I set up my mth gg1 on my track and turned the power on. It started doing it's normal routine with the voices and sounds but then I heard a pop and smoke started, coming out of the cab. I immediately cut the power. The temp in the room was 60+ so that shouldn't have been a factor. I then ran some other locos, Lionel, Williams and K Line just to make sure the transformer wasn't power surging or otheriwise acting up No problem in that regard.
Bottom line is that the gg1 is deader than a hammer. Has anyone out there heard of or experienced this and if so, how bad is it ?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Mark Morque (Marknrail)
Reply to this post or e-mail me at magm4042@fidnet.com
Sounds like a call to Columbia, Maryland is in order.
You let the magic smoke out, that's not a good thing.
Clearly, if this is still under warranty, it's time to send it back. If it's out of warranty, I'd take the shell off and see if you can identify what smoked. It's not necessarily a basket case, but you won't know until you look.
The Smoke is very good! on this locomotive
The MTH GG-1 simulates the real locomotive. The real locomotive was equiped with a steam boiler that was used to supply steam heat and power to the "steam era" passenger cars.
Every few minutes you here the simulated relief valve "pop" followed by a stream of "steam" (smoke) from the round vent on top of the model. You can remove the cap on the vent to refill the smoke fluid.
If you do have a problem with the MTH GG-1, look for a "pinched" wire caught in the linkage of the 4 wheel Pilot Trucks.
Don U. TCA 73-5735
If you fried a board the smell of the smoke is nothing like the normal smoke generator smoke. Is the GG-1 PS-1 or PS-2 ?
Bill T.
I don't want to discourage you but this samething happened on my MTH Rio Grande SD 60. I gave the locomotive to a friend who used to be a licensed MTH tech. He said that a couple of wires got pinched from just handling the locomotive. I hope yours is still under warranty because mine wasn't. Good luck !
Can't stop working on the railroad!
The more I read things like this on the newer stuff the better my old 681 looks to me.
Kev.
Joined 1-21-2011 TCA 13-68614
Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL.
Yep, the electronic filled locos are not for the faint of heart.
Most of the things that go pop and emit smoke are capacitors. If you have any understanding of electronics, you can probably fix a blown cap. I am sure you realize that the parts used in a toy train are not of the highest quality. I have had a high reliability MIL SPEC short on me in the past, though. The other things that usually fail are power components like bridges and power transistors. These are easy to test and easy to replace.
Seayakbill The more I read things like this on the newer stuff the better my old 681 looks to me. " alt="" onload="resizeImage(this);" /> Kev. Yep, the electronic filled locos are not for the faint of heart. Or light of wallet.
The more I read things like this on the newer stuff the better my old 681 looks to me. " alt="" onload="resizeImage(this);" />
Or light of wallet.
The last two things I saw smoke turned out to be driver FET's and then traces on the PCB. They were repaired, but it took a bit of work to track down the damage.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.
Get the Classic Toy Trains newsletter delivered to your inbox twice a month