Legacy loco won't move in conventional mode

Jeremy, any chance you have it accidentally "locked" in neutral.  Read this excerpt from your manual on page 11:

Locomotive switch function overview
Switch overview Command Reverse Unit Switch Used to assign an ID# and reprogram the locomotive in LEGACY and Command operation when the switch is in the “PROG” position. Also used to “lock” your locomotive in a single direction, or neutral, in conventional operation when the switch is placed in the “PROG” position. See pages 18, 19, and 22

Steims,

No, I checked the RUN-PROG switch and its in RUN. The PROG side is what locks it in one direction while in conventional mode, according to the manual at least.

I read that you do not have the legacy system but do you have the cab 1 system?

Have you tried pressing the direction switch on the transformer with power to the track

no CAB-1 either, purely conventional transformer on an O-72 Fastrack test circle. Yes, when I hit the direction button on the CW-80 or the direction lever on the 1033, the power cycles off to the track until I release the lever/button. So the lights go out and come back and the steam stops and starts again like I would expect from conventional running, just the train doesn't move.

The symptoms are the RUN-PROG switch is in PROG.  We have seen examples of those switches being bad, loose connection on board, or wire pulled off the switch.  Those are places I would go looking. 

Thank you I'll check that switch out. I had hoped to not need to pull the shell since it's right out of the box, but it looks like I'll need to. A secondary issue I have been having is that the CW-80 bell button does not control the bell at all, and the bell will randomly turn on during startup and stay on. The whistle works completely randomly. It will whistle a time or two, then just stop whistling completely. I have also seen the reverse light on the tender light up a couple times after cycling power with the direction switch, and of course, no motion. Would that happen with the RUN-PROG switch being bad/loose/etc?

do you have the transformer wired backwards to the layout?

I used fasttrack terminal with a cw-80 transformer and i wired red to red and black to black. It ran the conventional only trains just fine.

Is this a new FEF that is under warranty or one of the 2009 or so unit?

If older, maybe somebody has been inside and possible loose connection or pinched wire. 

If new, then return for warranty repair.

I see you live in Hawaii.  Here is a older link that has some island railroaders.  Maybe you could team up with one of them to maybe try and run using Cab-1 or 2 controller.

https://ogrforum.com/t...big-island-of-hawaii

I appreciate the link, it looks like that is just the Big Island, I am on Oahu, so thats a plane ride for me to get over there, but I'm looking up people from this island. The FEF is brand new as far as I know, so I'm thinking maybe a loose wire on the RUN-PROG switch or something. 

So, is it a  6-11116 or a 6-82806?

Use the CW-80 and apply full throttle , then plug it in or apply house current. That will power all of the electronics fully and let it set in Conventional mode.

The manual states around 3-8 seconds for the  6-11116.

Then you can throttle down and use direction and throttle.

If no joy, you will have to get brave and take the shell off. Then you can check for a loose harness connection to a board or a pinched wire.

You won't get all of the Railsounds without installing a 9 volt battery in the tender when operating in Conventional mode. But, engine movement first.

Jeremy W. posted:

I appreciate the link, it looks like that is just the Big Island, I am on Oahu, so thats a plane ride for me to get over there, but I'm looking up people from this island. The FEF is brand new as far as I know, so I'm thinking maybe a loose wire on the RUN-PROG switch or something. 

try these members: member search  5 miles of 96801

There is a real possibility, that the CW-80, doesn't have enough "juice" to move hat engine in conventional. I know my CW-80 wouldn't move my Rock Island E-6's. But when I went to a CW-180, it worked fine. You might want to try a more powerful transformer.

Greenrail that is my hope at least. I am pretty new to these trains with computer chips and and all the fancy things inside them so I had hoped to not need to pull this thing apart on the first couple days. My dad has a couple old Lionel ZW's at the house so he's going to let me have one (I couldn't believe it either). If 250 Watts isn't enough power, we've narrowed down the options.

Jeremy,  I had a new Lionel M1a that did not work in conventional due to a bad board in the engine. The engine worked perfectly for Lionel Service when they ran the engine in Legacy Remote, but it did not work for them either in conventional mode. It was a rare event, but sometimes the board can't distinguish between the conventional mode and Legacy.  (A rare event - so sad)  It is amazing that the board does all that it does.  If it is under warranty, call Lionel to return it for service.

