2-8-4 Berkshire Steam issues

Go with a new battery, may need a speaker also.  Unplug that shattered light, if a lead is bare and touches chassis it will short out board.

Engine will charge battery wile running, but a no load test doesn't mean much.  If it is the original white battery it is past useful life.  5V boards and bad batteries don't always mix.

Smoke fan may be loose also, need oil, or going bad.

I would get it serviced if your not familiar with it yourself.  G

The odds are that it's not a battery issue. Many, if not all, 5 volt PS2 engines (that's your)  came with speakers that deteriorated over time. Garbled sounds are the symptom.

Charge the battery overnight. If sounds are still garbled, you'll need a replacement speaker. MTH typically has them in stock. The replacement speakers don't suffer from the issues that the original speakers had.

Barry,  His sound issue wasn't the only issue he identified, he does have a low battery indication also.  For a used 5V engine, with issues he is identifying, it is wise to change the battery and not risk a dead/shorted battery taking out the PS-2 board or charging circuit.  G

G,

Battery "LOW" isn't really the battery.

I inspected speaker no visible signs of deterioration.  Have charged overnight on separate non dcs track power. Will update when I test.    Light did unscrew and is out. So empty socket no danger.  How much for a new smoke unit. Can I swap from a loco or proto 1 engine?

Thanks for info

Understand about low battery, but really dead or shorted batteries play havic.  Just seems wise.

As far as bulb coming out that is a 6V screw in, usually the bulb is good and it looses contact with the base.  I chip off the lock tight and reseat the bulb. 3 out of 4 times the bulb lights up.

Just because speaker doesn't look bad, doesn't mean it isn't.  Garbled sounds usually are the speaker.

Yes other PS-2 Loco Sound units are compatible, but the leg height and stack need to match.  Normally rebuilding is the easiest.   G

where can I find steps to rebuild smoke?  also bulb would not turn and broke as soon as I put slight torque on it...  it looked smokey/black so pretty sure it was dead..

Engine runs ok on my layout..some 31" R  but 80' passenger cars are "persnickety"  I had to "operate " on a few to loosen screws on trucks so they would "swivel" a little better..and one had the wires pulled into the body so tight it could only move about 10 degrees either direction..but all seem ok now..just need to get 2-8-4 sounds better.ran smoke and had no noticeable noise, but smoke was coming from under body and out stack..pretty sure that means there are issues..thanks for the replies

also I found where my trackage was not consistent..the Berkshire would just spin its wheels...so my plan to reroute a track was "sidetracked" but I have a design in mind and need a few turnouts to complete it...

I wonder does anyone else suffer from "2 foot-itis"  every time I operate  I see better ways to improve the layout so I can get "there" from "here"   

If you have a lot of smoke coming under the body, I'd suspect that the gasket between the shell and smoke unit is gone, or the smoke unit bracket is bent and it's not seating on the stack.  If you have decent smoke volume, I don't know that rebuilding the smoke unit is your problem.

Good point about the gasket, but that would imply that someone has already had this apart.  If it's the engine with the readings in the first post, it seems surprising that short of running time would already be apart.

it has sat on a shelf since purchased when released and only run to test smoke and sound..per the elderly gentleman I bought it from..he has quite the collection and is selling only to those who are not out to profit...

I took apart engine to verify no wires were damaged..

will run with shell off to see where smoke escapes...it smokes out of stack also so I doubt misalignment but will check...also since I added chemical the noise is abated...

Barry if"battery low" is not really the battery then what is it? more games from MTH?

btw most of my posts are from my kindle fire hd and it has an annoying way of auto correcting.which is odd because I doubt it can read my mind and I am certain it has no idea what I am attempting to say....but it was a "gimme" from at&t for getting uverse..so since I lose spell check if auto correct is of I will suffer....so if what you read makes no sense ..substitute letters and words until it does...

Barry if"battery low" is not really the battery then what is it? more games from MTH?

There are no "games"from MTH".

The battery message refers to the state of the battery charging circuit. "LOW" indicates that the charger is not working much because the battery is pretty much charged. The battery charging circuit is basically in "trickle-charge" mode.

Look at page 46 of The DCS IO Gauge Companion 2nd Edition.