After not running trains for months, I decided to spend a rainy afternoon dong just that. As usual, the layout was a bit cranky after all that sitting. The worst thing that happened was my brass I1 ran into an electrofrog turnout set the wrong way and fried its decoder.
At first, I was upset about the situation. But then I cooled down and realized the situation could have been worse. The decoder I fried was a DZ-126, which costs $20. I was lucky it wasn't one of my sound-equiped engines.
After further cooling down, I also realized I'd wated to make a number of upgrades to the locomotive but had been kicking the can down the road because of how difficult the engine is to work on. But now, since I have to take the thing apart anyway, why not make those upgrades? I'll ad those Bachmann tnder trucks withall-wheel pickup, use the correct, flexible wire between the tender and the locomotive and maybe even add sound.
So this might have been a blessing in disguise. Have any of you ever been in a similar situation?
Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in N Scale.
www.prr-nscale.blogspot.com
Since you fried the decoder I'm guessing you never isolated the motor brushes from the frame?
I would make sure you also include THAT as part of your "upgrade". Otherwise, you're going to be replacing another motor-only decoder (or, more expensive sound decoder) when this happens again. If a decoder is soldered to a properly isolated motor, it shouldn't fry if your locomotive derails - even on an electrofrog.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.