Lionel 6-18016 Short Circuit

Transformer model?

CW-80 

Pop the shell off the locomotive and tender and check for any wiring or boards contacting the frame where they shouldn't be. 

27 year old engine. Maybe the grease has gotten hard and is causing it to draw a heavy load.

Not sure if I want to pop the shell just yet. I don’t want to void the warranty/refund for the engine. 

I don't know what kind of warranty you would have with that engine. No manufacture warranty for sure. This is a very basic designed engine. Has a pullmor motor and mechanical e-unit. Not much to go wrong. It could be as simple as hardened grease causing a high current draw, a shorted wire or bad e-unit drum causing the short. Worst case a bad motor armature. It all comes down to what you paid for it, whether it was guaranteed to run and how much you are willing to pay to fix it.

ogauge1217 posted:

CW-80 

There's nothing wrong with the locomotive except that it needs to be cleaned & lubed. It's not a short, it's just drawing more current (over 5 amps) than the CW can deliver, and the lube is dried up, the engine is not broken in yet. It should run fine on anything 1033 or bigger from the postwar era.

Forest, thanks for the reply. I bought this engine mint, so it’s never been run before. Since there is no manufacturer warranty, I will go ahead and pop the shell to see if there is a stray wire. Also, am I able to test the engine separately from the tender to see if the Railsounds system could be the problem? 

ogauge1217 posted:

...am I able to test the engine separately from the tender...

Absolutely recommended.

You're going to need a bigger transformer first, The CW is not powerful enough for a new, not yet broken in steamer built on the Berkshire chassis. You will get an overload indication even w/o a short circuit.

I have several of thease units, if the roller in the E unit becomes misaligned it can cause a short. pull the e unit and look at the roller, also look at a broken finger in the e unit hitting the side of the unit.

ACDX Rob, thank you for the insight. It does seem to me as if the transformer is overloaded, though I do have other pullmor-motored engines that work fine on my layout. Also, thanks DOUGB, I’ll have to check the motor and e-unit when I open up the engine. Thankfully, this engine has simpler components. 

So how many amps do you need?

And which transformers provide what. The ZW with two bricks appears to provide 5 amps per channel or am I reading that wrong?

I only have a test track  with a 1033  using about 3 amps on my meter.   suspect most of power is in smoke unit use. would like to change out the bipin bulb with an LED one.

GVDOBLER, I am unsure of the amps I would need to operate the engine. It is listed to operate at 7-15 volts, but amps are not mentioned. 

Actually, I was asking the ones that said you don't have enough power to run your engine.

A ZW with two bricks has four channels that are rated at 90 watts each divided by 18 volts provides 5 amps per channel. You have close to that now, so I didn't want you to buy something that wouldn't provide much more power(amps) than you have.

So I should have ask "How many amps is required to run his engine and which transformer provides the required power?"

Just to tell you that you need a bigger transformer doesn't answer the question.

Sorry for the confusion.

GVDobler posted:

...The ZW with two bricks appears to provide 5 amps per channel or am I reading that wrong?

The ZW with two 180 bricks delivers up to 10 amps per channel. It is not evenly divided, it is shared. When you are using 4 PowerHouse bricks, then you can draw 10 amps from each of all 4 channels at once.

A postwar ZW will deliver up to 14 amps per handle, also shared.

GVDobler posted:

...So I should have ask "How many amps is required to run his engine and which transformer provides the required power?"

The answer is not really in the number of amps in this case, but the issue with a brand new, tight locomotive, with the combination of the CW transformer. It keeps hitting the 5 amp maximum of the CW and, as the manual describes, goes into "foldback" mode and cuts power, even w/o a short circuit.

As mentioned earlier, even a 1033 will work better in this case, even though limited to about 4.5 amps continuous, is capable of delivering significantly more, 7-8 amps for a short duration w/o that 5 amp ceiling, providing the power to get the loco running in order to get it serviced & loosened up some.  This particular 4-8-4 is known for having gear lash issues as well, which adds to the load.

GVDobler posted:

Just to tell you that you need a bigger transformer doesn't answer the question.

 This is the answer to that -  it says a lot more than just "bigger", the emphasis probably should have been on postwar to avoid the "foldback" issue. The 1033 is not bigger, just different.

ADCX Rob posted:

ogauge1217 posted:

CW-80 

There's nothing wrong with the locomotive except that it needs to be cleaned & lubed. It's not a short, it's just drawing more current (over 5 amps) than the CW can deliver, and the lube is dried up, the engine is not broken in yet. It should run fine on anything 1033 or bigger from the postwar era.

Sorry I was going by the manual that shows 90 watts per channel or 5 amps. Thanks for clearing up.

Thank you for the responses, everyone.