Lionel Legacy Pennsylvania K4 with Long Haul Tender Issue

Bill,

    Here is a post with a video of the Lionel Legacy K4 with the Long Haul Tender taken by Sandjam. The tender lights look good no blinking or dimly lit:

          https://ogrforum.com/...ng-haul-tender-video

   I hate to ask but have you cleaned your track recently? If not it could be the problem.

   Good luck give Lionel a call they maybe able to suggest some fixes, their service is top notch.

JohnB

Hi John,

I remember the video. I just wondered if anyone else has experienced it as well. My track is clean. It has happen on each layout it has been run on so far.

Bill,  I have had tender marker lights that were dim when I first powered the engine.  They became brighter over time.  (SP GS-4) 

Did you put a 9-volt battery in the tender?  I have had my FEF-3 drain the power of the new Duracell 9-volt in a less than a week.  If there is a wiring issue in the tender, the battery may get drained just sitting on a shelf.  (This will happen quickly - one week)

Are there any track features like switches or uncoupling tracks to break the center rail power. Did you lightly oil the center pick-up rollers.

I have had debris in the core of the pick-up rollers that eventually worked its way out, and then had better contact on a passenger car roller.  The machining of parts can sometimes leave unwanted residue.

Unscrew (not all the way) and refasten the pick-up roller plates on the bottom of the tender to ensure good contact with the internal wiring inside the engine at the other end of the screw .

I have finally made a new rule to run my new engines for over four hours before calling Lionel.  Sometimes the heat generated while running may help connections or show problems.  (Pinched wires don't show immediately until insulation heats, softens, and wires finally touch.)  

My 6-84116 K-4 #5432 needed longer pick rollers on the steam engine in order to pass over my Atlas O #5 Double Slip Switches. The original roller span would not allow the engine to cross the switch without stopping. This issue was caused by the track I chose for my layout, not Lionel.

Run the engine for at least four hours over several days. When Lionel service fixes an engine, they say they run it for four hours to verify that the repair is good.  Sometimes a problem can just "shake itself out".

Hi John,

I did not install a battery in the tender.  There are a few switches, but the dim markers were all the time and the flicker occurred over regular straight track.

I have not lubricated the rollers yet.  The tender works correctly other than the marker lights.  The reverse light is nice and bright.  Sounds work too.  I have seen instances of the residue you were talking about and the trouble it can cause.

I will run it some more before contacting Lionel.  It has over an hour of run time so far.

Thanks,

FWIW, there was one at Imperial Trains today.  It was being test ran for a customer who bought it.  The tender lights worked perfectly.  No flickering and bright as expected.

Thanks, Marty. Unfortunately, yesterday evening, the tender marker lights went out completely and would not come back on.  I even tried a reset and controlling them individually through Legacy.  Looks like it will be going back to Lionel for repair.

I have had this happen on other engines.  What you describe sounds exactly like just a bad connection.  I don't know what the K4 tenders insides are like, but on one engine I had, the led was soldered to a small board.  Even though it looked fine visually, the solder was  cracked from the board.  A quick touch of a hot soldering iron to re-melt the solder and it was fixed.   I'm sure its nothing major. You could take off the shell and look around.

Hi Sean,

I had actually already looked inside the tender and did not find anything.  The solder joints appeared good and the connections were solidly connected as that was my first thought when all of this started.  The LEDs are wired to a secondary board.  That secondary board is then wired to the main board where they are controlled. 

Thanks,