Hello,
I recently picked up a 3rd Rail Santa Fe 2-10-4 locomotive. Tried programming it into my Legacy Controller. Had some difficulty until I went back to the manual (haven't programmed anything into it in a while). Instructions solved this.
I went about cleaning and lubricating the locomotive (still need to order new traction tires from 3rd Rail). Looked at the electronics inside the tender and put the shell back on the base. There is antenna wire around the front tender truck, underside of the tender frame, and inside from the shell to the same pin connection in the main board. Please correct me if I am wrong, my understanding is 3rd Rail used the entire tender shell and frame as the antenna. (?) After reconnecting the antenna lead to the shell lead, I reinstalled the shell. So now the locomotive will start on command, bell, whistle coupler, respond to the directional change, etc. However, once the throttle is advanced for forward or reverse, the locomotive will move or it won't.
So for laughs I removed the shell, reconnected it to the locomotive, powered it up and everything works consistently. Put the shell back on after reconnecting the rear light and antenna lead. Now it works inconsistently and will even just die on the test track. (I am using fast track for the test track and a postwar ZW). Curiously, when I go into the locomotive information on the controller and change it from TMCC to CAB1 it operates much smoother, but the speed step bar on the controller does not give an indication.
Any help would be appreciated.
(Note: I contacted the seller about any possible issues they may have had. He didn't remember any)
