I have a 30-1660-1 P&LE (NYC) 0-6-0 USRA Steam Switcher #9060 with PS3.
This engine was always a bulky runner. Often getting out of range errors and ignoring commands from the Remote/TIU. When on my layout, it got Track Signal of OUT OF RANGE-1-2-3 in many spots. Its been like this since I bought it. I decided to see if I could do anything about it’s poor performance.
After a bit of debugging, I discovered that power wire positioning inside the tender can make a big difference in Track Signal. In the attached PDF file, I show what I did to fix this problem.