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I have a MTH Railking Imperial PS3 J Class 4-8-4 that I bought about 3 months ago. The engine has often been behaving this way as of late. As shown in the video above, the locomotive will randomly lock itself into neutral for a brief second and then continue as if it never happened or it will do it again a second or third time shortly after. This issue always occurs on either the turnout of a switch or on a random curve. I have tried cleaning the track to see if it is just dirty track but this has not helped solve the problem. I can only guess that the wireless tether is going bad but I am unsure if that is true since none of my engines have displayed this type of problem before. 

Has anyone had this problem with any of their engines? If so, what is the cause and how can I fix it? It's honestly pretty aggravating to see it happen. It jerks the couplers on any consist it has behind it so hard that I'm surprised I haven't had any broken couplers yet as a result of it. 

Thanks in advance to everyone who can help.

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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. 

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.

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! 

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. 

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