I think sometimes you waste your time discussing problems with these new products. Seems a few take pains to doubt your problems and subtley suggest it must be you or the always mysterious "shipper".
jim pastorius posted:I think sometimes you waste your time discussing problems with these new products. Seems a few take pains to doubt your problems and subtley suggest it must be you or the always mysterious "shipper".
Wasted time? Not really, except for my lost hours trying to reach MTH at the beginning of this. And the trips to UPS, 45 minute one way drives to nearest MTH repair, etc. However it is important to stay vigilant on the discussion . There are too many faulty TurboTrains to not be a problem in manufacturing or design. Perhaps one person at the factory crimped wires down too much during some of the production or some other variable that is affecting a percentage of these products? I wonder how many were made? How many have not seen the light of day yet and sit in collections or like one VIA Rail set thats been on Ebay for over a year? My trains get out of the boxes and run. 99% of my MTH is great. Turbotrains are not. Most astounding though was that Mike Wolf ignored my letter to him, which was merely a letter chronicling my TurboTrain issues and was a respectfully written plea for help.
I cannot imagine any company choosing to ignore a long time customer. Rather pathetic huh? Simply acknowledge the problems, take care of customers without months of hassles, and provide a solution. Respond to calls and letters!
I'm out over $2,000 on these Turbotrains. That is hard earned money that I earned providing a quality job to my employer and our customers. MTH has had little respect for that, or they would have handled my troubled Turbo situation better.
Ok everyone,
As promised, here is my final update on Turbo. This past weekend at our club's modular setup at the New Eagle VFD Train Show, I ran Turbo for about 2 hours continuously without a break and am happy to report that there were no mechanical issues or board failures. Since our club operates with the Legacy system using a ZW-L(with me using my Legacy remote), Turbo was run in conventional mode with the smoke units off. I have never used the smoke units on Turbo, nor do I use them on any of my diesels, only on my steam engines. I don't have any videos of Turbo running, but here are a couple of photos of it on our club's layout this past weekend. For anyone that may be interested, I will be putting Turbo up on the FOR SALE Forum later today or tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread.
Nick
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machinist posted:Mr Union Pacific posted:Is it PS 2 or PS 3?
Clint,
All the MTH Turbos are PS3. The first run was released around 2010 and the latest run was released in Feb 2014. Mine is from the latest run, #20-20347-1, VIA Rail and is like the one shown in Scott's photos above in this thread.(Mine does not have all the additional coach cars).
Nick
I had the Amtrak version 2012ish and was disappointed enough to ask my local LHS for a same day refund which he reluctantly gave. I would love to have kept it but with problems out of the box I decided against it.
What were your problems? I am very curious.
Marty,
Any interest in working on my VIA set?
Scott
I could about York time. I am currently buried with Charles Ro work.
Sits quietly on a shelf for now
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Follow my path. After similar situations with engines over the past 15 years and losing a ton of money in shipping....not to mention stress...give up. Stop buying the stuff.
Enjoy what you have and stop the madness...the quality is shockingly poor.
Hi. I see lots of complaining, yet the new TurboTrains to be released end Feb 2021 are almost all spoken for? Go figure.
@VistaDomeScott posted:
Hi did you ever replace the electronics in your TurboTrains and if so did it work?
I have a 5 car Amtrak set in the early scheme that I’d like to 2 rail with custom drives, Loksound 5L decoders and Tang Band speakers.
I desperately tried to buy or trade for a set in the Amtrak late scheme with at least 1 extra car, but with no luck though I keep hunting all over the US.
I like my Turbo, I have an early version, the United Aircraft/Sikorsky logo. It was a must have since I was employed by those folks for 40 years. When it runs, it runs well but it doesn't like to be parked for months on end. As soon as I try to move it, it cuts out and enters the shutdown sequence. It seems like a dirty track/roller issue. When I manually move the train, it will restart only to shutdown again when it moves. This cycle repeats until I get frustrated and give up. If I can get it going, it's fine. Seems like it's ultra sensitive to track that has not been run on for a while.
My Turbotrains sit without any solution. Mothballed.
@VistaDomeScott posted:My Turbotrains sit without any solution. Mothballed.
I’m sorry to hear that. It’s quite an investment doing nothing than being a shelf queen.
Well if you ever decide you want to move on your Amtrak set if it’s painted in the late big red nose and red and blue side stripes scheme please contact me.
I’m looking to buy or trade my 5 car early scheme Amtrak set.
Regards.
Emdalco01
I am not planning to sell them. I have the red nose arrow logo version and the VIA Rail.
Hope you can find a deal on one and have better success.
@VistaDomeScott posted:Emdalco01
I am not planning to sell them. I have the red nose arrow logo version and the VIA Rail.
Hope you can find a deal on one and have better success.
No worries.
I thought I’d throw my hat in the ring in just incase you could be motivated to make room on your shelf 😁
I hope you can find a resolution for the running issues at some stage so you can get your Turbotrains back on the rails.
