Morning gentlemen (& ladies):
Just wanted to say how excited I am about my two new MTH steam locomotives I won in the June production sample clearance auction.
I was a little worried as there was limited info on the two loco's, plus the fact that I live in Australia, but they were two loco's I'd been wanting to add to my collection. I took the plunge, bid what I thought was a reasonable amount for possibly "a pig in a poke". They finally arrived the other day after travelling half way around the world, and I had a chance to "look them over", and hope like **** they both were in working order.
The first one I unpacked was the "Climax" logging loco with tender. There was no original box, so technical specifications normally printed on the end flap were not available. I sort of figured out it was a PS3 model, and going on the white chalk marks on the under-body, it was a 2013 production model. As far as I could determine it was the "Premier" edition, it has excellent detail on the boiler, chassis, and running gear.
Did the normal lube/maintenance thing with Red-N-Tacky on the bevel gears, and oil on the axles. I also opened up the tender and installed a TVS, just to be on the safe side.
Put it on the layout and fired it up using my MTH 750 Z Controller ( I'm a dinosaur....I know it!! ) and it started up immediately, ran perfectly in forward and reverse, and all of the "bells & whistles" and chuff sounds worked as they should. Rear coupler fires open, and crew cab talk was perfect. I found I could also use my MTH DCS remote controller to operate everything, and at this stage I could not stop smiling.
Turned my attention to the second loco......a RailKing 4-6-6-4 UP Imperial Challenger with PS3. This one came in the original MTH RailKing box with some accessories (smoke fluid, spare traction tyres), and the owner's manual. A notation on the end of the box indicated it had been "rejected" for some reason......OH OH!!
Did the same thing lube wise, pulled the shells of the loco and the tender to check things out, and installed a TVS to protect the PS3 board. Turned the smoke switch on the bottom of the tender to the "off" position, as I didn't want the loco to smoke yet (it's too young), and adjusted the volume pod to about half way so I didn't have my ear drums burst from excessive volume (you can always turn it up again).
Put the loco on the track and.........nothing!!! The headlight came on, but that's about it. After about a minute or so I could smell something burning, and I noticed smoke wafting from the smoke stack. I then heard the smoke fan running......strange.....as I had turned the smoke switch to the "off" position.
Pulled the tender shell off again and started tracing the wires from the switch to the smoke unit in the loco. Tested the wires for current and found....low and behold......they had mixed-up the positioning of the two switches coming through the tender floor when they assembled the loco/tender. The smoke switch as actually in the sound cut-out, and the sound switch was in the smoke switch cut-out. Go figure!!!
So when I turned the "smoke switch" off I had, infact, turned the volume off, and when I turned the volume to half way, I had turned the smoke unit on half way, and hence the smell and faint smoke was from the dry wick inside the smoke unit. Swapped the switches into the right holes in the tender floor, and start all over.
With that sorted I could then hear the start-up sounds, but the loco still would not move out of neutral. At this stage I was convinced I had bought an expensive "Shelf Queen", and had paid big postage money to have it shipped all the way to Australia.
In desperation I read the owners manual and found the section about doing a "factory reset". Did the "button pushing" on the Z Controller in the correct sequence and, after a couple of goes, I got it right and I heard the "two whistle blasts" that indicate the factory reset has been accomplished. Seems the loco was locked in "neutral" by the MTH tech's, for what-ever reason.
Powered the transformer down slowly, and than back up and.....low and behold.......the behemoth started chuffing, and moving forward slowly, getting faster with increasing the power from the Z Controller. Hit the direction button......went into neutral......hit the direction button again.......and into reverse it went!!!!! SUCCESS!!!!
Checked the Bell and Whistle functions.......all working, as was the freight yard sounds and the crew cab chatter. Hit the Whistle Button once, followed by three short taps on the Bell Button, and the rear coupler fired open. HOUSTON....WE HAVE LIFT OFF!!!!
The only thing I can't do with the "Challenger" is operate it with my MTH DCS remote. It just sits there and the lights are on......but nobody is at home!!! Oh well, can't have everything. It works just fine using the transformer, so in my limited world that is enough for me to have fun running this monster.
I have included some photos of both loco's, and the MTH DCS remote that seems to work well on my PS2 loco's, and the PS3 Climax logging loco. Maybe someone out there can tell me why the PS3 Challenger won't respond to this remote.
In closing, all is well down-under in the Land of Oz, and I am one happy camper with my Cabin Fever wins!!!!
Peter - Buco Australia.
