MTH PS3 Railking Locomotive Issue - Locks into neutral then jolts back into forward

it appears to me like it's losing power. I would suggest checking for continuity between the power pick-up rollers, check the ground pick-ups as well, and the tether. You may get lucky and it's just a loose wire. If you wiggle the tether while it's sitting on powered track, does it cut out?

 It's hard to guess why it's doing it, just from the video. The fact that the headlight goes out, means something here. How many 3 rail pickup rollers does it have? Any on the tender?

Engineer-Joe posted:

it appears to me like it's losing power. I would suggest checking for continuity between the power pick-up rollers, check the ground pick-ups as well, and the tether. You may get lucky and it's just a loose wire. If you wiggle the tether while it's sitting on powered track, does it cut out?

 It's hard to guess why it's doing it, just from the video. The fact that the headlight goes out, means something here. How many 3 rail pickup rollers does it have? Any on the tender?

It has two pick up rollers on the locomotive while the tender has none. I've messed with the tether before while it is sitting and it so far hasn't cut out on me. 

I noticed this happened shortly after the engine passed through two switches. Does this always seem to happen at the same spots on your layout?

PS. Nice Layout!!

My solution is to add a roller to the tender.  Many of the MTH tenders already have the mounting hole for the pickup, so it's only necessary to add the correct parts and run a wire to the track power connection.

Another issue with these is a defective 3-rail/2-rail switch that leaves some of the wheels floating, this will also cause issues in certain track configurations.

You need to ensure the harness that plug into the drawbar do not have an intermittent open in a tight curve.  Since this does switches and plain curves it most likely is a the harness to drawbar connection.  Also are both outside rails tied together for ground.  G

H1000 posted:

I noticed this happened shortly after the engine passed through two switches. Does this always seem to happen at the same spots on your layout?

PS. Nice Layout!!

Thank you! It will happen on random curves but the spot that it shown in the video it has done it the most. 

gunrunnerjohn posted:

My solution is to add a roller to the tender.  Many of the MTH tenders already have the mounting hole for the pickup, so it's only necessary to add the correct parts and run a wire to the track power connection.

Another issue with these is a defective 3-rail/2-rail switch that leaves some of the wheels floating, this will also cause issues in certain track configurations.

I'll have to look into this more. Thanks for the tip!! 

GGG posted:

You need to ensure the harness that plug into the drawbar do not have an intermittent open in a tight curve.  Since this does switches and plain curves it most likely is a the harness to drawbar connection.  Also are both outside rails tied together for ground.  G

All of the outside rails on my  layout are tied together for ground yes. Thank you for the suggestion! 

I am having the exact same problem with my Railking Imperial GS4 SP 4449.  Mine it doing the same thing in tangent and curve track.  I thought it was the connection to the tender where the bar plugs in but cannot seem to determine if its coming loose or not.  Any further help would be greatly appreciated.  

My brother was having the same issue with his Imperial PS3 berk. Ran fine for a time but then it began stalling  around curves. The issue was a loose cable in the hookups for the wireless drawbar and it was pulling itself out on the tight O-31 curves. If it's the issue I'm thinking, a replacement the drawbar will not solve the problem. We ended up taking to the shop and I believe the pickups were fixed. If you have access, try the engine on wider curves (O-54 or greater). It should run without issue.