As stated it is a Athearn RTR SD 40-2, it has never ate a decoder I will add. I am 90% sure it has a DH 123 decoder installed. It has two head lights and a yellow light on top of the cab.
It seems as the wheels start pick up some gunk, the lights start to shut down? Normally first one to shut down is the one on top of the cab, then one of the two head lamps.
This last time I placed it on the RIP track, only one head light was still working. It went on the RIP track because it was getting a little noisy. Clean the wheels, and did pull the shell to lube the motor bushings, ever time it makes a racket I oil the bushing it stops for around 10 hours of run time.
Running the engine now, and all the lights are working. I am sure now most of you are thinking it must be a bad connection and when I pulled the shell and installed it, it some how fixed the bad contact. If it was not my engine and would post the same thing as a answer. Most of the time when I clean the wheels, they come back on even if I don't pull the shell.
My PCM Big Boy that runs the same decoder does the same thing all most. It number boards will stop working, clean the wheels and they start working again?
On the SD 40-2, do you think soldering the wires to the PC board will stop this odd problem? Any other ideas beside start collecting coins again as a hobby?
Cuda Ken
I hate Rust
Soldering the wires probably wouldn't hurt anything. The quick-plug board could have some loose/cold solder joints on it. Some engines just need the wheels cleaned more often.
Mike WSOR engineer | HO scale since 1988 | Visit our club www.WCGandyDancers.com
If the lights flicker while it's moving, either the wheels or track or both are dirty. If the light completely goes out but the loco still runs, something else is amiss. Loose wire or something.
You can fix a good bit of the wheel problem by substituting nickel silver wheels for the sintered iron ones standard on Blue Box locos. Id expect the new Athearn ones would fit, but it was NWSL tha tused to make them. Smooth finish turned wheels rather then molded from iron powder, like you find on newer RTR and on most of the P2K locos (except the oldest ones). Less pulling power, but far better electrical pickup and the crud doesn't stick to them nearly as much.
Also, if you changed the decoder to one with more than 2 functions you could have both directional lights as well as make the beacon on top flash. The DH123 only has 2 function outputs so I'm assumign you haev both the front and rear lights connected together, or the front lght connected to the beacon.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Randy, don't the new Athearn engines have Nickel wheels all ready? This engine is one year old and has the the PC board, lights are hooked to it. Yep, beacon is wired in with the head lamp's. It could use a smaller decoder, center of the shell does not want to fit tight due to the decoder. If I where to go to a N scale decoder which one would you use? Guess I would have to clip a wire from the quick plug and wire the beacon to the decoder.
Ken
Ken, why not just use a decoder that replaces the stock circuit board like an NCE-DASR decoder. It has plenty of fuctions to accomodate your front/rear lights and beacon. It even has something that NCE calls "LED drive", you just hook up LED's without worrying about finding the correct resistor for them. TCS and Digitrax have decoders similar in style but I don't know about the LED drive thing, maybe others can shed light on that. I have a NCE-DASR installed in my Atlas engine with LED's, that's why I'm suggesting it, it's also a bit less expensive than the TCS and Digitrax decoders.
*EDIT* The LED drive thing is a no resistor hook-up for LED's or 1.5v bulbs, like Athearn's.
TONY
"If we never take the time, how can we ever have the time." - Merovingian (Matrix Reloaded)
Ken a NCE N14IP or Digitrax DN143IP will fit nicely. I installed the NCE one and lights work fine. The problem with my engine is the motor, the original one needed a value of 80 into CV2 to start moving at speed step one. The replacement shake vibrate and sound badly, a bit of oil in the bearing helped a little but it is only a temporary work around. I am on my way to the LHS to try a third motor. This is my first and last RTR Athearn loco.
Jack W.
The newer SD40-2s have good turned metal wheels already.
Looks kinda like this inside:
I think there is a spot on the board to hook up the beacon. Would need a decoder with more functions. I would recommend a TCS T4X, with the Back-EMF. Makes the Athearns run very nicely. The factory bulbs are 1.5 volt, so a NCE DA-SR would need resistors for the lights added. To get a little more room, you could take out the 8-pin plug, similar to this one:
I really like the NCE DASR. It has surface mount 1K resistors on the board for each output. There are jumpers around the resistor if used with 12 - 14V lamps or you cut the jumper for LEDs or 1.5V lamps. Back EMF is very good and they run extremely quietly. I also use the Digitrax DH165 for a couple of my Atherns but you have to be sure to set CV 9 (I think) to zero to get maximum quiet operation on any brand. The Athern open frame motors are never as quiet as a good can motor and you need to lube the gears and oil the motor bearings regularly and run the heck out of them to get them even close to acceptable. The replacement wheels make a big difference as well.
The NCE DASR is much more straight forward in lamp function setup, especially Rule 17 lighting.