Hello,
The Acela set is a complicated model train system. It has many, many built in systems for protection of the electrical components.
The learning curve has many basic steps.
First each car and engines picks up its own supply of power from the track. Therefore the pickups and wheels on each car must be CLEAN.
Once you are sure that each car and engine can receive good clean power, move on to the next step.
The couplings only transmit and receive the serial control signals between engines, and the cars in between them.
Place the 2026 engine on the powered track, supply power 18VAC.
Address the engine with the number you have selected.
If all the functions work, sound, lights, pans, motor control, and then move on to the next step. If they do not work correctly, Reset and Reprogram the engine as follows. Move programming switch from Run to Program, Apply power to track, Press (Eng. #xx - Set - Eng. #xx - Aux1 - 76) #xx = a number you select. Turn off power to track, move (Run/Prog) switch to Run, and reapply the power. Press (Eng. #xx - Aux1). Check for proper operation of engine.
Place a passenger car on the track, and connect the coupling to the engine, it should connect with a positive snap, and if the car is lifted slightly it should stay connected to the engine. Reapply the power and address the engine for startup functions. All functions of the engine and attached car should work, if not, the coupler between the car and engine is not aligned correctly.
If all things check out repeat the above steps with each of the cars in the set, and finally add the 2029 engine.
If a car does not add to the consist, remove it and Tag it, replace it with a different one. If a car performs correctly, lights, doors, tilt, mark it with a tag to identify it.
The cars have a motor control board to control the doors and tilt functions. It looks at the time it takes to open a set of doors, left or right. If a door does not start to open in about a second it goes into the fault mode, the step lights on the car start to flash. This means that the motor for the door is stalled and cannot open the door. You must reset the consist to clear this fault on one or more cars.
If a door starts to open, but stops about a quarter of an inch open, the safety system has detected that the limit switch on that door has failed to open, to indicate that the door has opened correctly. This fault must be reset as described above. The open door will close if you start to move the consist.
If the doors open and do not close, they will probably close if you command the set to move.
Under the roof hatches, are the switches to control lights, doors, and tilt functions. A tilt check can be triggered by having the powered set at rest and pressing the brake button on the controller.
The café or bistro car is a bar, so lights are low for atmosphere. “Stay Frosty My Friend”
Good luck with the above steps, I am here for your questions, and concerns.
The Acella Fella,