Be careful not to put too much voltage to the engine. You could damage the computer board.  I had electrical issues with new Lionel steam engines that stopped when I finally bought a new ZW-L with fast circuit breaker. I do not use my three older ZW transformers because they could harm the electronics in the engine if there is a short. (The older ZW circuit breaker is too slow for today's computerized engines. I had a MTH 4000 before the new ZW-L.   I originally balked at Lionel Service's suggestion to buy the ZW-L and set aside my MTH4000, but it was worth the money since computer board problems disappeared. ...  Now its traction tires and LED issues. "It's always something."

Jeremy W. posted:

Greenrail that is my hope at least. I am pretty new to these trains with computer chips and and all the fancy things inside them so I had hoped to not need to pull this thing apart on the first couple days. My dad has a couple old Lionel ZW's at the house so he's going to let me have one (I couldn't believe it either). If 250 Watts isn't enough power, we've narrowed down the options.

That's definitely a better option. I would think that you would see the red light on the CW if you were maxing out the amps. The motors and smoke unit would get close. Worth a try.

Which Lionel  # do you have? You didn't say...

I know the FEF is big but don't underestimate those CW-80s.  I powered up a set of F7s, A-B-B-A consisting of 4 motors, 4 smoke units, and lights.  You have less load than that.  There may be an issue in either the CW-80 or the FEF so let's keep eliminating one variable at a time. 

Will the drive gear roll by hand?  Just to prove we don't have a bound up gear.  You can take the "heaviness" out of the equation by lifting the loco up off the track, use some jumper wires, and see if the motor can roll the drivers. 

the drive gear rolls, takes some oomph but it will roll. I'll try the jumper wire idea. MOONMAN, its the #844

Make sure that you do not have a TMCC or Legacy command base connected to the layout or powered up. The signal from the base confuses the loco and it will not run.

Everyone, I apologize for this waste of time. I flipped the loco over one last time and I got incredibly mad at myself. It did end up being the RUN-PROG switch. It wasn't in either position, rather, some mid position where it hadn't fully clicked into RUN. I cycled the switch and made sure it was completely in RUN, and put her on the track with my old 1033 hooked up, and wouldn't you know it, it started chugging down the track just as pretty as you'd like. Now I just need to make sure the whistle and bell work with the CW-80......

Update,

The CW-80 will not make the loco change direction, the 1033 (90 watts) will make it change direction and occasionally activate the bell by hitting the whistle lever. The other day the CW-80 could randomly activate the whistle, but today I can't make it happen. With both transformers I don't get startup until 1/4 travel on the throttle and not much speed after that (with only the 1033, CW-80 no movement). Sounds like a lack of power again?

Thats great but seems like you have your wires switched on the track. The red wire to center and black wire to outside rail.

I did a dummy check on switched wires just to make sure, and I have U wired to U and A to A on the transformer. I tried switching them just to see, and the only difference was that the bell started and wouldn't stop.

No waste of time and glad we all could help.....and also learn.  The thread is there for the next FEF to have the same symptoms.  Just glad to here the locomotive was good out of the box.

So the only issue now is the intermittent whistle and uncontrollable bell haha

Jeremy W. posted:

Update,

The CW-80 will not make the loco change direction, the 1033 (90 watts) will make it change direction and occasionally activate the bell by hitting the whistle lever. The other day the CW-80 could randomly activate the whistle, but today I can't make it happen. With both transformers I don't get startup until 1/4 travel on the throttle and not much speed after that (with only the 1033, CW-80 no movement). Sounds like a lack of power again?

No, it just takes that voltage to power the motors and smoke unit(s).

The railsounds in conventional will require a 9 volt battery in the tender when just sitting there. You should get bell and whistle when you have the engine moving. Throttle up the power in neutral test for bell and whistle.

I would suggest using only one transformer at a time.

Jeremy W. posted:

 MOONMAN, its the #844

I understood that...

So, is it a  6-11116 or a 6-82806?

Using one transformer, in neutral, with the voltage all the way up (approx. 16 volts out of the 1033, and 18v claimed from the CW-80) I had no bell or whistle. The bell was intermittent and I could not get the whistle. MOONMAN my apologies, it is the 6-82806.