Lionel A-B-A, TMCC. Lead A will not respond to TMCC

[jmkk]

I picked up a Lionel EMD A-B-A set in the Electro-motive Demonstraighter color's.  Lead A has full TMCC, two Pullmore motors and magnatraction. B has TMCC that controls Rail sounds and a rear light . Non powered A has TMCC that controls one electro coupler and directional lighting

My problem is the lead A. It will not respond to TMCC. The other two work perfect. When I turn on track power it goes into conventional. If I leave power on and remove it and then place back on track it goes into TMCC. The lights flicker on and off which I Presume means a weak signal. If I leave my hand over the antenna (I had the shell of looking for loose wires) It works fine. As soon as I move my hand it starts flickering again. All my other TMCC and Legacy engines work fine. Does anybody have any thoughts or suggestions?

[phillyreading]

Not 100% sure, but have you tried removing the engine and then adding it in again on the TMCC base? My experiance with command control is you add-in one engine at a time, that means having NO other engines anywhere on the track you are using when adding in something. Try pushing in all the small wiring connectors.

If that don't help check your track and wheels for dirt. One thing I have heard about is adding a wire mesh under the tracks for better attenna reception on the layout, not sure how to do that.

Lee F.

[laz 57]

JASON,

  Make sure your ground is an earth ground.  CTT did a article on this afew years back and if I recall your ground on the box should be grounded to a copper pipe.  I had the same problem and did the earth ground thing and it cleared it up.  Also I have heard that if you have flourecent lighting it might interfere with signal.  Also try a reset of the engine as implied by the owners manual.  Good luck.

laz57

[dougdagrump]

Jason,

Based on your description, no problem with signal on "B" & non-powered "A", it sounds as if it may be an antennae issue on the powered lead "A" unit. Check to make sure that the antennae strip is properly attached and not grounding anywhere. It sometimes requires one to be a tad creative but if you have any very light gauge solid copper wire, not stranded, you can add apiece to the existing antennae and snake it around inside the shell. On some of Lionel's diesels they also used the handrails on the front and rear, not knowing the model just threw that in as a thought.

Good luck. 

Just an afterthought, do you power up transformer and command base at the same time? If they are both powered at the same time it could possibly magnify a signal issue. As a rule of thumb the Command Base should be turned on prior to applying power to the track.

[jmkk]

Lee- Wheels are clean.  I did try an isolated loop of track with my Christmas layout Command base, no change. I checked all boards for loose wires. No change

Laz.- I do have a good earth ground ( 2, 8' copper rods driven into the ground 4' apart) I shut off all CFL's. no change

dougdagrump- I checked the antenna again. I do turn the command base on first. No change.

I ended up sending the engine back to the ebay seller I purchased it from, dave4trains. His communication and response was excellent. I had a replacement in 4 business days!

 

[MartyE]

First off with TMCC or Legacy, a separate programming track is not needed.  The engine doesn't add into the TMCC system.  You are only assigning the address.  You either have TMCC signal to do this or you don't regardless of how many other engines are on the track.