MTH 44 Tonner quits

Make sure both outside rails are tied together. The inflexibility of the trucks causes the wheels to lift on uneven or curve track and causes a power interruption. If using a Z4000, watch the current. If it falls to zero, that is likely the case.  If it goes high, one of the motor leads may be shorting to the shell.

Do the shutdown sounds play?  If not you may have a super cap issue.  If it runs fine in DCS but not conventional, the supercaps are prime suspect. G

Jon G posted:

Make sure both outside rails are tied together. The inflexibility of the trucks causes the wheels to lift on uneven or curve track and causes a power interruption. If using a Z4000, watch the current. If it falls to zero, that is likely the case.  If it goes high, one of the motor leads may be shorting to the shell.

My guess is Jon is right. Also, the location of the traction tires on this model can be problematic on uneven trackwork, but should be mitigated if both outside rails are receiving current. My friend, Dave Minarik, cured the problem entirely by removing the rubber traction tires and replacing them with metal ones, but that sort of modification requires a metal-working setup of the type and level most modelers would not have (Dave used to own a custom motorcycle shop).

Thank you both Jon and Allan!

Forgot to mention that the little 44-tonner ranks as one of my favorite locomotives. Lacks shutdown sounds and needs even trackwork, but aside from those couple of minor (to me) things, it just is an ideal size for smaller layouts and ideal for point-to-point operations. Sounds are pretty darn good, too. Waiting for the U.S. Army version to be released, which should be fairly soon. In the meantime, I have three others to play with.

The MTH 44-Ton has a very small superCAP, and if you hold the direction button too long, it will shutdown in conventional mode.  You need to be quicker on the power interruption as it only holds up for less than a second before going dead. The same small cap causes it to stop rather quickly on any brief power interruption in command mode, with most DCS locomotives you get seconds before it stops.

One day I'm going to take mine apart and see if I can add additional capacitance, there must be somewhere I can stuff another superCAP.

Thanks so much John.

Just what is a supercap?

The SuperCAP is what replaced the PS/2 battery, it allows the electronics to run for a short period of time without track power.  In most DCS locomotives, that is a number of seconds, however with the 44-Tonner, it's a second or less.

Allan and Jon, I do not see how Jon is right.  He does not say the engine just stops, it only stops when he hits the direction button.  That is clearly in the realm of power continuity or Super cap.  Unless it only happens in one direction.    No thank to G????   G

I can duplicate the exact thing he's talking about.  Just hold the direction button slightly too long, and the engine shuts down.  This is an issue with all the 44-Ton locomotives, at least the first run.  Someone here added another super-Cap to fix this, something that I've considered as well.  I agree with George, I don't see this being an issue with trackwork or tires, it's just a design issue with the specific locomotive.

GRJ, it can be done and makes a world of difference.

I wouldn't agree that it doesn't have shutdown sounds.  If you shut down by killing power, they are about 2 seconds.  If I use either shutdown button, the sounds are normal.

The trucks are very limited in the amount of up&down movement, so a sharp change in the grade may cause a loss of contact.

RJR,

Please tell us where you purchased the Super Cap that you used and the part number and any key steps that we would need to follow. 

If you open up your 44T and see the supercap, there should be space to add another of the same size. 

Mine's in a pile of boxes right now, but that's on my list of many projects.  I think that's my one complaint with this engine, don't know why they didn't address that deficiency during the design and testing stage.