Any body ever have a train that was a dud!!

Yes. The MTH Turbo Trains.

Don't get me wrong -- they're actually nicely done. However, I had an idler gear break on one of the trucks on both trains and the tether wire gauge is actually too thin to support the prototypical number of cars in the Amtrak configuration of two locomotives and three coaches. I feel for anyone trying to do the correct 9-unit VIA set (though it would look awesome). The lighting sound, and smoke are great, but I don't think it was their best engineering effort. Fortunately, it is fixable and I'll re-engineer them at some point.

Pretty sure most of us have.  I know I did recently.  No need to name the brand - they've all had issues at times.

I just received an email from Fedex stating a recent order from Charles Ro arrived today.  I'm hoping it does not fall into this category!  

-Greg

These things today are quite high tech little things, and subject to flaws out of the box. The older, simpler engines had much less to go wrong. The world we live in. 

I have had many glitches with newer engines. Frustrating to say the least, but not uncommon. If you desire today’s features, you accept the occasional failures. 

TURBOTRAINS !!!!

all 3 of mine are dead, again, and the story has been told in other threads of my nightmares with these!

Not MTH, but the wires inside of my original Lionel Canadian Pacific F3's broke a few days after Christmas morning 1960.  My father repaired them quickly and they were running again.  He told me what happened, years later (as I was only four at the time).

Not so much a dud out of the box, but, after less than an hour of run time, some smoke units would fail (largely due to my mismanagement); however, if you have ever taken the boiler off a modern loco and looked at all the small components, am amazed all the electronics and mechanicals that do work.  What Dave W. said.

Good reply keep them coming.

seaboardm2 posted:

So I had to send it back to MTH.About a week later I got it back.It been running ever since.It came back with a note.Saying some thing wrong with the wireless tether/factory defect.So guys have you had any thing like this happen to you?

That's not much of a dud!  A real dud is one that continues to have problems day in and day out.  One little issue is pretty normal nowadays.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

seaboardm2 posted:

So I had to send it back to MTH.About a week later I got it back.It been running ever since.It came back with a note.Saying some thing wrong with the wireless tether/factory defect.So guys have you had any thing like this happen to you?

That's not much of a dud!  A real dud is one that continues to have problems day in and day out.  One little issue is pretty normal nowadays.

Agree with John.  I've had maybe 5% of my trains not work and sent back for repair.  Once they came back they all worked great.

Except one  It was a MTH P5a Modified.  They put the tach tape reader on the wrong motor resulting in slippage with even short trains.  Sold it and bought a newer version with the corrected configuration.  Works great.

Lionel MECTA SD40-2

Nope, no duds for me on the trains purchased through my local dealer. Tested before purchase, yes, but never had to swap for another engine. Coincidence? I think not. 

Charlie

The only loco that I would call a dud was a Lionel RS-3 that I had a few years back. It had dual motors and couldn't pull much of anything, so I sold it. 

I have had several locos with issues. Some new, some old, some I bought with issues. All are fixed and running. No locos with multiple issues or recurring problems that I would call a lemon.

3 P3 MTH/LCT 384's with the wireless drawbar have died shortly after getting them. The drawbar is a real POS. I have many without the drawbar and they are great.

Steve

I have an Mth PS3 greenbrier that has been a total POS.   Has many serious gremlins.  Mechanical and Electrical.  Its a beautiful engine however.

jeremy ferrell posted:

I have an Mth PS3 greenbrier that has been a total POS.   Has many serious gremlins.  Mechanical and Electrical.  Its a beautiful engine however.

I find the wireless tether to be a headace.You have to be very careful with it.To tell the truth I did not mind the tether.

My buddy Picked up a defective Lionel Legacy Mougal pretty cheap about a month ago. The seller was was pretty angry when he got it from a show and was told it was a repaired unit from Lionel only to find out it wasn't.

I had MTH PS3 EP5 that arrived DOA from the dealer, they sent me new right away with a shipping label to return the bad one. My Lionel Cupola Cam arrived with a broken pickup wire and the dreaded blurry plastic window in front of the camera.

seaboardm2 posted:

jeremy ferrell posted:

I have an Mth PS3 greenbrier that has been a total POS.   Has many serious gremlins.  Mechanical and Electrical.  Its a beautiful engine however.

I find the wireless tether to be a headace.You have to be very careful with it.To tell the truth I did not mind the tether.

Had to get acquainted with the wire tether on my 2010 Challenger that I got some weeks ago; at first, a pain to re-connect when reconnecting the loco on the track; but, you eventually develop a procedure - easy.

