Lionel 6-28052 N&W Class A TMCC Problem

First suggestion is to check the alignment of the IR transmitter on the locomotive to the tender IR receiver.  Also, check the wiring from the IR transmitter back and make sure it's all good and there are no pinched wires or a loose connector.

Joe, check what John said first, if that does not do the trick, than you may have a R2 receiver board going. If you have it open can you swap boards out to pin point the issue?

If it is the receiver board, you may want to send it to ERR for a new board with cruise control. Electric railroad I believe is located in California and the turn around time maybe quicker. BTW the upgraded boards with cruise control will have 100 speed steps which makes a huge difference in its performance.

Good trick with the camera, I didn't think of that!

Hi Folks,

I want to thank everyone who offered suggestions to fix the problem with my N&W Class A.  The good news is that I got it to work.

As I mentioned above, I took the boiler off the engine.  I couldn't see anything that was obviously wrong.  I did notice that one of the two tether wires was fastened to the boiler with a clip while the other wire was not.  I removed the wire from the clip and let it float free inside the shell just like the other wire.  I also went around the inside of the engine and made sure that every wire was tight.  I pushed on every component to make sure it was firmly seated in the circuit board.

I balanced the boiler on top of the frame and put the engine on the track.  I hooked up the tender.  The sound worked and the engine ran.

Next, I spent a couple of hours putting the engine back together.  When I put the engine back on the track, everything worked except for the headlight.  I wasn't about to take it apart again if I could avoid it.  Fortunately, I was able to see the headlight wires when I moved the front set of drivers all the way to one side.  I reached in with a dental pick and pulled on the wires.  They came free.  I put the engine back on the track and the headlight worked!

I still don't know what caused the sound problem. I suspect it was a pinched wire or loose connection someplace.  It doesn't matter as long as it keeps working.  

There must be a quicker way to get a boiler shell back on the frame.  I can't believe that they take two hours in China to assemble these components.

Thank you again for your help and advice,

Happy Railroading,  Joe

I've never had one that took that kind of time, why was it so difficult to get back on?  The ones that seem to be the worst for me are some of the brass models.