My PS 2 MTH RK R36 is stuck in neutral in conventional mode. When I start the train you hear the station announcement or you hear a long horn blast. Hit the directional button all you get is the station announcement, when you press horn or bell , nothing. Tried the 1 horn, 5 bells, nada. I also run this train with DCS Explorer and I have no issues. Tried the reset using the app, no help. I thought it was the battery but you would hear the engine sounds for about five seconds after the shutdown.
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Five seconds seems a bit short but it only needs to keeps the electronics powered up long enough to handle that brief power interruption for the direction button... What is the MTH part number, is this a 5v PS2 board equipped engine?
All I know is the part #30-2274-1
Okay, this set is from 2002, so it is safe to assume that it has PS2 5v boards. I'd suggest removing the the battery and replacing it with a standard 9V battery to test the engine. Don't leave the standard 9V battery in as a permanent solution, prolonged use will cause damage to the charging circuit.
This morning I started the train and it acted normal. After no more than 3 min the train started to pick up speed on it's own so I pulled the throttle back to zero. When I tried to start it up again it was stuck in neutral. I don't have any regular 9v, I'll get some later so I used a fully charged rechargeable and it's still stuck in neutral.
If the train is at rest for over a hour or two it works fine when you start it up for only a few minutes. Then, horn blast , station announcements and then it's stuck in neutral. Bell and horn buttons don't work and if you press direction the lights change for direction and you hear station sounds. All this while being stuck in neutral. I'm hoping it's just the battery.
A 5V board nearing end of life may start doing weird thinks. Are you saying it runs fine for long periods on DCS though? Just stops working after a short period of Conventional operations? G
Exactly, It has no problems on the DCS explorer, now it does not even work conventionally, all I get now is a long horn blast and the station announcements. I figure I'll just run it DCS until that fails or get it repaired.
That is a new one to me. Interesting. G
What make and model of transformer are you using to run this in conventional mode? I have a a few older PS2 5v engine that don't react well to transformers that have chopped sine wave output. They exhibit the exact same symptoms with the horn blast...
Im using a Lionel GW 180, it worked fine before.