I've had dozens that turned out to be duds. They have all been modern era Command Control locomotives. When purchased new, they ran and operated well,but as time passed,issues with the electronics or paint or materials began to appear. Bear in mind that these were all top of the line scale $500+ locomotives and bought new.My dealer tested each one before he shipped them. After a few months of light operation,something started to fail and it was usually the command control or the smoke units.Some NIB diesels and electrics started to have paint crack and flake off even some shells began to deform. So regrettably,I sold off most of these problematic trains over the years. I've had the least amount of trouble with the Lionel pre-Legacy offerings from 2000-2007. The scale S1 and T1 Duplexes,The Blue Comet,Southern Crescent and the JLC offerings(except the GG1) to name a few, have been fairly reliable and stable so I have kept them. I've also had the fewest issues with the early Samhongsa built MTH steam locomotives. Many still have the QSI protosounds and all have BCR's. They have held up well for being nearly 20 years old or more. 

Two  fresh from the mfg. 

One, a brand new 2-8-2 Mike with a bad lighting/direction board fresh out of the box; 

Two, another brand new  loco with an attachment point on a brass engine which was epoxied instead of soldered  which effectively isolated the tender pick up.  Nobody knows how that slipped thru the mfg. process???

Both promptly repaired by the mfg.  Two problems out of 62 new purchases, all in all not a bad ratio.

On the used side it was much worse.  Once discovering 2 rail 0 scale in 1994 in that very first month I purchased  five "slightly used" brass engines purchased simultaneously from four different sources of which all five were dead on arrival.  Newby nightmare.  Plus a well meaning "repair specialist" sat on them for 6 months with nothing done.

Thanks to the late Gordon Whitlock, he swooped in and all problems were remedied promptly.

As far as nuisance problems, the most discouraging problem occurred as I purchased some premium priced brass engines with cold soldered detail pieces which shook loose all around the layout.  Due to the difficulty of finding all the missing parts and the lack of development for a brass magnet plus the need to repaint after resoldering I happily sold off all the $3,000 engines.   What a waste!  Certain brands-NEVER AGAIN !!

gunrunnerjohn posted:

seaboardm2 posted:

So I had to send it back to MTH.About a week later I got it back.It been running ever since.It came back with a note.Saying some thing wrong with the wireless tether/factory defect.So guys have you had any thing like this happen to you?

That's not much of a dud!  A real dud is one that continues to have problems day in and day out.  One little issue is pretty normal nowadays.

I can't believe he got it back in a week!  I had one MTH engine show up DOA.  I sent it in for warranty service the same day I received it.  I got it back over three months later. 

Say what you will about Lionel (and I will!) but the engines I've RA'd through them have always returned in a timely manner.

MikeH posted:

Say what you will about Lionel (and I will!) but the engines I've RA'd through them have always returned in a timely manner.

Yep, same here with Lionel loco RAs; no issues; sent back 5; fixed and returned promptly.

I had one many years ago that was DOA.  I sent it back, got a replacement, and the replacement has run just fine ever since.  As others have noted - it's annoying when things like this happen to you but such is life.

Yes, I have one -- and it's not an electronics issue.  It's a Marx 666 that I bought online.  In beautiful condition, apparently rarely used.  It will run around a loop of track for about five minutes, then gradually slow down and at last come to a complete stop.

I suppose there must be a short in it somewhere, but I haven't yet gotten around to tracking it down.  In my experience, it's very unusual for a device as simple as a Marx locomotive to develop this kind of problem.

OK guys, its nearly Christmas time so in the spirit of the season, I have to add a story on the "opposite side of the fence".  Last Jan/Feb in an antique store (following the wife around) when all the stuff that didn't sell before Christmas last year is up for grabs,  I found a Lionel 1062 and 1061 engine.  Now these are from 1963-64 so are some 55 years old and they had just been lambasted for their cheapness in an article in "Toy Trains" magazine.  But at 5$ for one and 10$ for the other (it had a tender) what toy train guy could resist.  Research showed that these were actually used by Lionel in sets 11420 and 11430 in 1964.  Poor old 1061 did not even have a light or a reverse but the 1062 had light and a 2-position reverse. SO...I rescued these poor orphans and took them home.  Put them on the old "long and skinny" RR (my layout is only 34" wide but 17' long) added power from the old ZW and WOW !!  Off they went.  Even the light on the 1062 came on and the reverse worked.  I added a few very lightweight freight cars (late 0-27 and some early MPC) and these guys happily pulled their little trains around the RR.  Everybody in the family smiled and loved the little guys.  No sound, no whistle, no electronic speech, no chuff chuff, just motion and fun. 

Happy Holidays

Don

Don, funny you should mention no sound; sometimes, late at night when all is quiet with tree lights on, I will turn the sound off on my 3 legacy locos on the living room carpet and let'em; priceless!

 Recent Lionel 0-8-0 that was advertised with Legacy. Delivered with a Flyer board that didn’t perform well. This engine was going to be used in helper service as well as working the yards. Can’t perform either.  Lionel put a wire tether on this engine to eliminate any chance of stalling. Just like the 0-6-0 they offered. Which ran fantastic. At the speed this engine travels. Stalling would never be a problem.

