Hope everyone is having a good Friday!
I have a steam loco Nickel Plate 8617 (4-4-2, not sure of the number on it), that I think is 70's/80's vintage. Has a full die-cast metal body but has the can motor and electronic reverser.
About 3-4 months ago, I cleaned it and got it running well and then was playing with it through the Christmas season and put it away shortly thereafter if I remember correctly.
I pulled my trains out to play with a couple of days ago. That one engine was barely moving at all and the smoke unit was getting really hot.
I took it apart and did a casual cleaning with some crc contact cleaner spray and tested it, same results, smoke unit got really hot and started billowing smoke, and the engine barely moved. Made not-so-nice sounding humming noises.
I then disconnected and removed the smoke unit and tested. It runs fair in reverse but still not running stable at all. If I give it part throttle, then it moves like it is really working hard but then if I give it full throttle, it takes off quickly and will fly off the track. This is in reverse. When I try to switch it to forward, it either switches to forward and barely runs at all, or it won't switch to forward at all and just runs in reverse which surprises me considering it is an electronic reversing unit as far as I can tell.
So in reverse, it either runs rough part throttle or takes off at full throttle and wants to fly off the track and resists going into forward but might switch and then it runs very poorly in forward.
What should I be looking at with this unit?
