Challenger's tender rear red lights remain on! < 18 Feb - FIXED! >

Alex, just for curiosity, did you run the loco to see if there is a power dropout issue on your layout? You may not even need a battery. There was an issue with the board pertaining to the battery useage and drainge when these first came out, I believe Lionel offered a replacement board,and gave instructions for a programming workaround to turn them off. you may want to do a search on the forum I believe forum member scrapironschear had some threads regaring the problem with the board. Someone else may just chime in on this, it was a big topic. Generally speaking powerdropouts with these locos are common problem with atlas turnouts. If all else fails send an email to Lionel.

Rick,

Yes, and unfortunately there are several places where the sounds go off. They come back on in a few seconds, but much lower in volume. Pressing the Volume-Up icon barely restores the volume, but not to the previous level. Then, when the engine is brought to a halt (not shut down, but just stopped), and run again, the volume is OK.

This engine was just at Lionel for repair because as you may remember it was DOA on Christmas day. I hope that whatever needs to be done is something I can do here at home.

I did two searches for "battery" and "drain", separately, by "Scrapiron Scher" but nothing relevant came up. Maybe someone will remember how to take care of this problem.

THANKS!

Alex

Alex! You can find the notification and the workaround at lionel.com click on "newstand" click on the 2011 archives scroll down to Feb 28. There is all of the info you need regarding this matter direct from Lionel. Sorry I'm link posting illiterate

Rick,
I will look at that next, but just wanted to post the following:

Shortly after my last post I went to remove the battery from the tender, and as I was approaching it, the lights started to flash, there was a rumbling sound, and the three lights went out. I powered up the track and the three lights came back on. When I upowered the track, I heard the rumbling sound again,the lights flashed and went off.

I removed the battery from the tender and it was drained down to 7.2 volts. It lasted about 2-1/2 hours.

Now I'll look at the notification you just mentioned, and will report back a bit later.

Thx!

Alex

http://www.lionel.com/CentralS...lease.cfm?newsID=197

Rick, BDRT -

It worked!

One of the two methods provided by the Lionel Notification is to turn off the power to the track instead of shutting down the engine with the remote.

I drove the Challenger (do you 'drive' a locomotive?) to one of the track blocks I already have setup with relays and toggle switches, and turned that track block off. The Challenger went through its shut down sequence, and the three red lights at the rear of the tender turned off at the end of the sequence. Good deal.

I wonder if Lionel will ever fix this so the Challenger can be shut down anywhere with the remote. Turning off the track block is not a big issue for me as I will eventually have all track blocks (48) with relays and toggle switches at the control panel. But it may not be so simple for those who have elected not to wire their layouts this way. (See me next post, below.)

Thank you very much for your help! (Yet another obstacle conquered in the quest for O-Gauge 3-railing fun!)

Alex

Well, Well - - -

I just registered the Challenger, online, and immediately received a notification that the fix to the problem is available at no charge. I called Customer service as instructed, and after a long conversation learned a lot about my Challenger.

The "fix" consists of Lionel sending me a box, with prepaid shipping back to them, for me to remove three boards and send them to Lionel. They will then send me three replacement boards. So far so good.

But the nice lady noticed that this Challenger has been at Lionel for repair twice already! I sent it in shortly after Christmas because it was DOA, and got it back from Lionel last Tuesday. Good service.

Upon further investigating, I learned that Grzyboski's, from whom I purchased the engine, had sent it for repair last year! No wonder the box was all beat up when I opened it up Christmas morning!

Live and learn!

Alex

Glad you got it going,have you contacted Grzyboskis on this issue with it being a "used" as opposed to new loco? I would be curious what they have to say, its a shame stores can't be honest. It seems the only way to guarentee a sealed new item is to purchase it from Charles Ro or Trainworld, the rest of the stores seem to be a "crapshoot". I understand that Grzyboskis has to sell trains to stay in buisness, they have bills to pay,but so does Alex.

quote:

Originally posted by RickO:
Glad you got it going,have you contacted Grzyboskis on this issue with it being a "used" as opposed to new loco? I would be curious what they have to say, its a shame stores can't be honest. It seems the only way to guarentee a sealed new item is to purchase it from Charles Ro or Trainworld, the rest of the stores seem to be a "crapshoot". I understand that Grzyboskis has to sell trains to stay in buisness, they have bills to pay,but so does Alex.

I contacted them originally when the engine did not work, and I did mention the box damage. Their reply addressed how to contact Lionel to get it fixed since Lionel does not allow dealers to work on Vision engines. But they said nothing nothing about the box or about having sent the engine to Lionel for repair prior to me purchasing it.

Alex

Alex: I had the same issue with my UP es44. The sounds would cut out so I installed a battery and if I would shut down the locomotive with the cab 2 the lights would remain on dim even when track power was off bit if I just cut the track power the locomotive shuts down normal. Your not alone on this.

Since I was expecting friends to visit us and look at the layout over the last two weekends, I did not remove and send the three Printed Circuit Boards to Lionel for repair until last Saturday.

 

Here is the timeline starting Saturday 11 February.

 

Saturday – Mailed the PCB’s to Lionel in the pre-stamped USPS box they sent me.

Tuesday – Received email from Lionel letting me know that they had received my parts.

Wednesday – Received email from Lionel letting me know that they had shipped the parts back to me.

Friday – Received the PCB’s back from Lionel. Installed, tested, and everything is working fine now.

 

Pretty good customer service, I would say!

 

Alex

I had a similar experience with Grzyboski's in that the forum members here as well as a local TMCC expert near where I live, identified a part on my new and malfunctioning SP40-2T, from the SP Tank TRain set of 2004 (2 powered engines TMCC) as an indication of a prior repair.

Grzyboski's advertised this set as new, BUT...with slight water damage to the box, but that the inside and its contents were fine and new.

I even spoke to Mr Grzyboski 12 days ago, who was very nice during my "purchase inquiry"...enough to earn some forum kudos from me.

My main question to him was "How did the box get water damaged if it was sealed in plastic?

Although very very friendly he stammered at the answer, but I left him off the hook...that was a warning I ignored not to buy.

 

However, today he was quite nasty when it came to discussions when I called them today  of how they sold me a used item he advertised as new.

It was in a beat up box like yours...I do not see any water damage...lol!

 

He put his son on the phone during the peak of his nastiness to me, and the son was much better to deal with at least today...he was reasonable and told me if it was a Legacy engine from the new set, he would have exchanged the engine, but since its TMCC and he does not have any of those broken out from this set, he will need to try and fix it and also determine if it was used and previously worked on.

 

Hopefully this will work out and I am not stuck with a $1600+ paperweight!

The way some dealers act is like you just spent a few dollars and cannot understand why you are upset at getting something that doesnt work right and might be used....its just $1600+ !!

All I can say is, I am a kind person who gives compliments when someone treats me right, but treat me wrong and look out-Gozilla!

 

Too be honest with you, I spoke to 2 other family member during my previous business, both female. They seem to run the store better, and are easier to deal with.

Thus, the ladies who work at that store should probably be in charge as they are more personable.