engine.

  • Page 4: Unpacking Your Engine

    UNPACKING YOUR ENGINE Removing and Unwrapping Your Engine Carefully remove and unwrap the model on a soft surface. By nature, models with high levels of detail have some small fragile parts. Carefully remove any foam packing pieces that may be surrounding the model. What Else is in the Box? The following items are packed with your engine.

  • Page 5: Product Overview

    PRODUCT OVERVIEW Getting to Know Your M.T.H. HO Locomotive Key Features Steam engine Your new HO is equipped with the exclusive M.T.H. Proto- Sound® 3.0 digital sound and control system. In plain English, this means your locomotive contains state-of-the-art electronics providing realistic digital sounds, puffing smoke perfectly synchronized with chuffing sounds and motion, precisely controlled speed in increments of 1 scale mile per hour, and much, much, more.
  • Page 6 Digital Control In standard analog DC mode, your model still operates under digital control. The PS3 advance speed control system converts track voltage into digital speed commands. Your model will run smoothly and consistently at any speed regardless of load, hills, or curves. If you are a DCC user, you'll quickly learn to appreciate the precision of our speed control and linear speed curve.

  • Page 7: Engine Diagram

    ENGINE DIAGRAM Boiler Smoke Stack Lighted Cab Interior Classification Light Lights Fireman/ Engineer Figures Drive Wheels Pilot Truck Tender Control Hatch Drive Wheels Connecting the Engine to the Tender Your MTH steam engine is equipped with a tetherless drawbar. There is no unsightly cable or box showing between the engine and the tender to detract from the appearance of the model.

  • Page 8: Set-Up/Maintenence

    SET-UP Connecting Engine & Tender Now grasp the tender with both hands as shown below and place a finger on each side of the drawbar near the connector. Now using your fingers, push the connectors together. The connector will make a slight click when Installing The Mechanical Couplers Your HO engine comes with a mechanical coupler that can be attached to the rear of the tender.

  • Page 9: Engine And Tender Connection

    SET-UP Smoke Unit Preparation and Use engine Your is equipped with a proven fan-driven smoke system design featured in MTH products for over 10 years. The performance and realism of this system is unparallel in the model train industry. Your smoke unit comes primed from the factory however, before running the smoke unit for more Smokestack than a few minutes, you should add more fluid.
  • Page 10 Next, remove brake shoe detail by gently prying and pulling up the part and set aside. Remove the 5 screws holding down the rectangular chassis bottom cover. Carefully remove the cover... then carefully remove the 2 screws holding down the gearbox cover, set them aside and then stop.

  • Page 11: Lubrication

    Now, very slowly and carefully lift the wheel set upward. Keep a close eye out for the driver springs as they sometimes stick to the bushings and lift out. If you drop one, you'll need some really good eyes or a magnet to find them. If they should lift out with the wheel set, carefully set them back into cavities from which they came.

  • Page 12: Features And Operation

    FEATURES AND OPERATION Now, for the fun stuff! Your new MTH HO Steam engine has more features and operating capabilities than any HO engine ever built by any manufacturer. We're going to walk you through everything she does in general but, you'll probably find a few we forgot to mention on your own.

  • Page 13: Analog Dc (Standard Dc Power Pack)

    advanced features and yet, is so simple and intuitive, you can enjoy them! No programming tracks, bits and bytes, or conversion of binary to hexadecimal numbers here! To add an engine in DCS, just press “ADD ENGINE.” After that, If you want to start your engine, just press “START UP”...

  • Page 14: Volume Control

    Sounds In this mode, sounds are pretty much automatic. If you're moving, you'll hear chuffing sounds. If you increase or decrease the throttle quickly, you'll hear labored or drift chuffing, respectively. Of course, if the engine has been sitting for a while, the engineer may open the steam cocks and release the moisture, don't worry, he never forgets to close them.
  • Page 15 Lighting Your model is equipped with a headlight, backup light, cab interior light, number board lights and classification lights. The first thing to know about the lighting is there aren't any bulbs. It's all LEDs so, if you look for a section on how to replace them, you won't find it. You should never have to.

  • Page 16: Dcc Digital Command Control

    DCC/Motorola Digital Command Control Now, if your operating in this mode, you may very well know more about DCC than we do so, we're going to stick to telling you about our engine in this operating environment. First of all, in DCC mode, we brought all the features of analog DC along and of course, added to them.

