How Much Heat is Overheat

It would be nice to have the exact model numbers.  Are they the same model?  5V PS/2 boards get hotter than 3V boards, FWIW.

Hi John,

The one that's getting really warm is 20-2336-1. The other that's a lot less warm is 30-2318-1.

Thanks

Does the RK (less warm) engine have interior, marker and number board lights? If not, that could account for it being less warm.

It appears that both have smoke and 5 volt boards.

Barry

The RK has pretty much nothing for lights while the Premier which is hotter has marker and number board lights so that's consistent with your observation. From your feedback and John's it's sounding like this could be normal 5 volt behavior.

Thanks

Some late feedback. Turns out it was exactly what Barry indicated (Thanks Barry). The hot engine was running lit up like a Christmas tree. When I turned off the marker and interior lights it cooled off to what I consider to be normal. The twist is that for some reason the interior and marker lights are somehow stuck together in DCS control. You either get both ON or both Off and they can't be controlled independently. Not a problem though I can survive without marker lights.

S

Scott,

The twist is that for some reason the interior and marker lights are somehow stuck together in DCS control.

That's fairly typical wiring for MTH Premier Geeps of that vintage.

The markers shouldn't generate much heat, you could pop the top and unplug the interior lights.

Markers or Number boards.  I have never seen a diesel were markers effected Interior Light.  Only steam engine classification lights tied to interior because of the MUX function.  On diesel only bulbs can be tied to a common function, like doubling up Number boards to  Cab Light, or Cablight and Headlight in RK versions.   G

George,

I have never seen a diesel were markers effected Interior Light.

I have a pair of identical GP38-2's, 5 volt boards, that have the cab light and either the markers or number boards, I forget which, on the same circuit.

The number boards make sense, both those and the cab lights are incandescent.  The markers don't make sense as they're LED and run from a different circuit.

I fully agree with number boards, MTH doubled them up that way.  Was only commenting that marker control on a diesel is never tied to a bulb circuit unless some one modified the engine from stock.  G