After upgrade it stalls after a couple of feet?

Who did the upgrade?  What TMCC package did they use?

 

Since it works fine in conventional, you're eliminated mechanical issues and are down to something in the TMCC transmission/operation.

Since it runs in conventional, I would say you are losing serial data or you have a bad board.

 

Bill

 

Lionel Factory Trained Repair Tech

 

Independent Lionel Service Station

 

Electric RR Dealer

 

U.S Army Retired

 

 

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ill

If your headlight is powered through TMCC (can you turn it off remotely?) you can see if you are losing signal...it will flicker when the engine stalls. It sounds like that's the problem. Maybe your antenna conection is loose.

Neil

Does holding your hand over the engine keep it running?  That would indicate a weak pickup by the antenna.

Didn't ERR have a problem a while back with some of their boards. Seams to me I had a similar problem about a year ago. Contacted them and they replaced it. No further trouble.

 

Al

I've been installing ERR stuff for several years, and I don't remember any issue like that one.  I've had my issues, and if this is ERR boards, they'll make it right if you send them back.

 

Of course, if I paid someone to do a conversion, I'd be sending it back to them to correct!

It was done by one of the "big companies" that does conversions, no need to knock them as the damage was I think done during shipping back.  It wasn't fastened to the metal support plate and literally arrived in pieces.  After putting it back together I discovered the running problem.  I don't want to take the chance of sending it back and forth again.  So I'll just have to resolve it myself, if I can ... So I'm not sure what kind of board it is but I suspect it was a TAS setup, because that is what they were doing at the time.   I've just let it sit on the shelf for a year since then but would like to get it running.

Make sure the loco antenna wire/grab rail is not grounding out to shell or chassis.

Good suggestions!  I'll try them and see what happens. Thanks!

Let me know if you need the TAS documentation, I have it in PDF form.

Thank you!

 

Thanks John!  This will be helpful untangling the Big Boy problem!

My email address should be in the profile ...?

Hope they help you out. I have a couple of these things, so I had to go digging for the manuals some time back.

 

Your email address isn't visible to me in your profile.

I agree with you guys either serial data problem or signal from the cab base.  In many of the upgrades to err equipment I have completed in locos with larger tenders I would use a black 18 awg wire on the outer bottom of the tender as an antenna.  Using the tender shell is trickey.

Actually, isolating the tender shell and using it as an antenna has worked flawlessly for me.  It's a nice big antenna, and seems to work well.  I use Kapton® tape for the insulation, very thin and very tough.

I agree it is a great antenna but can get a little tricky depending on the model.   Kapton® does work very well.  Sometimes the drawbar around a tight turn hits the shell and grounds it out.  A little heat shrink around the drawbar on these locos help.

 

Run Kapton tape around the bottom between the shell and the frame?

Yes, the idea is to electrically insulate the tender shell from the grounded frame which will short out the "antenna". You could try running without the shell, with just the antenna connecting wire to see if this is your problem.

 

Neil

Yep, and you also have to use plastic screws so that you don't ground things through the screws.  I can say that it works very well if you get it properly isolated.

 

After you have isolated it, you should measure the resistance between the frame and the shell, obviously there should be an open circuit.

I would contact who did the work and tell them I was returning it to be made right. Be sure to advise them of its condition when it arrived. If they have any scruples at all they will help you here.

 

Rod

Usually I would but it's been about a year since I just put it on the shelf to figure out later.  I also don't want to pay the $40+ shipping/insurance to send it to the East Coast from Oregon or have it bashed to pieces during shipping again.

I'm hoping I can find a solution myself as it does run okay under Conventional.

After all, it's "just an old Williams" and I don't want to sink a lot more bucks into it.

And I have a lot of upgrade kits coming for my Proto fleet of turbines, etc., so perhaps I'll get lucky on finding the solution, with the good hints from you-all, when I get to "benchwork time"

 

I would try what Neil said. See what happens if you run it without the shell and antenna plugged in. 

 

You probably will get enough signal to operate and eliminate whether antenna shorting out is cause of problem.

I just stick a wire on the antenna lead when I'm running with the shell off for testing, that insures that any issues won't be simply the missing antenna.