MTH woes

[Gillty]

I’m looking for opinions/advice with problems on a couple of MTH engines my son owns. First is a Daylight with Locosounds that Santa brought him 4 years ago. The sound (chugging) and synchronized smoking has gradually gotten slower and slower over the last several months to the point now that it barely makes any sound or puffing (It will shoot out the smoke if it’s in neutral just not when moving). The 2nd is a CNW Protosound diesel that he bought earlier this year. The sound on this has also stopped. Although if you leave it in neutral for a while you can start to hear muffled crew talk. Both engines still run fine forward, neutral, reverse. The problems are with the sound.

Does it sound like both of these need to go to the repair shop or is there anything I can look at first?

He also has a MTH trolley w/Protosounds that is about 3 years old that just needed to be “reprogrammed”. It cost more than half of the original price to repair it. One guy told me the fix to the Daylight locosound engine would require him to upgrade the sound system. He’s 12 now and saves all of his money to buy trains. Overall it seems that to have sound problems with 3 engines that are 4 years old and less (he only owns 4 so it’s 3 out of 4) is less than stellar performance. I’m starting to think that it’s throwing good money after bad.

Maybe it’s that these aren’t the “premier” line? Or that they’re locosounds and protosounds and the protosounds 2.0 are more reliable?

Are these problems typical with MTH? Would Lionel be better?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts and letting me vent.

-Rich

[pbjwilson]

Have you tried replacing the batteries in these locos? The battery in the Daylight is in the tender. The batteries do need replacing or recharging after several years of use.

Take the shell off the diesel and you will see the battery, ditto fot the tender. Usually 6 screws on the perimeter of the engines.

[jimhaleyscomet]

I have one Lionel TMCC locomotive. It has been back to lionel one time because it stopped chuffing.

I have had three protosound 2.0 engines for 2 years. No problems with operation yet.

The experience of many others has convinced my to stay away from PS1 engines. If you can turn the sound off, another option is to get a $100 railsounds car from Lionel. One car and all your engines can have sound (2 cars if you run diesel and steam). Then you can spend you money buying conventional locos for much less.

Instead of fixing the old engines you might also consider the MTH RTR sets. You can often get them for just under $300 and you get a complete new train, some track, and a transformer. Another option is to "upgrade" to PS2 but you probably need a dealer to do it.

Jim H

[spankybird]

Can you provide me withe the item number (on the end of the box) of each engine. Some of these have been made in both PS1 adn PS2.

I agree with Pual. I would replace the batteries with full charged ones. You can TEST the engine with a std 9 volt battery to see if it is the problem. Do not leave it in the engine as the recharging unit will destroy the battery.

You may also need to reset the engine back to factory settings.

hope this helps
tom

[Gillty]

I just tried swapping a battery from the working protosound trolley to the CNW diesel with no luck. The diesel box # is RK-2006LP.

The Daylight was part of a ready-to-run set #30-4039-0. I don't see a separate # for the locomotive. I took apart the tender but I'm not seeing a battery. I don't see anything in the owner's manual either.

Thanks,
Rich

[Anonymous]

There are no batteries in LocoSound engines.

PS-1 engines have trouble with weak or dead batteries. There is a repair pocedure involving a chip swap that you can do yourself with a kit from MTH.

I'd recommend getting *** Teal's new book on Modern Toy Train Repair and Maintenance and checking out your loco's with this in hand.