It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I decided to set up a loop of track around the tree this year because my grandson likes trains. I don't have a lot of 3 rail stuff left with sound & CC. I have a new DCS system (Rev L) that I seldom use and I thought that for the kid to have the most fun it would be best to use DCS. So I set it up and got out 3 MTH engines. One of them is the NYC PS3 with scale wheels. It worked perfectly but I did not want the kids playing with that so I put it away. The other two engines are a RK Erie 0-8-0 and Premier Nickel Plate Road URSA Mikado. The Mikado would not work at all and then I remembered I had tried this engine at my friend Bob's house maybe a year ago and it had the same problem. We thought it was the battery. So I put on the 0-8-0 and it worked great.I taught the kid how to use it and i figured let him play with it because if I don't let him play with it himself he might not like trains when he gets into the video game age or forget about trains totally. THAT was my mistake because the kid is a regular Gomez Adams and he ran the train at 120 SMPH while I was reading the DCS manual trying to learn how to set the speed so he can't make it go that fast. Well, then he put something on the track and the engine and cars went flying off. Well, first thing I thought was he blew up the electronics. I turned off the power and put the engine back on the track and it worked perfectly. I put it through its paces and there were no problems. I let it sit for an hour (no one touched it) and it was dead as a doornail. I had no clue as to why it worked after the wreck except that it was the battery since we didn't really charge it and it had been stored for years.
Let me back track a little bit. I bought this engine from Ebay about 8 or 9 years ago. The former owner is a great guy and pretty well known in the hobby. His name is Ben F from the NJ Hi-Railers. When I originally bought the engine from Ben (I didn't know him at the time) it had this same exact problem. He told me to take it to a repair shop and let him know how much it would cost to fix it. So I took it to The Hobby Shop on Route 34 in Matawan, NJ and Ben of course made good on the repair bill. The repairman seemed to have seen this problem before. He took it apart and tightened something up and the engine worked perfectly and I never had another problem with it until last weekend.
So today I went to the same place and bought batteries for both engines. The guy at the store was trying to talk me into paying them to replace the battery. In fact they will not sell you a BCR if you don't pay them to install it. Then he mentioned how their guy tech loves Ebay. I said why? He told me it is because of the many people who buy trains from Ebay and are told that they work but they do not and so they take them to him for repair. I mentioned to the guy that I bought this engine from Ebay and that the fella I bought it from paid for the repairs he said, "Oh yeah! I remember you! You are the ONLY one!" I said, "What do you mean?" "You are the only to where the seller actually paid for the repairs!" I was like Wow! I couldn't believe it.
The voltage on the batteries I took out of the engines were 2.6 VDC for the 0-8-0 and 0.6VDC for the Mikado. With the battery installed the Premier USRA Mikado is once again working perfectly but the 0-8-0 still has the same problem. It does nothing. There is a click when power is applied but no sound and constant CHECK TRACK and ENGINE NOT ON TRACK messages. It is almost as if the power isn't getting to the electronics. I've looked for pinched wires or loose connectors but could not find any.
#1)Any thoughts or suggestions before I take this engine to the repair shop?
#2)Are these batteries totally shot or would they be good again with a long charge?
Thanks in advance.
