Bantam daylight steam engine

At slow speeds where you can see/hear it, does the engine chuff sound exactly 4 times (or whatever you set it to via DCS) per revolution of the driver wheel?

Check to see if you've inadvertently set a speed limit on the loco:

Menu/Control/Max Speed

Then, from page 36 of The DCS O Gauge Companion 2nd Edition:

• The screen will display the engine name and number, and the current maximum allowable speed for the engine

• Turning the thumbwheel up or down adjusts the maximum allowable speed

• Press the thumbwheel to lock in the maximum speed and return to the CONTROL menu

This and a whole lot more is all in MTH’s “The DCS O Gauge Companion 2nd Edition", available for purchase as an eBook or a printed book at MTH's web store!

Barry, it does cuff 4 times per revolution.  It said the top speed was set at 120 mph. I will try to change the top speed setting when I get home later en your syggestion. Thank you. Glenn

What voltage are you applying to the track?  If below 14 or so, loco may not be getting enough power.

Sorry I replied earlier but don't see it here. I am using a Z-1000 that is putting 19.4v to the track.

Are you sure that you are getting 19.4 on the track?  If you have an AC voltmeter, test the track with the loco running.  If you don't, try putting an 18-volt bulb across the track, with the loco running, and see if it is at the correct brightness.

I am not sure about it being 19.4v at the track. I checked it on the output side of the tiu.

Just want to make sure there isn't a wiring defect before delving into the TIU.

Checked the power at the rails 19.4v. Checked the cuff rate it was at 4 and sounded like it was a bicycle with playing cards in the spokes,  changed it back to 1 for the most realistic sound for me. I checked the top speed it said 120. I changed it to 20 up to 120 and did notice significant differences in times around the track. So I have seen the different speeds after adjusting it with the hand held. Another observation I saw was when I ran my railking space it ran 42 mph compared to the 120 mph for the bantam steam engine. The only thing I can think of is when I had the sound reloaded into the engine we used the wrong locomotive software. Would that make a difference? Little drive wheels against the taller drive wheels. Thanks, Glenn

Just to be clear, separately from not reaching the commanded speed at 50 or 75, does the engine run slower than commanded at slow speeds such as 5 or 10 sMPH?

1 sMPH = 0.367 inches/sec.  So if you command 10 sMPH, the engine should move 3.67 inches/sec, or 36.7 inches in 10 sec, etc.  Seems it shouldnt' take long to determine if the engine is running 50% (or whatever) slow at ALL speeds or if it's fine up to 20 sMPH (or whatever) and then starts struggling to keep up.

Since you have a Z-1000, do you also have the conventional controller that comes with it?  If so, maybe hook up the Z-controller and power the track with that rather than the TIU.  In conventional mode the Z1000 controller should easily drive an engine well over 100 sMPH.  If it still topping out at 50 or whatever then there's something fishy in the engine.

One of the gurus would know for sure, but in my experience if you get the exact commanded number of sound chuffs per driver wheel revolution (as you seem to be getting), it's a good indicator the engine sound-file is programmed correctly for scale speed operation.

Would that make a difference?

It certainly could!

Did you reload the correct sound file for the locomotive?  If you loaded a different sound file, it could have different speed parameters.

Normally, encoder issues cause the engine to run faster.  If it's running slower, maybe the spacing on the encoder is wrong and it's getting multiple reads.  I suspect that's unlikely, but worth a look.

I don't know of any way, other than changing the tach tape or loading a non-standard sound file, to change the scale MPH.

I will have to have the correct sound file reloaded to see if that helps with the problem. Thank you all for the suggestions. Glenn

That's my top suspect, I note that you had a different sound file loaded.