Quirky Ps3 and Smoke output issue…Help!!

Wireless drawbar fully seated? If not that'll cause weird issues. The other possibility is a wiring short, which is usually easy enough to find with a multi meter. Being that the locomotive randomly shuts down I'd check the wireless drawbar and harness, the go from there.

Your symptom of power loss randomly reminded me of this fact specific to this style of engine. I had identified that on the P47 chassis and other Crusader, Hudson, or RK 4-6-X wheel arrangement series engines. The front pickup roller arm length could touch the square cast in square guide of the front truck assembly. Because the front diecast truck is painted it takes a little while for this short to happen. Also, variations in track can cause the center roller to ride higher up and short. The fix was to install a specific shorter arm length roller (BD-0000013) in that front position.

According to a RK Hudson parts breakdown, the original roller is a BD0000048 (7.9mm DIAM x 10.7mm W / 22.7mm L RIVET TO RIVET) .

The suggested shorter fix version is BD0000013 (7.9mm DIAM x 10.8mm W / 18.2mm L RIVET TO RIVET).

Comparison side by side.

Appears to be an assembly or sourcing mistake and put too long of a front roller pickup arm and it allows the front 4 wheel pilot truck diecast frame to hit the front roller and since the front truck and frame is ground the pickup roller is 3rd rail, a direct short. The fix is a simple replacement shorter pickup roller BD0000013. https://www.mthpartsandsales.com/shop/search

Again, both my personal engines and all engines sold through our shop we change this front roller to a slightly shorter arm variant and eliminate this issue. It affects more than this engine, any of these railking 4-6-2 frames have been coming with the same issue.

To determine if your engine might have this issue: flip the engine upside down with the wheels facing up. Hold the front truck straight in line with the drive wheels pulled back towards the drive wheels where it would naturally trail during running down a straight track. Now push down on the front roller and see that it can hit the back edge of the square pivoting hole of the die cast front truck frame. That's the short problem. Here are pictures from a New Haven 30-1700-1 Crusader that is likely the same basic rolling chassis.

Insulating the bar with tape doesn't last and wears through in a short time. Cutting the front truck bar away isn't a good idea and weakens the structure. Changing the roller is a simple fix. Check your other engines of this same size and wheel type, and in fact, any newer engine for this error. We started buying the rollers in bulk and changing them the instant they arrive in the shop and even retrofitted any previous engine sold.

This affected several of my personal Railking engines and is now a step I check for while lubricating any MTH engine I get.
Examples include the RK P47 Blue Comet or any other road name, the Crusader series any road name, The streamlined Hudsons and so forth. Again, any new RK smaller engine, we began checking for this interference with the front truck since MTH appears to be using a common lower chassis and front truck and is using the same pickup roller.

The BD0000013 shorter roller installed, it is near impossible for the front truck to short to the roller.

I had not been able to post about this over here, so I don't know how many other folks knew about this, but I had not seen this topic come up. To my knowledge, no service bulletin or other information ever happened regarding this. What I can say is, again our shop had such a problem with this, we simply made the change on every single engine sold through us. Other dealers may not be aware. Consumers and owners definitely may not know about this.

@Maverick0394 posted:

Hi all, I have an MTH PS3 New York Central Empire State engine (30-1783-1) - One of the known style engines possibly subject to this roller fix

30 seconds to a minute later the engine stops cold as if it loses power for a split second and powers back up on its own, I still have to shut it down and restart it in the app to get it to run again. This happens randomly and never in the same spot  Again, a possible symptom where roller shorts the engine dead, then because it's just paint and the roller contact, it allows power to flow again and the engine now not seeing a watchdog DCS signal, starts in conventional mode. So yes, you cycle track power, and then it works until it shorts again.

@Vernon Barry posted:

I had not been able to post about this over here, so I don't know how many other folks knew about this, but I had not seen this topic come up. To my knowledge, no service bulletin or other information ever happened regarding this. What I can say is, again our shop had such a problem with this, we simply made the change on every single engine sold through us. Other dealers may not be aware. Consumers and owners definitely may not know about this.

Lol, strangely enough I “discovered” this issue a few months back and swapped the two rollers. Never had that problem again. This was prior to this new issue…my what a strange engine!

When you start a PS-3 up it would default to the position of the smoke conv switch/pot.  Though once added and being used it should remember your last setting in DCS.  So not sure if that is your smoke issue, or if it is related to the stopping.  Does it only stop randomly with smoke on?  If so may be a faulty smoke fan motor.  Noisy electrical fan can cause issues.  G

Last week ran my MTH RK 30-1739-1 4-6-4 (PS3) on my club layout and she stopped and went dead on me half way around the first loop.  After playing with the drawbar with no results, and several discussions with other guys in the club, we are wondering about our DCS wiring on the club layout.  But not no more - it appears this post has probably solved the issue.  I looked at the engine, and the front rollers are in fact too long and do touch the rear of the "front truck" and probably did short out.  I will now look through my collection of MTH parts and see if I have a shorter roller on hand, or will have to try and find one.

I will also have to check out a couple more engines I have.

Many thanks to Maverick0394 for getting this going, and many thanks to Vernon Barry for pointing out this issue and its solution. 

I will let the members of my club know about this as well.

Thanks to all again!

I'm very glad I came across this thread.  I have four Hudson locos that were cataloged and bought in the late 90's. They saw very little run time as I switched to large scale shortly after I bought them.

Now I'm running them again so I just checked and yes, they are the too long roller pickup that hits the front truck.  Ordering the shorter pickups today.

Many Thanks Vernon Barry!

Ward H