Help with 6-18030 2-8-2

Run the engine with the boiler shell off to see what is smoking.

Disconnect the tender wiring and remove the tender from the track, leaving only the loco. Does the breaker still trip?

Make sure no wires are shorting out to the frame. Next, disconnect the smoke unit wiring to isolate it. Run the engine with the tender reattached and watch the motor to see if it is smoking. If it is, either it is bad, or the electronic reverse unit board may be bad.

Larry

I will follow this advice although I am not sure it will run without the tender (but I will try). 

I do know this:  the smoke coming out from underneath is smoke fluid:  it is too heavy to be anything else and smells like it.

Sitting the loco on the track without the tender will simply check for a short in the loco's

wiring - it doesn't have to run to let you know this. Good idea. Do the same with the tender.

Boards can go bad just sitting, of course. It can look like a mechanical binding situation,

but it is not. (I presume that you have turned the flywheel/drive shaft by hand to see if it is free.)

Not to talk about me, but I have a LIonel TMCC Niagara that started to "jam" occasionally

(oh, that blasted engine...!) a few years ago; looked for all the world like a mechanical

problem. But, it was the main board - the "reversing" circuitry, not the "command" circuitry that lives on top of it - and that I replaced. Fixed. 

BTW, these locos were problematic; don't feel alone. They are nice-looking and worth

fiddling with - and they are the ONLY true model of the SOU 4501 excursion Mikado

(the others are just green USRA's, and that's the wrong loco).

I have a black 4501 version with TMCC - and it was a pain, too.

Some of these engines have steam chest smoke.  I know the 18018 Mikado does.  So the smoke is not the issue.  Why it won't rotate more than 1/8 is the issue.  Check for mechanical binding, remove engine shell and turn flywheel to see if it turns the wheels freely.

If this has the DC motor you can run it off a battery to see if the motor is ok.  Also check drive shaft (dog bone) for jamming.   G

I would imagine the reverse unit is cooked. Remove the cab and you will probably see where the magic smoke came from. Also check the collector wires.

Bill 

I have a Standard gauge Lionel that the wheels locked up and finally found that the armature is wobbly and jammed things. Not sure what made it get loose.

I found this exact same issue on one 18018 Southern Mikado before I acquired a trouble-free one. I found out that it was an electronic reverse unit problem somewhere. I advise to take it to a service station who is good with electronic issues. I will agree with D500, that not all of these engines came without issues, but when they're issue free/fixed, they make superb runners and excellent pullers.

OK, here is what I have learned.

I put the engine alone on the track, and it didn't move, but it did shut down the power, so it seems the problem should be in the engine, not the tender????

I finally found my copy of the parts diagram--the E-Unit is in the tender, so it shouldn't be that?????

I took the boiler off--disconnected the markers and pulled the headlight out but left it connected to lay the boiler to the side.  The flywheel turns the wheels without binding or roughness, so it isn't mechanical.

The first time I powered it up like that, the smoke poured out for a second, and then the headlight began flashing, the smoke puffed with the light, and the power shut down.  I let the power reset and turned it up again, and the light stayed steady and the smoke poured out steady--remember, the engine is NOT moving.  (BTW, apparently some of you are right--it DOES have smoke at the steam chest.  I have not noticed it before in all the years I've had it.)  I cycled the power down and then back up again, and the flashing light/puffing smoke returned, and then the power shut down again.

Would a bad smoke unit do this?

Oh:  I put the tender on the track by itself and saw no sparking.  HOWEVER, I did use the throttle wheel to run the power up and down, and the little red light ont he PM flashed as I did, even though the green light stayed on.  ???????

Is the "smoke" regular smoke fluid vapor, or does it have that distinctive smell of burning electronics?

the flashing red light on the powermaster just indicates that it is receiving the signal from the CAB-1. In my opinion, it was kind of silly for Lionel to use a red colored light for this. Any other color would have been better than red, for something that is supposed to flash to indicate that things are working. It goes against convention. We normally think of a flashing red light as a problem. 

It is smoke fluid smoke, not burned wiring.  I looked all over the wiring in the loco, and no hint or smell of burned insulation.

Unplug/unsolder the smoke unit and try again. If the power stays on, the smoke unit is bad.

Larry

You should be able to turn off the smoke via a switch.  Yes, if the smoke unit is grounding out at the input that will short the AC input.  If it gets hot and then shuts off it could be expanding and making contact with the case of the smoke unit.  The input should be isolated from the chassis, but the output of the smoke unit goes to chassis ground.   G

I will attempt to disconnect the smoke unit as soon as I can--worked long hours yesterday. 

Thanks for the continuing advice!