Lights Operation on the 2-8-4 A-2 Berkshire Steam Engine (20-3128-1)

Mark,

A few questions:

• Are you the original owner, or did you purchase it used or from a non-MTH dealer?
• Has this engine ever had it's PS2 board replaced?
• Has this engine ever had its sound file replaced?

I'm curious, is this a 3V or a 5V PS2 lcomotive?

I'm the original owner and the board and sound file have not been replaced. The name of the sound file indicates its a 3v PS2.

I have that same locomotive and my head light performs as it should.   The LIN does control the yellow markers and cab light.  When I press the markers, nothing happens.

Remember, this was one of the very first 3 volt boards.  None of this is an issue for me as I never saw any reason to turn off a headlight or marker lights.   This is a great engine and none of this bothers me.  The only difference we have is your headlight issue.

If you can get someone to open it, they can re route plugs/wires to do what you want.

I thought it was possible that the lights were just plugged into the wrong sockets on the board. I will look inside.

It is mis-wired internally.  The Headlight has been plugged into the Interior plug, and vice versa.  Otherwise proper behavior for a PS-2 3V engine that has the MUX board in the engine and PS-2 3V board in the tender.  The MUX board allows 2 light control from single input, plus marker.

How it should work is HL independent control.   LIN turns off cablight and firebox(if present) and engine markers.   LMK turns off tender markers.

Though the Soundfile program can do different things, I have seen engine that the LMK also turned off LIN and vice versa, but usually on models with out tender markers.  SO it is a softkey programming issues.

In your case just reverse headlight and interior light plugs and it will operate correctly.   G 

I opened up the engine. The wiring all looked original. Tie-wraps secure. Nicely bundled. Doesn't look like it was touched. I swapped the plugs on the headlight and interior/firebox light. As I was moving the wires, it appeared by their bends that they had never been moved. I ended up with the blue/violet plug going to the headlight and the orange/violet plug going to the interior/firebox. I did not change the brown/gray plug going to the marker lights.

Now the lights work as they probably should. I need to investigate the marker light control. It seems odd that it does (apparently) nothing.

Interestingly, when I had the engine open, I saw there is a magnet mounted on the inside back of the smokebox. It does not seem to touch anything when the smokebox is attached.

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

Orange is interior and blue headlight.  Factory made error.  Read my post about Markers.  The MUX can't control them independently.  Only tender markers are wired into actual marker output of PS-2 3V board.  G

Thanks, I will look up your post about Makers. I opened up the tender and there are no marker lights in the tender for this engine.

It is in this post.  Since no tender markers on this model, the LMK will have no function.   Just LIN and HL control on the engine with markers tied to what happens with interior lights.  G