 What made matters worse. Lionel just didn’t seem to care.

Have two MTH Premier ES44ACs that were purchased new that had problems.  The first one had a defective 3Rail/2Rail switch and was out of warranty.  It would not run in the 3Rail position so I just by passed it.  The other had a defective motor tach reader which caused it to go taking off at a high rate of speed whenever the speed was increased any amount from a stopped position.  Fortunately it was still under warranty.  

Larry

MikeH posted:

gunrunnerjohn posted:

seaboardm2 posted:

So I had to send it back to MTH.About a week later I got it back.It been running ever since.It came back with a note.Saying some thing wrong with the wireless tether/factory defect.So guys have you had any thing like this happen to you?

That's not much of a dud!  A real dud is one that continues to have problems day in and day out.  One little issue is pretty normal nowadays.

I can't believe he got it back in a week!  I had one MTH engine show up DOA.  I sent it in for warranty service the same day I received it.  I got it back over three months later. 

Say what you will about Lionel (and I will!) but the engines I've RA'd through them have always returned in a timely manner.

Well I did use fedex this time around.

I just got a Lionel Polar Express trolley in for repair. This may be a real dud. It's jerky then stalls and has to be pushed to get it goin again. Dealer bought 3. Two went back for missing controller in one and controller no good in the other. If I can't fix this one its 0-3.

Forest

My duds are all 3 of my Lionel trolleys....the bump and go type. Despite pre running lube and TLC, the buggers run spastically....stalls....need to be pushed.  As opposed to my two MTH trolleys. These run hands off quite well.

SDP40F.  6000 hp SD90MAC.  AC6000CW........  Err, those were real locomotives...

(SDP40F depended on condition of track and following baggage car....)

No, not really.......some people though, yes.

A Railking CP Hudson. It ran about 2 minutes then took off like a shot The tape reader cam loose, Local dealer fixed it the same day. No issues with it after that. Also 2 Williams early brass Hudson's. They run but without flywheels they just lope along. Never liked them.

Long ago a Sunset third rail NYC Mercury that broke every time I ran it. Longer ago was a Williams brass Dreyfus Hudson that disassembled itself in the mail.

Most recently,

-a Weaver 2-8-0 jerks and surges

-Williams diecast scale Hudson will not stay on the track

-Williams O-27 Hudson that the motor heated up

redjimmy1955 posted:

My duds are all 3 of my Lionel trolleys....the bump and go type. Despite pre running lube and TLC, the buggers run spastically....stalls....need to be pushed.  As opposed to my two MTH trolleys. These run hands off quite well.

and Forest:

My 2 bump and go Lionel trolleys did the same thing - stalled a lot until pushed; out of the box, they ran great and then slowly deteriorated; tried cleaning the rollers and other contacts with alcohol to no avail; then, cleaned all the wheels and they went back to normal with no stalls; the wheels are ground wheels.

RickM46 posted:

redjimmy1955 posted:

My duds are all 3 of my Lionel trolleys....the bump and go type. Despite pre running lube and TLC, the buggers run spastically....stalls....need to be pushed.  As opposed to my two MTH trolleys. These run hands off quite well.

and Forest:

My 2 bump and go Lionel trolleys did the same thing - stalled a lot until pushed; out of the box, they ran great and then slowly deteriorated; tried cleaning the rollers and other contacts with alcohol to no avail; then, cleaned all the wheels and they went back to normal with no stalls; the wheels are ground wheels.

After our Model RR Open House today I'll have a chance to go over it. We'll see what happens after cleaning the new track and the wheels. I'll take the Dremel 220 grit fiber wheel to the wheels and pickup rollers. Thank you for your input.

Have a look at my post in the announcement section on the Mifflin County Model RR Club.

Thank you, Forest

WBB Berkshire - Looked great, but wouldn't pull anything without grossly overheating.

And, for extra credit, when pulling any reasonable train, the traction tires would bunch up and jam between the drivers.

My biggest dud by far was a MTH Tinplate Traditions 381-E Traditional engine I purchased several years ago as a Christmas present to myself.  Right out of the box and lo and behold faulty E-Unit.  Sent it back and it was returned about one month later.  After I received it back I tested it and within a day or two I found the armature was bad.  Sent it back.  Upon receipt for the second time I continued to have trouble with it and eventually replaced the entire motor in it myself.  It runs better now but the body is considerably scratched up by all of the disassembly.  I'm keeping it because I don't have the heart to dump it on anyone else.   There were times I wanted to stuff a stick of dynamite in this thing and watch it explode.  It would have hurt my wallet but would have done my heart a world of good.

Re bump and go trolleys,  For about ten years we ran a pair of MTH bump and go trolleys 7 hours a day  at every  train show  through out the year.  They are very dependable runners.  Still run them weekly on their retired layouts.