  • Page 17: Pfa

    F4 PFA PFA in MTH lingo stands for passenger and freight announcements. Since your engine provides freight service, you'll hear freight yard sounds.. PFA is a very popular sound feature that's a staple in almost all MTH products. We had to give you this! There are 4 sound sequences or segments in PFA.
  • Page 18 Couplers Your MTH PS3-equipped engine comes with remotely controlled Proto-Couplers. They can be fired using your DCC handheld at F7 and F8. F7 – Front Coupler Pressing F7 twice (toggling on then off) will fire your Front Coupler F8 – Rear Coupler Pressing F8 twice (toggling on then off) will fire your Rear Coupler Forward/Reverse Signal Just like a real engine, you can announce the direction of intended movement using...
  • Page 19 Engine Sounds F25 – Engine Sounds You can turn the Engine Sounds On/Off by pressing the F25 button. Pressing it once (enabling F25) will cause the Engine Sounds to shut off. TheWhistle/Horn and Bell sounds will still be active, however. To turn the engine sounds back on press the F25 button again (disable F25).
  • Page 20 F22 – Coupler Slack When an engine couples to a train and pulls out, it has to take up the coupler slack. You can play this sound by pressing F22 twice (toggling on then off). This feature works two ways – While the engine is sitting still, press F22 twice to enable it. Then, when you move the engine, it will play the Coupler Slack sound.

  • Page 21: Function Chart

    Function Chart Description Function Headlight Bell Horn Start-Up/Shut Down Lights Master Volume Front Coupler Rear Coupler Forward Signal Reverse Signal Grade Crossing Smoke On/Off Smoke Volume Idle Sequence 3 Idle Sequence 2 Idle Sequence 1 Extended Start-Up Extended Shut Down Labor Chuff Drift Chuff One Shot Doppler...
  • Page 22 DCS Digital Control System As you may have gathered by now, DCS is an MTH exclusive Digital Control System that provides easy access to dozens and dozens of features in our models. We developed DCS to provide a powerful and advanced model train control system that was simple and enjoyable to use.
  • Page 23 Sounds Chuff Rate You can adjust the chuff rate from the default setting of 4 per revolution to whatever you like between 1 and 16 per rev. Why? Some folks like to run fast and 2 or 3 chuffs per rev keeps chuffing sounds a little more distinct, even though it isn't prototypical.

  • Page 24: Advanced Dcc Operation

    Advanced DCC Operation: This section of the manual provides more in-depth detail on how to set up and configure your MTH PS3-equipped engine using the NMRA-standard CV's as well as the manufacturer-specific CV's. It also explains some of the other F Functions not covered in the Basic DCC Operation section.
  • Page 25 Cv29 CV29 is the basic decoder setup CV that is used by all DCC decoder manufactures. So, if you are familiar with CV29 from other manufacturer's decoders MTH's is no different. The most important part of CV29 is the ability to switch between long and short addressing.
  • Page 26 Enter “38” to change the value of CV29 and hit Enter The engine will give you a two whistle/horn blast response 4. In the following steps you will now need to write values to CV17 and CV18 to tell the engine what the long address should be5. Call up CV17 and enter the value required for CV17.
  • Page 27 Below is the table of Factory Default MTH supported DCC CV's. This table is specific to the engine in the title of this manual: Factory Default Values for MTH PS3.0 DCC Configuration Variables (CV’s) Default Value Function Function Decimal Description CV Description Short Address Function - Horn High Byte...
  • Page 28 User-Settable F-Function List This feature allows you to take the 28 F-Functions that currently reside in each MTH Protosound 3.0-equipped HO Engine and change the location of that function. For example: F18 is currently Extended Shut Down and you'd like that placed down to F28 which is Feature Reset.
  • Page 29 The list on page 34 includes ALL F functions that an MTH PS3 engine could have. You are free to change any of the above listed items to any F function position, 1-28. For example, if you your engine came from the factory without a smoke unit but you added one at a later date you could swap out any of the F functions, 1-28, for the Smoke On/Off and the Smoke Volume.
  • Page 30 Advanced Consisting Advanced Consisting follows the NMRA standards. Any values assigned to CV's 21-24 are ignored once the consist is removed (CV19 set to 0). • Setting the MSB (Bit 7) of CV19 tells the engine that it is facing reverse in the consist •...
  • Page 31 To set this consists up so that: • The Headlight is ON in the Front engine when going Forward, OFF when the consist is in Reverse • The Reverse light and headlight is OFF in the Rear engine when the consist is going Forward, headlight is ON, reverse light is OFF when the consist is in Reverse •...
  • Page 32 Set CV22 to a value of 2 to the Rear engine's address to tell the Rear engine that you want to control its FL control with the F0 button at the consist address. The engine will give you two horn blasts to announce that it received the CV change Ensure F0 is deactivated at the Rear engine's address.
  • Page 33 Setting Up CV21 for a Consist Cv21 allows you to set which F Functions you want the consist address to control. For example, you will likely want all of your MTH consist engines to respond to Start-Up/Shut Down (F3). Please refer to the table below to see which bits have what decimal value and which F Function they correspond to.
  • Page 34 Programming Track Your MTH PS3-equipped HO engine can function on Programming Track outputs from DCC systems. Because each DCC system manufacturer's output capabilities on the Programming Track differ it is recommended that you use a DCC Programming Track Booster to perform functions on the programming track. Simply put –...
  • Page 35 SPECIFICATIONS Physical Boiler Length (front cplr to rear cab wall) ~265.8 mm Tender Length (over rear cplr) ~163.0 Overall (over couplers) ~438.1 mm Boiler Width (across cab window details) ~39.0 mm Tender Width ~37.7 mm Boiler Height (rail to smoke stack) ~56.7 mm Tender Height (rail to Coal Pile) ~54.7 mm...

