Well, today I bought the MTH PRR F3 freight set. Having had great operation with the 2-8-0 steam passenger set, i expected no issues with this. WOW was I wrong. I put it on the track, powered by a newer Z-1000, and anything above two bar lines on the throttle, the engine is going around the track at 90 miles an hour! While I can get it to run at a nice slow speed, with the throttle down almost to the stop point, at that point, neither the bell nor the horn will run. What gives - is this normal for this diesel? Also the box says DCS ready, but there are no notes anywhere in the manual about that.
Does this engine have a problem? If this is normal, then
Can it easily convert to PS2 DCS? and
If so(dcs) will that slow it down?
Tim
How many motors does it have? If two, you can wire them in series for slower operation.
Bob Nelson
What is the MTH set number ?
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Morning,
It is 30-4197-0 - The engine box has same number with E at the end
This is the "Starter Diesel Set" in the 2010 Ready toRun Catalog, F3 with Horn & Bell, list $219, the "- 0" is Conventional Control (- 1 is Proto-Sound 2.0). It is Twin motored and designed to run on a MTH 50watt Transformer (supplied with set), does it run properly with that setup? , did you try plugging your tramsformer into the supplied speed controller?
Don U. TCA 73-5735
Hello, I did not use the 50watt unit that came with it. I have a Z-1000 that came with the 2-8-0 railking set. That should not make any difference at all.
Also - while i knew that this was conventional, they should not make such statements on the box. (Smoke Unit, DCS ready)
If your Z-1000 works without excessive speed with another engine, the problem is with the F-3. I've got two Z-1000 and they are great and also no problems with MTH or Lionel engines. Sounds like a warranty problem.
Tim,
Try to use the transformer that came with that set!! For some reason a 50 watt transformer was included with the set, and this may be the whole issue. The Z-750 & Z-1000 have outputs of up to 21 volts, not sure what the Z-500 has. If it still has problems then it is the engine that is bad, and you need to do a warrenty claim.
Do not attempt to repair it yourself! That will void the warrenty immediately.
Lee F.
If the bell and horn won't work at a reasonable speed with one transformer, then they probably won't work with another. In any case, it is not a good idea to count on overloading the 50-watt transformer in order to lower its output voltage to a useful level.
Hello, Thanks for all the input. OK even though the 50 brick and the 100 brick both say 18VAC, I did try the 50, and no changes. The controllers are identical. MTH now uses the same controller for Z500, Z750, & Z1000 units - just the power brick is different.
I think I will go the 'go back to the LHS route'
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