I'm not sure how old it is, it came with a box of n scale equipment I bought at an estate sale awhile back. It could've had issues for the previous owner that noone knew about. I'll try it again but if it still has issues I'm just going to toss it. The "train set" power pack I'm using now runs them around the test track fine but has nooooo low end throttle control.
Michael
Never attempt anything you don't want to explain to the EMT
Wouldn't think that small a load would be an issue, but I'd agree with Tom it sounds like it overloaded. The good thing is that when they cool off, sometimes they reset and can be used again. The bad thing is it might do it again, so I'd keep an eye on it if it comes back to life -- zombie power packs? -- and not leave it unattended.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Michael,
How old is that MRC Railpower 1300? Has it gotten a lot of use over time? Did it feel fairly warm/hot to the touch when you disconnected it and plugged in the other power pack? Kinda sounds like it's overloaded.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Recently I somehow started repairing older locomotives for myself & others as well. For the N scale locomotives I tacked a simple loop of track to a piece of plywood that I can just set up on my workbench so I can just let one run round the track while I work on another. This afternoon I was running an Atlas SW1200 while working on an old Trix. Well the Atlas ran pretty good for awhile and was pleasantly quiet but then started running pretty erratic & speeding up & slowing down on it's own. I pulled it apart & re-cleaned everything, put it back together and had the same problem. Then I tried a different loco that I knew ran well. Same problem so I started looking at the track. I crimped every rail joiner to make sure it was making good contact. Nothing. Then I went ahead & soldered every joint. Still no improvement. Finally the last part of the equation, on a hunch I disconnected the power pack (Railpower 1300) and hooked up an old Bachmann power pack I had laying around. Then every locomotive I put on the track worked the way it should. Never would have thought a power pack would give me those kind of problems. Go figure!