  • Page 36: Dc Power Supply Chart

    Recommended Transformers DC Power Supply Chart RECOMMENDED DC TRANSFORMERS Transformer Power Notes On Use Transformer Min/Max. Model Rating Type Voltage 0-18.5v 60-Watt MRC 6200 Not Recommended For #70-3001-1 J3a Electronic 0-20v 100-Watt Electronic Controlmaster 20 PH Hobbies 0-20v 100-Watt Electronic PH Hobbies 0-20v 180-Watt...

  • Page 37: Care And Maintenance

    CARE AND MAINTENANCE Troubleshooting Guide The following Guide will help you trouble shoot your MTH HO engine. This guide is broken up into the four operating modes of the engine, Conventional AC, Analog DC, DCC, and DCS Analog DC Start-up Solution When I apply power to the Check to see if that section of track has...

  • Page 38: Lights

    Check for an obstruction in the smoke stack Add 10-12 drops of smoke fluid Lights Solution One of my lights is out Most likely you had been running the engine in DCC or DCS mode and toggled that light off. Put it back into one of those modes and turn that light back on.
  • Page 39 Start-up Solution When I apply power to the Did you press F3 yet? F3 on your DCC track my engine doesn’t do handheld will start your engine up. anything. No lights, no sound, no nothing. Check to see if that section of track has power.
  • Page 40 Check for an obstruction in the smoke stack Add 10-12 drops of smoke fluid Lights Solution One of my lights is out Check your F keys. F0 is the headlight (also controls the Back-up light) and F5 will toggle the Cab light None of my lights are on Could be the same reason as “One of my lights is out”...
  • Page 41 DCS (Remember, it's NOT DCC) Start-up Solution When I apply power to the track my This is normal. You have to hit the Start-Up engine doesn’t do anything. No lights, button. no sound, no nothing. Check to see if that section of track has power. Use a voltmeter or a lit passenger car, not your tongue.
  • Page 42 Smoke Solution My engine isn’t smoking Press the smoke button this will activate the at all smoke If you just filled it with smoke fluid sometimes the fluid can make a seal in the stack. Blow down the stack to clear the air bubble Check the Tender/Boiler drawbar connection.

  • Page 43: Service And Warranty Information

    First, e-mail, write, call or fax a M.T.H. Authorized Service Center (ASC) in your area to obtain Repair Authorization. You can find the list of ASCs on the M.T.H. Website, www.mthtrains.com. Authorized Service Centers are required to make warranty repairs on items sold only from that store; all other repairs may-- or may not be done at the store's own discretion.

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