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MTH HO Locomotive gremlins?

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  • Member since
    December 2011
  • 11 posts
MTH HO Locomotive gremlins?
Posted by dornier on Sunday, June 8, 2014 2:58 PM

Hello community,

I need your opinion concerning some MTH HO locomotives I run.  Two out of four of my MTH locomotives have developed serious problems.  The first one, a Gas Turbine with proto sound 3.0, was running fine when it came to a complete stop.  I tried moving it, but the sound would shut off.  When I tried moving it in reverse, it ran at a high speed and I had no DCC control to stop it.  I had to remove DCC power to stop it.  The other one, an SD70ace, runs great, but once in a while if I place it in reverse, it either doesn't move or it stutters.  I usually have to wait a few minutes and it starts running fine again.  I tried reseting both locomotives, but the gas turbine would short out the system and the SD70ace would reset, but would have the same issue from time to time.

Any ideas?  By the way, I'm running several other type of DCC locos, Roco, Bachmann, and Athearn and they have no problems.  I'm also running an MTH HO Berkshire and MTH Big Boy with no problems.  I'm using a Roco Z21 DCC system.  Originally it was set to 18v, but I've lowered it to 15v.  The MTH manual states that they are good up to 24v.

Any ideas?  

Thanks!

GNP

  • Member since
    November 2013
  • 2,775 posts
Posted by snjroy on Thursday, June 12, 2014 9:27 PM
Strange. Have you tried them on another DCC system?
  • Member since
    January 2001
  • From: US
  • 1,774 posts
Posted by cmrproducts on Friday, June 13, 2014 7:29 AM

Sounds like the Decoder is BAD!

We had a number of O Gauge engines at our Club and had Decoder problems!

At $100.00 a pop to fix them - we have just about adandoned this DCS junk

We can run the old stuff for years and not have the problems with the equipment!

At least with HO - $15.00 get you a new decoder and the engine will run or $50.00 for a basic Sound Decoder

But with MTH - you have to have MTH Svc Department repair it usually in the $100.00 min charge!

Not for me!

BOB H - Clarion, PA

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