Legacy Mikado acting strangely?

Sam;

Sounds like something shorting out.

If its under warranty you may want to get an RMA and send her back to L for a checkover.

Rod

How "dim" is the headlight getting? Are you sure this isn't just the "rule 17" lighting feature operating, the headlight automatically dims when the loco stops.

Have you tried "reprogramming the locomotive to restore features" found on page 26 of the manual?

Legacy Mikado manual

What control system are you using, if its legacy, if you inadvertantly pull the "train brake slider" all the way down the train will not move either.

I second RickO's thought on the train brake slider. I think that we have all been bitten by that little mistake at one time or another. The headlight dimming does sound normal too unless Rule 17 is switched off.

I thought I was the only one who had the brake slider all the way down and did not notice it for about 20 minutes while looking at everything else. 

Sam,

follow Ricks advice first and see what happens.

You haven't lived until you have an 8 year old in the other room with a remote with the brake slider down on your locomotive!  I looked for that one a long time!  Now I locate all the remotes when I'm having an issue!

Hi guys and Nicole. Brake slider is fine so I reset per the manual. With track power back on the locomotive was dark and quiet as normal. I hit the whistle and it sounded, sounds came up, headlight again was bright for but a moment then dimmed and the cab light is on and she's smoking. Will not respond to any commands from the Cab2 however.

Odd, I unpowered the Legacy base and powered up the track with our MTH brick (Z1000) and she doesn't come on in conventional. I had not tried that before but shouldn't it start that way with Legacy off and disconnected from the track?

Color me EMBBARRASSED.

In rechecking all this I see that the Legacy ground wire was somehow clipped to the center rail. I only have a 5' section of track temporarily set up on my bench and things get moved around a bit.

NOW she's working just fine but this begs the question as to why it functioned normally for a few minutes last night with the wire hooked up worng?  I had been running our C&O Berkshire for about 15 minutes without incident that way as far as I can tell.

One thing now in testing the Berk again it is not producing smoke as it did last evening. I had turned off the smoke from the Cab2 before shutting down and it was really putting out well. Now it starts and runs fine and I can hear the fan pulsing but no smoke output. Also, I'm not getting the Legacy smoke icons but instead just '+' and '-' in the 8 and 9 positions.  The remote is set for Legacy and Legacy sounds but it appears different. I still have not used Legacy much since our move and am not proficient in its features or troubleshooting.