Engine derails going on Atlas Turntable from Fastrack. In a flash the front truck spring heated up. Put back on track everything works fine. What happened? The MTH transformer should of prevented the over heat with the circuit breaker.
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What you had happen is what I affectionately call a "resistive short". There's enough resistance to prevent the current draw from reaching a point that would trip a breaker immediately, so the item in question gets very hot.
Not realizing the spring was ruined. I reset the MTH 1000 Transformer and put the engine back in operation. The engine grazed the middle track and some arcing occurred. When the engine went up a slights grade.
I had a Soft Key problem SSU & STW did not work from the day of purchase. I contacted MTH tech about the Soft Keys and the height of the cow catcher. He felt the engine was dropped at one time and to send it back. Needless to say the spring was the problem.
Thinking with the Soft Key problem and a bent cow catcher. I returned the engine to the hobby shop, thinking its a defected product. Hobby shop owner felt the grade was too steep caused the problem. The grade 0" to 6" is over 7' in length.
I ran the engine DCS after I notice the problem and the only problem was still the 2 soft keys.
All night I wondered why the arcing. And got the answer from Mat )O Gauge Forum.
I went back to see the owner at Hobby shop To explain what I discovered. The engine needed a new spring and only the Soft Key Problem needed to be resolved. The shop only checks the engine in conventional mode. I was then told the engine does nothing period. I ran the engine in DCS prior to bring it there and still just the soft key problems. What's up. Am I missing something?
When repaired, will this engine if derailed continue to have this problem?
On the menu under "Sounds" there's an option for "Accent Volume". Sometimes that's turned off and the coupler sounds and some others won't work. SSU/SSD are separate sounds from the normal start-up/shutdown and may be part of the Accent group. I'd check that first. If that doesn't work, do a factory reset on the engine. This will reset it to factory, but drop it off your remote, so you'll have to re-add it.
