A follow up to hot trains!

First off, I doubt the heat actually killed the electronics. The boards can withstand temperatures up to 90-100°C.

As for what I'd do, clearly you need to return it for repair, replacement, or refund.  If Lionel doesn't have the boards, you at least want to get your money back!  However, since the boards in that unit are almost surly generic RCMC and RS-Lite boards, they can program up a new set.

Not to be a disagreeable fellow, as I know your long history with electronics, but consumer IC's are only guaranteed up to 70 degrees C.  So that's about 158 degrees F.  Since it caused pain to touch the trucks, and I did not think to put a thermocouple on the trucks, it could have been 158 F or maybe hotter.  Don't know the actual temperature, and also don't know heat's threshold of pain.  So while in principle, I also would not think heat should have destroyed the board set, perhaps it was hot enough to make one scratch one's head.   Mil Spec IC's are rated up to 100 degrees C, as I am sure you already know that.  I don't think Lionel and the Chinese use Mil Spec IC's on train boards.  Wonder what Chinese specs are on current production IC's.  Don't know that either.

A guy who spent 52 years in the electronics arena, ending a distinguished career as a degreed senior electronic engineer.

Don...I moved this to the appropriate Lionel forum since this is not a 3-rail scale subject.  PLEASE make sure you post in the most logical forum based on the subject of the topic.

I have taken "consumer IC's", specifically a number of different microprocessors and tested them to 125C.  This was necessary as we were building equipment for military aircraft and lacking any military spec parts, we "certified" industrial parts to military temperatures.  In testing those parts, we had very few dropouts at 125C for a continuous 168 hour burn-in.

Though I haven't looked at any of my Superbass units, I suspect that many of the components are actually industrial temperature rated.  Finally, the storage temperature and operating temperature ranges of integrated circuits are different.

I looked up a processor I use, and it actually is rated to 125C, this is the commercial part, not a military part.  Note also that it's max storage temperature is 150C.  Most IC's when you check the storage temperature, they're in the same ballpark.  If the boards made it to 150C, the plastic shell would have almost surely been deformed.

I supposed I could trot out my resume as well, but I'll defer.  My opinion is it's very unlikely that the heat killed it, but obviously it's possible.

Note that I have no argument about it not being good for them to get super hot, and you're probably lucky you don't have melted plastic.