Are Legacy Steamers more “picky” than diesels?

That makes little sense.

Q:  Will the tenders wake up on the problem track if you put them on by themselves?  They should come up in conventional mode and make steam idle sounds.  If the track has a transformer with a whistle control, you can also conventionally blow the whistle.

Should I try them on the problem track and find out results? And then try on conventional loop? Or just try on one or the other?

Just put the tender on the problem track and see if it wakes up when you apply power.

A dumb question, did you do a startup of the Legacy steam engines?

I put the tender on the problem loop and yes it did wake up and make basic railsounds.

I programmed my engines as normal Legacy procedures and the volume did work for awhile but then the problem started.

That really doesn't make much sense.  The reason the tenders stay quiet when you have them connected to the locomotive is they are seeing the serial data.  If they're seeing the serial data, then the commands should make it through to wake them up.  The fact that it affects multiple units is even more baffling, I'm not sure what to make of that.

Since it's almost certain to be track, signal, or some oddball interference, I'd start eliminating causes.

What are you using for power? If I remember correctly, Dave from Lionel mentioned recently that Legacy steam needs AC from a transformer for sounds to work, not just a wall wart like those in a set, which provide DC.

My understanding is this is because the railsounds board requires AC, while the control board can use AC or DC.  My guess would be that in the diesels, the railsounds board gets power from the control board, but in the steam locos it gets its own track power from the pickup rollers.

Just my guess based on what I've read.

I have a Lionel 180 powerhouse brick for the power. I disconnected and resoldered the legacy wire to the outside rail on the Fast track. Did not correct it. How do you connect your Legacy wire to the outside rail? Is it possible I have one bad section of track? Should I start checking by replacing piece by piece?  How would you start to trouble shoot this?

Since the locomotive runs normally on the problem track, I don't see this as being a Legacy signal connection issue.  The tender does not receive the track signal, the locomotive does.  The tender's ONLY connection to the command data is the IR link between the tender and locomotive.

The powerhouse should be fine in terms of power, from my understanding.

I run TMCC with a transformer, so I just connect the signal to the post on the transformer with a split fork connector.

It might be worth using a spade connector to connect on the underside, just to verify the issue isn't your soldering. EDIT: Listen to John, he knows far more than me.

I run my whole layout on four PH180 transformers, they're perfect for the job.  My Legacy command base is just tied into the common outside track connection on the terminal blocks, nothing special.

I've never seen what you describe, so I'm struggling to come up with a rational explanation, there doesn't seem to be a logical reason for the behavior.  I suspect this might be one of those situations where seeing it in person would yield an Ah Ha moment, but since I can't see it in person...

I agree, John is the man and I feel lucky he is in this thread. I will try the spade connector as a trouble shoot. I'm desperate and trying everything. Lol. Any other trouble shoot ideas?

Should I clean or try and adjust the spacing on the IR connecters? Looking for trouble shooting ideas at this point.

I don't have a Legacy steam loco, only LC+2.0, so I could be wrong here. Is there a switch somewhere on the loco or tender that's in the wrong position that would cause this kind of behavior?

Have you tried resetting the loco with the Legacy remote?

@Pennsy641 posted:

Should I clean or try and adjust the spacing on the IR connecters? Looking for trouble shooting ideas at this point.

Well, that seems pointless, at least to me.  They work correctly elsewhere, so I don't know how they could be dirty just on that one track.

I'm writing this post as a conclusion to this topic and to put it on record for anyone else in the future that can reflect on it. Everyone save your eye rolls for the end. LOL

I want to say thank you to all that chimed in on this thread. Your comments got me thinking and I went for a deep dive on the layout to find the problem.

I updated to Legacy a few weeks ago and did not realize that I needed a "Bridge" for my TMCC powerhouse.  This created a problem with the Legacy "talking" to the engines. After looking on the forums and getting input about Bridge vs Legacy PM I went to the train store and got a Legacy Powermaster and replced the TMCC powermaster. This corrected my problem and everything is working great!

Again thank you to everyone.