Care And Maintenance; Troubleshooting Guide - M.T.H. HO 4-8-8-4 Big Boy Engineer's Manual

CARE AND MAINTENANCE

HO 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
Start-up
When I apply power to the
track my engine doesn't do
anything. No lights, no sound,
no nothing.
Sound
I have no sound from my
engine, but my lights are on
and it moves just fine.
There's a crackling sound from
my tender
Smoke
My engine isn't smoking at all
My engine's smoke output is
low
Analog DC
Check to see if that section of track has
power. Use a voltmeter or a lit passenger
car.
Slide the engine a couple of feet in either
direction, you may have a bad track section
Have you got that section electrically
isolated with a toggle switch or other
device?
Check the volume pot on your tender. Full
CW = Max volume
Check to see if a screw or some other
material hasn't lodged itself in the underside
of the tender.
Make sure you've got the smoke switch ON
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. You've got to have them locked
together
If you've been running your engine in DCS
or DCC mode the smoke may have gotten
set to Low or Med. With the engine running
in DCS or DCC set the smoke back to High.
It'll remember what you last set it as when
you run it again in Conventional DC
M.T.H. HO 4-8-8-4 Big Boy Steam Engine
Solution
Solution
Solution
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