Lionel command control engines issues

[locodiesel]

Hi  I have an O gauge 24 foot layout with a power house and cab 1 controllers.

My 2 lionel command control engines stopped working.

I have not used my layout for at least three years.  I placed my GP9 on the track and addressed it.  It ran but when it got to a dirty part of the track it stopped.  I cleaned the track and put a new battery in unit.  

The unit ran but still sometimes got stuck 20 feet out from source of power on gargraves track.

I then tried my lionel steam loco.  It had never had a battery in it.  I installed a battery in the tender and it as well got stuck and dropped out on the track far away from supply source on track.  The tender locked up with a load sound and I had to remove battery to stop sound.

Both engines now will not move.

I have tried to reprogram both.

The GP9 has all sound and coupler functions, revs up but will not move.

The steam engine will only light up the red cab light and will not do anything else.

I even tried 6 feet of new track isolated t\from layout hooked up to powermaster.  same result

I swapped out a new power master set to track 1, same result.

I have an MTH diesel with a OSI command board that works fine.

The volt meter indicated 18 plus volts.

The only common thing I see is high resistive connections far away from source power could cause a dip in voltage when engine is asking for watts.  total watts required with poor current carrying track will supply lower voltage at far end of layout and require more current to get watts required to operate.

Running command engines in conventional mode in the past did not damage anything n the command engines when track voltage greatly reduced by operator of conventional engine on same track???

I ran conventional engines on track with no problem but one section at far end of layout at slow speeds will cause a e unit pause.  

I have now installed multiple taps onto the rails from a 10 awg copper (ring bus) wires to get better current flow in the track.

This does not however solve my problem with the command control diesel or steam engine.

Does anyone have a solution to the board problems?

Track has voltage 18 volts

OSI board MTH engine works fine

conventional engines work

swapped out power master

Without battery I understand a dirty track or bad splice will cause a drop out of power and engine will lose signal

new batteries installed in both units

With all equipment and transformer off track  the track center rail to outer rail at 250 volts has 20 meg ohms reading.

reprogrammed engines

How can I check boards or get boards checked out by someone?

comment    When I bought these command engines 7 yrs ago I wondered how these would hold up and operate long term  compared to my 1950s steam engines which took a beating over the years with young engineers sailing them off the layout 42 inches to the floor.

Thanks

Locodiesel

[rtraincollector]

This may sound like a lot of work but it did help me a couple of times with different engines. I would recommend the diesel first and see the outcome as its really the easiest to take apart. Take shell off and unplug every thing and replug one by one so everything is put back the same. even unplug the boards from each other and replug them in. you could have a bad connection even thou it appears to be in sound and tight. and if its stuck in a mode this may clear it ( I don't know but seem to sound good lol) but I had an engine that would do fine then go like a bet out of you know where and did this to it and all is fine with it. I could understand one but not both. even after sitting for 3 years. at first I was going to say maybe your R2C board ( board accepts radio communication)

another good person to talk to would be boxcar bill as he sells aftermarket ( electric railroad which is now owned by Lionel) tmcc http://www.mttponline.com/ 

[locodiesel]

RTRAINCOLLECTOR,   Thanks for the quick response,  I will dis assemble all components and clean all connections.  I hope that will solve the problem.  Like you said however, it happened to 2 engines.  

Thanks again

Locodiesel

[jeffrey-wimberly]

And if you have doubts about what may go where take photos before you unplug anything. They can be invaluable during reassembly.