On November 20th I received the MTH Railking Alco RS 3 Delaware and Hudson (30-20021-1). I unboxed it and placed it on the track. I have a DCS Commander, so I powered up in DCS. Two clicks of its relay indicated to me that the unit had detected the watchdog signal. But all I got was an error message when trying to add the engine to the Commander.
After several attempts to add the engine I put it on the battery charger. Two hours later I tried to add the engine to the Commander again, but no luck. I did a system reset on the Commander, to ensure the Factory defaults were in place for controller and engine. I could then add the engine and assign it a number. The engine started, lights came on, and it lurched along the track for 30 seconds, then quit.
It now does not respond at all. When DCS is first selected, there is now a single dull relay click, instead of the two clicks I'm accustomed to with an MTH engine. I get Error messages every time I try to add the engine To the Commander. I swapped the battery out, put a BCR in, no change.
I will be calling MTH Service this morning. After a month in the hobby this will be my second experience with MTH service, and my first return for service (I have a Proto 2 NW 2 that I can't adjust the volume on, but it runs). I will see what happens next.