cab1 signal interference

You need to string a piece of wire from pin 5 on the command base (Dale's method) OR from a nearby metal object tied to earth ground (e.g. cold water pipe or the cover plate screw from a properly installed grounded outlet).  The frame of the bridge is interfering with the receiver in the locomotive's ability to see the reference plane from the track signal.  Pin 5 is a sure bet as it has direct access to the other half of the command base transmitter.  The earth ground method assumes that the house wiring is tied to earth ground AND that the command base wall wart is plugged into an outlet that is properly grounded.

Thanks Chuck for the suggestion !!  two quick questions: where on the bridge should the wire be located? where is pin 5 located? As you can tell I have limited throttle time with this system.  Again many thanks, Vic

Pin 5 is on the serial port on the command base. You can do a google search on RS-232 to see which pin is number 5.  It's on one end of the top row of pins of the 9 pin connector.   It MAY be labeled.  You can attach the wire any where to the  frame of the bridge.

Hi Chuck, you were right on target.  I located the pin and did a temp set-up.  presto, the geep functions perfectly. I will make a perm. installation later this evening.  I have been following this web site for about a year now and really enjoy reading what folks have to say and share. I probably access the site at least 6 times a day and learn something all the time.  Again, many thanks for your help.  Vic

There are a lot of folks that contribute to making this a good source of info.  Dale Manquen (sp?) was the one that originally doped out the pin 5 trick.  Most of the issues with TMCC are related to the reference plane that SHOULD be coming from the house wiring but doesn't or the influence of induced emitters like your bridge frame.  These objects actually pick up the track signal and mask the reference plane.