Smoke stop working, bad board..???

[Anonymous]

OK, I have a 6-38036 Long Island 2-8-0 Consolidation Engine and tender with railsounds/Odyssey/TMMC and so on... It was in the 2001 catalogue. Here is my problem. I bought it recently and at first the smoker was working great. Then it just stopped. I checked the smoke unit and the element is fine. If I apply track power directly to the smoke unit it smokes like crazy. However I believe it shouldn't get direct voltage from the track because the wires go through the R2LC-C board. When I pulled the body off the engine a regulator transistor fell out. It appears to have come from that same board. I am a former Electronics tech so I resoldered it to the board but still no smoke. I know with the TMCC control it can be turned on or off. I don't have my command set yet but I'm wondering if the board could be bad. Other then ordering one from Lionel, is there a place that carries these boards? Anyone have an idea what it would cost me to purchase one? (Depressed no smoke!)
Thanks for the time, sorry this is so long.

George

[ben10ben]

You might check the switch on the bottom of the engine. It can sometimes get hit on accident.

The board you describe sounds like the smoke unit voltage regulator. If that's what it is, you will probably need to order it directly from Lionel.

It could also be that the R2LC is bad. You can get those for $30 from www.digitdynam.com .

[Anonymous]

Thanks, I see they have it for $29.95. I hope to have her smoking again soon! :-)

[Roger Bielen]

1862- I've run into a similar problem with my 0-8-0, usually after an unexpected shutdown, i.e. derail. I run with TMCC and an engine reset solves the problem. I don't know how you would do this in conventional other than finding someone with TMCC and asking them to do a reset. Remember to set the engine in command mode when doing the reset and back to conv. when done.

[Anonymous]

I thought about that to Roger, and I do have a TMCC coming so that is something else i will try before I order the board. The regulator coming off definitely is an issue but it should be working with it soldered back to the board unless it is being commanded not to. I'll let everyone know what I find when I try it with the remote as soon as it comes in.