So, I have a problem with my brand new NS 6920. It shuts off and restarts on the same piece of track on my layout. None of my other 10 DCC locomotives have any problems anywhere. I have the NS 9-1-1, which is essentially the exact same locomotive (Athearn model wise), and it does not do this. Does anyone have any advice for me? Serious replies only. I don't want your advice to be "Don't buy Athearn locomotives."
Just curious, is it that one particular piece of track? But runs fine on the rest of the layout?
Mike.
My You Tube
If it's just one one section of track, and runs fine elsewhere, it may well be the track and not the loco, even though other locos run fine on thise piece of track. It's happened before.
Or it may be a combination of things. Could be the track not having good electrical supply coupled with the loco not picking up properly on all wheels. Dirty wheels, dirty pickups are both possible even though it's brand new. There are also sometimes issues with Athearn where the pickup from one side of one truck is not great - so on nice clean track with solid power, it runs perfectly fine, but any time there is a dirsty section or an area where the power is not solidly connected, when the good working truck hits this spot the loco stops. You can test it easily, by putting the loco on a section of track where it runs fine, and slipping a piece of paper under one truck then the other. With one truck sitting on paper, the loco should still respond just fine. If it dies with the paper under say the front truck, but it works fine with the paper under the rear truck, the problem if the pickup on the rear.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
It appears I’m not the only one then... I received my 6920 the other day and noticed it was stuttering more than it should to. I tried something very similar to Randy’s suggestion and discovered that my rear truck wasn’t picking up power. I pulled it apart and after testing both pickups with the multimeter I found the right side pickup on my rear truck wasn't working. Easy enough fix, cut away some heat shrink, strip back the wire and resolder the pickup. I was also having and issue with that exact pickup contacting the speaker and causing the rear truck to bind slightly, so the fix actually solved two issues.
Just figure I’d share what I had to do to get mine staightened out, yours could be a simpler fix. Definitely check your trucks as Randy suggested. It’s a bit odd that it happens consistently on the same section of track though.
Good Luck,
Jamie
Cape Vincent Southern Railroad
HO scale Horseshoe Curve in 5’x10’
My YouTube
Jamie, kind of off topic, but your layout sounds interesting. Horseshoe curve on a 5'x10'.
Have any pictures to share?
Actually, I had a late 90's Genesis SD70I that had the same problem with the wire to one side of the rear truck.
After fixing it, it is now one of best and quiet runners I have. Right there with Kato and newer Genesis models.
Not to hijack the tread to much, but to answer Mikes question. I added a link to youtube in my signature, update 2 is currently the best description/ tour of what I'm working on. I just started this layout in November, so there's not alot to show yet. I plan on making a seperate thread once I get the photo posting situation stragihtened out (when I was active here years ago I used photobucket...) to show my progress.
Relating to the orignal topic, now that I fixed that pickup and ran my 6920 for a day it's a very nice smooth running locomotive. I'm very happy with. It is kind of annoying that a repair is required immediately on such a pricey model though.