I have too many trains anyway...

That's not a good way to end the day. Sorry for your loss. But you will have fun shopping for a new one. This time buy one without a battery.lol

If this is a 5V PS/2 locomotive, it's probably a candidate for a board replacement.  You can have it fixed for less than a new locomotive, I'd probably be thinking that way.  The replacement board will also not have a battery as it is PS/3 based.

I had two engines die after sitting for years. Oh yea one of my TIU channels burnt as well. I felt that was to coincidental to be an MTH issue so I checked the wiring and found a few issues that caused what I call "high resistant shorts". I did some house keeping work under the layout a few months ago and I think that is when I caused my problem.

So I rewired the whole thing and I am going to install a TVS diode across each loop of my star pattern. I am also going to install a 8 amp fast blow fuse between the lode ports of my TIU and the four track distribution blocks.

I have no idea what caused your heart ache but I would check your track for some issue that could cause a short when your train runs over it. It could be a questionable switch, or even a piece of wire laying between the rails. I know this sounds a bit over the top, but I really hate to think that these things can happen due to failed components in your engine. That's a little scary!

Thanks, John.  It is (was) a 5V loco. I like the idea of replacing the board with PS/3, that hadn't crossed my mind. It would sure be great to have it back on the rails again.

Mario, Great advice for sure. I plan to go over everything again tomorrow. Adding a look at the track and possible external causes is a good idea. Thanks!

When I order replacement boards for 5V locomotives now, MTH is shipping a PS/3 board with a piggyback with the 5V connectors to replace the 5V board.  It does require you do a little mechanical work as the heatsink mount to the chassis is different, but typically no rewiring is involved. 

Let me know if you're interested in that replacement.

I'm sorry to hear of your troubles, makes for a frustrating evening.  Out of curiosity, is the BCR you used the "name brand" :

J and W Electronics O, BCR-1, Battery Component Replacement 9 Volt Style.

I've read a little about these, and J and W's product seems legit, however I've seen other similar devices not intended for trains out there that will draw maximum current when powered up, overloading the ps1/etc board's ability to charge.  

FWIW, the J&W BCR just uses four standard off the shelf supercaps and four Zener diodes, I took a dead one apart.

As much as what happened bites to say the least no reason the old engine can't breath a new life. With a PS-3 upgrade it will have the latest electronics and be better than new! 

Really?  I was under the impression there was something more complex involved.  Zeners are one of those things that i'm uncertain about, but thought restricted voltage, not current.  In any case, I'm sure someone would have complained by now if the concept wasn't sound.  Will look into it more sometime.  

Frankly I would repair it. I got a great deal on a dead PS1 Pennsylvania Torpedo and after considering whether to repair or upgrade my wife decided we should try to repair. She sent it off to J&W and after a thorough reprogramming and check it runs fantastic. Should you upgrade it then great but repairing it seems to meet your needs the best.

I found that my MTH RS27 to get the screws off for the body required really twisting the trucks to gain access. One time this caused the frame of the chassis to push the lug on one of the can motors to short to ground on the case of the motor. Thought for sure that I smoked the proto board. I repositioned the lug and ended up doing a reset 18 and strangely the loco still works. I'm just more careful how much force I use to gain access to the screws.

Yes it did smell of electronic component death.

Check your can motor connections to make sure they didn't bent and shorted to ground. Seems that might of happened since the last operation of your assembly was install the body screws.

yes interesting! John do you know what voltage and wattage the zener diodes in the 9 volt bcr are rated at. I was thinking of taking one apart for the same reason to see what parts and values are in the BCR's, how many super caps would be in the 3 volt boards?

Alan

No such thing as too many trains. Author needs help.

Thomas,

    No such thing as to many trains, guns or bird dogs, your T must be getting Low!

The upgrade or the repair, take your pick, both will do the job for ya.

PCRR/Dave

A friend told my wife that he had too many trains.  I told my wife that my friend was 92 years old.  I still have 30 years of train purchases to go before having too many trains.

Suggested alternate title: "Use It Or Lose It."

