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DCS Explorer Load Capacity

PK Phil KochOGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER

I recently purchased a RailKing Pennsylvania 10 wheeler for a new layout I’m creating (modeling a typical Southern Railroad from 1860 - 1920’s). As it’s my first MTH loco, I also purchased the DCS Explorer and the 100 watt brick. The intent is to run two trains (I currently have Lionel Lionchief plus locomotives) on the layout (which is based on Lionel Fastrack) There’s an inner and outer loop, which connect via O36 switches. The new locomotive runs great, looks very nice. I put one of my Lionchief locos on the other loop to see how well they run together. When both are on the tracks, the DCS Explorer will cut power to the track. I can refresh it via the controller app, but within a short time, it shuts down again. I pulled the MTH loco off the layout and am able to start the Lionel loco, but it shuts down again after a minute or so.

I’m guessing the DCS Explorer shuts down when it can’t find an MTH or other DCS loco on the track, but why does it shut down when two locomotives are running? Is there a way to keep things moving? I had read that the DCS railking would be able to charge a track with the Lionel stuff. What can I do?

Thanks

 

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Boilermaker1Boilermaker1OGR Forum Member

The explorer does not care what engine is on the track. It is simply laying a signal on the rails, if there's something on the other end that speaks the same language, they talk. If not, then its ignored.

If it cuts the power with the lionel engine on the track and runs your MTH engine just fine, then investigate the lionel engine. 

Remove the explorer, see if it still shorts out (trips fuse in brick). If so, fix the engine. 

If not, then try replacing the fuse in the explorer with a 7.5 amp one instead of the 5 amp fuse that it comes with (its a reasonably standard auto size fuse). 

Last edited by Boilermaker1
PK Phil KochOGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER

Thanks for the reply. The fuse in the Explorer is not blowing, so upgrading that fuse shouldn’t make any difference. It appears the Brick’s circuit breaker is tripping. Interesting that I can run the Lionel Engine just fine using the Lionel DC power pack and have run it while running another Lionel engine on the same layout.

I have another Lionel engine I can try. I’ll let you know what happens.

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