LCT Christmas loco goes up in smoke

Wow, good thing you didn't walk away and leave it. Sorry though.

Ouch! Had that same bad smelling factory smoke release on my Lionel Rio Grande SD50 from 1995. It happened in 2000 so well out of warranty, all parts were not available. To this day, a faint burning smell still is with that engine.

Ug.  That's terrible.  Yeah, that is a bad bad smell.  It is possible Lionel could get that fixed a and back to you in time for Christmas.  Might be worth a shot, even if out of warranty.

Of course this had to happen a couple of weeks out from Christmas.  Sorry to hear about it Keith.  Something similar happened to me with my RS-3; I was running it with a smoking caboose which I don't use much and wondered why the smoke unit was smelling so bad?   I shut the switch to the caboose for the smoke unit and figured I'd deal with it later.  Right after that the engine died as it passed right in front of me and I quickly found out what was cooking.   The PS-2 board!  

That may be a diode not a resistor.

I see a D2 marked on pc board behind it.

Good luck getting MTH to fix it before Christmas, maybe Mike will feel sorry for you.

Since the title says LCT, I think this is probably Lionel Corporation Tinplate, in which case it probably goes back to MTH if it goes to the originating company for repair.

 

Sorry to see your train lose it's magic smoke so close to Christmas, Keith.

 

-Dave

Oh yeah, brain fart on that one, sorry about that. Next Christmas, ... maybe. 

It does look more like a diode then resistor.

 That stinks (no pun intended) just when you need it for tree duty. I bet if you Email that YouTube video to MTH you will have it fixed before Christmas.

They might send you a New one in exchange. Just like someone posted earlier in the thread what would/could have happened if you had walked away with it running.

 

Hope it works out for you and please keep us posted

I will look around for my connector off my 384E that we fried the PS2 boards on.  If I find it I will give it to you.  I put a 3 position e unit in mine along with a bridge rectifier to at least get her running again.  PS2 boards MTH wanted just over $ 300.00 bucks for them.  I need to put a lower ohm resister in the smoke fan circuit now . 

 

Glenn

^ Glenn, thank you!  I was worried that it was my PS2 board at first.  I was somewhat relieved that the smoke came from the engine and not the tender.

You guys are correct...it is a diode.  I don't know why I said resistor when I know which is which.

Yes, I am glad I didn't step away while the train was running.  Good thng.  I never leave them unattended.

Keith,  my email is glennr134@aol.com.  I will mail  what ever I have left to you as soon as I find it .  I think I still have the part as I rarely throw things like that away.  If I remember I cut the wires close to the board due to needing them for my frankenstein fix.  You may be able to unsolder the parts you need and use them.  My boards and the tach drive were fried with the mishap we had.  ( plug put in upside down by my son )  But the engine runs fine now with the e unit but will not crawl like it did with the ps2 system.  Buzzes like a old postwar steamer now.

Glenn

I assume this is a modern day, high tech, reproduction train?

 

What a pity, this train looks great.

 

I think I might stick with my original, antique, tinplate trains.

 

Sorry about your missfortune.

 

John

Keith,  I looked in my parts box last night.  I do not have the board , I must have either misplaced it or tossed it out.  I converted my loco over to old school last year and I was not sure if I even held onto the connector.  It cost about $ 36.00 for an e unit , rectifier and a resistor to do the swap but it was a bit trickey at first .  But the loco runs nice now again.

 

Sorry

 

Glenn

^ Thank you for looking Glenn.  I was going to contact you yesterday, but the Flu hit me big time.  Thanks for the info.

Keith,

 

     Sorry to hear of your misfortune.  If you feel adventurous Midge at MTH might be able to get you the parts you think you need in time for Christmas.  I had difficulty with one of my LCT locomotives (see earlier post on this forum) and called her using the Parts number on MTH's website (don't use e-mail at this time of year) with my situation.  She walked me through the process and I had my parts within 5 days including the weekend.

 

V/R,

 

Mike

It looks like just a a resistor or diode. Go to a electronics store and buy a new one and unsolder the old and resolder the new. That should fix it.

I don’t want to play devils advocate and I am certainly no electronics person but If that engine ran fine in the past and all of a sudden when fired up now burned out that part I think I would be looking for some thing down the chain of parts that either was shorted or wasn’t doing its job. Diodes don’t just go bad unless they are overloaded by  amperage or voltage. Maybe a wire has contacted the engine or tender body and grounded. It just seems funny that it went that quick.

 

Just my two cents

That's a shame but I'm glad you are able to diagnose and fix the issue.

 

--Greg

Keith,

 

That is a beautiful set and it looks great going around the tree.   It's a shame the engine started smoking--inappropriately that is.  It seems like there's always something that falls apart, starts smoking in the wrong places, goes in one direction only, starts squealing, or just won't light or move just in time for the Holidays!     

 

Thank you for sharing the video.  

 

Rick, Mpls. 

 

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.  I didn't get a chance to go further with this yet.  The Flu hit me hard this week.  Hopefully tonight or tomorrow I'll get to the locomotive.  I do prefer to fix this myself.  Thanks and I will check Radio Shack for those diodes.  Will be inspecting the wiring and checking for shorts elsewhere as suggested.

Hope you feel much better soon, Keith. You sure do have a nice Christmas Train under your tree. Hope you can get it running again soon. Take care.

My bigger concern would be why the diode smoked...

Thanks Keith.

Yes, Todd.  I finally got to it today. Not fixed yet as I need to pick up the diodes at Radio Shack.

 

I took off the boiler door to keep it from possibly getting bumped when I flip the engine over.  Also removed the trailing truck, to get at the wiring easier.  I cut off the big heat shrink that is around the wad of wiring.  Then I inspected the wires all the way up to each ones source.

 

Here is a shot that shows what happened to these two purple wires when I start cutting the shrink back...they got fried...

 

 

When I inspected the wiring, I found that one of the purple wires had a nick in it.  It is very possible that it made contact with the frame.  Other than that I have not found anything else wrong.

I'll know more when I get the diode installed.  I will post the results.

 

I looked at the diodes under a magnifying glass.  The numbers are 1N4004.

Looks like the gray wire as broken off from the board. The purple wires are ground,

so double check the smoke and headlight units.

You can probably use anything from a 1N4001 to a 1N4007 for the diode.  Truthfully, almost an 1A silicon diode would be find in that location as long as it has 50V or better rating.

Keith,

   Just viewed this thread, man this really sucks to have something like this happen at Christmas time, hope you get her fixed!

PCRR/Dave

Agreed any updates Keith?

Sorry for the late reply guys.

Yes, she is running well again.  I had to replace three wires.  All seems to be fine.

That's great Keith.

 

Steve

Very good Keith,  That is a great set and would be a shame to have it sit idle.  Glad it was an easy fix.

 

Glenn

Thanks guys.  I'm glad it was an easy fix too.