Pete

Some years ago I was running (in Conventional) my PS2 Premier GM&O "Alton Route" Pacific, as I often did, when POW! - the sound was loud enough to startle. The Magic

Smoke began to exit the tender. I opened up the tender and saw the little campfire that some component had made.

As I am a TMCC guy, I started to go that way with a conversion, but got a new PS2 board from Ready-To-Roll and installed it. Been OK ever since, but I don't trust it. I have a DCS

Remote Commander now, and it seems fine, but that headlight has always flickered

strangely...

If it does it again, ERR here we come. MTH makes beautiful stuff, and is less conservative than Lionel and Friends, but my TMCC (and so on) stuff just seems to handle far more

crises with better grace. (I did not say "perfectly".) I don't know why that would (still) be, but it has influenced some purchases in the past.

But I love Mike's products - especially ERR-converted PS1.

The Zener diodes are just there to prevent over-voltage on any of the 2.7V supercaps during charge.  They don't have any effect when discharging.  If you were "sure" the supercaps were exactly matched, you could dispense with the Zener diodes.  They're pretty small, I'd guess 1/2 watt or so.

$50 and a few minutes and install a Dallee DCRU and keep running it.

I've done this a number of times with dead locos I buy cheap.

I run multiple trains at a time.....sounds just gets too much sometimes.

I only have 3-4 PS2 locos still intact.....and those will fail soon I am sure.

You guys are right, no such thing as too many trains.  Those foul words were expressed in a moment of anger, please forgive me. 

I started looking over everything again this morning. Ruled out track issues or debris, and ruled out any pinched or frayed wires.  I started thinking about what Riverrailfan mentioned and that's when I discovered what might have been the trigger. 

I bought this loco used from the forum a long-long time ago. It looks like the previous owner made a small modification that probably failed when I reassembled everything.  The mod was a wire running from the front truck to the rear truck. The wire, which had been soldered to the screws, probably shifted or moved when I was reattaching the body screws.  When I turned on the train... well you know the story.

I've removed the wire and the fried board. My GP40 is ready for either a replacement PS/2 board from another loco, or an upgrade to PS/3 as John suggested. Either way, this WM loco will ride again.

Thank you to all who weighed in on this!

That works great Dave, unless you are running command.

You can tell I run conventionally.........as I think conventionally!!!!!

But can't owners of command systems also run conventional???

I thought was how to save a nice loco for $50 and not make it a 100% shelf display.

AMCDave,

   Heck ya Command systems can run Conventional engines also, the DCs has 2 different types of TR mode for conventional running, and the Legacy now has the Power Master for running conventional trains.  Half o my engines are old time conventionals and they now run better and smoother than ever, with the DCS hand held remote control.

PCRR/Dave

For the record, I've been performing long-overdue maintenance on my engines and over the past two months replaced at least 9 MTH batteries with J&W Electronics BCRs. They have all performed as expected. First time on the tracks, the engine needs about a minute in idle to charge up the unit and then they all seem to work as advertised.

  For a price just about anything can be repaired. Every day we read reports of failures on the remote control locos here.   Like it or not, modern day model trains do not use hi-rel industrial electronics but the cheapest components possible. Repairs become inevitable. Then why are board replacements so expensive?  Because they got you by the b...s.

Dennis

I design Electronics for an Industrial Controls Company.

We use standard parts off the shelf anywhere, I just add protection to every point a user can touch. Also, users are not allowed to open the box.

That is the difference you are seeing. Industrial rated parts are for under the hood of a car or such rough environments. (Heat, Cold, Vibration, repeat regularly)

A TVS and a dropping resistor pair on every single circuit that a user can touch will protect the fragile electronics from this sort of failure. However, even that can fail if abused bad enough.

Case: Customer connected 120VAC to 10VDC outputs, melted the TVS right off the board !

BUT the unit still worked after we replaced the TVS and the Dropping resistor.

Now, this engine had been modified by a user adding a power wire, all bets are off at that point. Added wires don't have any protection, if they touch something it will fry.