Our Jr member Josh Scott recently bought a D&RG Rail King 4-6-0 and the headlight quit. I have it at my house and have tried a factory reset with the DCS but it doesn't seem to have taken. The steamer seems to operate normally with sound, smoke and the like but the headlamp won't turn back on. Any ideas? I gather these don't normally burn out?
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Just guessing here but did you try hitting the headlight button?
Yes, thank you Don, I already tried that. Also a reset to no avail...
Is it a LED or lightbulb? I've had the lightbulb headlight back out/loosen slightly in my RK 2-8-0 and had to tighten it more than somewhat to get it to stay put.
the headlight is probably a bulb, either loose in the socket (unlikely, as MTH puts stickum on it to prevent that) or a burnt out bulb. Your local MTH dealer should have the bulb, there are two, depending on whether it has Protosounds or Protosound 2.0. If you can't get one LMK and will ship for the cost of a padded envelope and a stamp.
Thanks Luke, best we take you up on your offer for the bulb. It's a PS2 model.
Am sending you an email with address.
Sam,
If the bulb is burned out, the question to ask is "why".
One reason the bulb would burn out is if the FET that controls it has failed and sent track voltage through to the 6 volt headlight bulb. If that's the reason, the next bulb that you put in will also quickly burn out at normal track voltage.
When you get the new bulb in place, turn up track voltage slowly and observe the bulb. If it turns on dimly when track voltage is applied and gets brighter as track voltage is increased, the FET on the PS2 board that controls the headlight has failed and needs to be replaced.
Thanks Barry - After reading your post, Luke is sending the variable voltage bulb as a precaution for our friend. Is the FET an easy fix? There is a MTH tech about 35 miles from here but don't know whether Josh can have it replaced or not.
I recently had a similar situation with a Rail King GG1 having PS 2.0. The headlight bulbs have a bayonet base, and the filament was broken in one of them. A new bulb solved the problem. Most of my Rail King fleet has screw type bulbs, and none of these have burned-out to date.
If the board is bad I would just install a 3mm warm white LED and run it off track voltage. Described here
www.jcstudiosinc.com/BlogShowT...=619&categoryId=
If the bulb is burned out and the board power works you can also replace it with an LED in proper polarity in series with a 150 ohm resistor
Dale H
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership
