New Allegheny Good News Bad News

One of the wires may be pinched going to the sensor. Or the connector came out during shipping. I wouldn't think it's anything too complicated. Woes of having fragile engines ship halfway across the globe.

Just have Lionel fix it. It's too awesome of an engine to not get fixed!

Glad I'm to poor to afford this new stuff!!! Seems lots of frustration going on. I was unhappy when a used $100 MTH PS2 loco didn't work right!!! And with help here I fixed it.......

RXR..... gunrunnerjohn helped me with same issue with my atsf 3751 legacy steam engine it also had engine to tender issues and these are things he had me try.

1. separate engine and tender and power up your Allegheny so you can take a picture of the engines ir sensor if the picture shows a purple glow the engines ir sensor is good.

now do you have another legacy steam engine with the ir sensor if you do place it behind your Allegheny and if both play together nicely then the issue is with the tender.

this is only to help identify the main culprit causing your issue with the Allegheny engine if in fact it is the ir sensors and or an internal issue with the tender. but you may have another issue as in a poorly connected connector someplace. also just for elimination try placing hand over handrails see if your issues go away.

I hope this helps you but if nothing else it eliminates some of the possibilities of the main cause of engine/tender not communicating with each other.

good luck hope you get it working and I have heard the steam whistle on another video posted here its a sound one must acquire a taste for as it really has a high pitched sound I have never heard a whistle like it before so an odd duck to me but then I didn't grow up where they traveled the rails either.

RXR posted:

Just unpacked a new 1604 Allegheny and just as most other of my Lionel purchases not a perfect example of quality(). And believe me I have quite a few pricey engines  from the recent releases over the last 10 years and the percentage of major issues is not something to brag about. However its part of our hobby due to the delicate nature of these things and the fact that they get abused by the carriers. 

The Good Great looking and no broken parts. Engine programs and runs great even the smoke is good without having to fix both smoke and whistle units. Tender works good with sounds and love the hooter whistle.

The Bad  The New Allegheny engine and tender do not communicate, basically each is good by it self but the engine wont link with the tender. The tender sounds good and works well with my other engines. Just does not work with my $1800.00 Allegheny() I do have the JLC model maybe I will just get rid of the new engine and use the new tender on the old JLC Allegheny ().

Question for the experts! So, I'm thinking the problem must be either the IR sensor on the engine or the board that provides the signal to the sensor or something in between. Before I send back to Lionel which is most likely what will happen, wondering if anyone has had a similar issue and what the fix was? Any information is greatly appreciated!

I did try the reset with no luck. Of coarse maybe I have the wrong code.

 Cheers Don

Don, beautiful engine and something Post War Lionel kids could never have dreamed of having in its present incarnation.

You say you've tried the tender with other legacy engines and it works?

So does the new engine work with these other tenders then?

Bobbyd,

You say you've tried the tender with other legacy engines and it works? works like a champ!!

So does the new engine work with these other tenders then? No. Thinking its on the engine side. Starting at the IR sensor, could be a loose connection , bad board , loose board, pinched wire, etc. Wanted to get some input to determine if its worth taking apart or better just to send back for repairs first. Normally for the first go round I send back to Lionel and eat the $35.00 shipping which is working into by coffee budget. And keep my fingers crossed hoping it makes the trip both ways and comes back without further damage.   Cheers Don

If it is not working , send it back. For the price of that engine it better work 100% out of the box. 

The manufactures will never improve QC unless the cost of fixing them becomes too high. Customers have to hold the manufactures accountable, if not I hope you all like your new $1800 door stop.

My Allegheny went for a ride today. I might have been able to fix it myself, but if I messed it up it's on me. Hopefully, it will work upon return.

Scrappy

Thanks guys for all the good input. Like I stated normally they go back to Lionel for repair to avoid a expensive paper weight. I just got of the phone with Lionel and will be shipping it out tomorrow. To my surprise Lionel is covering shipping both ways. The Lionel rep was very pleasant as always. Just part of the hobby when you order delicate items on the internet. I know this from my other hobbies such as tube amplifiers. 

One thing I would like to see in the future for locomotives is this price range is the dealers required to check them before they leave the store and have a included check list. Maybe it could be a option for $25.00 to $50.00 for a test run , lube , and performance check for remote buyers and a incentive for free to buy from certain dealers. Normally if we bought from a store locally in person that would be the protocol. After all how many of these 1800 units of a certain model do you think they sell maybe 200? Good for thought. Cheers Don   

david1 posted:

If it is not working , send it back. For the price of that engine it better work 100% out of the box. 

The manufactures will never improve QC unless the cost of fixing them becomes too high. Customers have to hold the manufactures accountable, if not I hope you all like your new $1800 door stop.

Ever wonder if the price increases over the past three years are really Big Orange assuming that each piece WILL fail and have to be shipped back and forth....more than once....and have $200-$300 worth of parts replaced....and have US labor fix them?

If you send it to Lionel, don't expect it back by Christmas... my Lionmaster Class A will be sent back this week. Make sure the shrink wrap is also tight on the ir sensors other than that Listen to the other experts... I don't try to fix anything on my engines so I don't explore it enough to help 

Berkshire President posted:

david1 posted:

If it is not working , send it back. For the price of that engine it better work 100% out of the box. 

The manufactures will never improve QC unless the cost of fixing them becomes too high. Customers have to hold the manufactures accountable, if not I hope you all like your new $1800 door stop.

Ever wonder if the price increases over the past three years are really Big Orange assuming that each piece WILL fail and have to be shipped back and forth....more than once....and have $200-$300 worth of parts replaced....and have US labor fix them?

You would think they do. (Except of course the cost and aggravation of sending it back)

Craftsman, Matco, Snap-on, etc. all must figure returns into the selling cost. If you hardly use it and it never fails they score more profit!

SDIV Tim posted:

If you send it to Lionel, don't expect it back by Christmas... my Lionmaster Class A will be sent back this week. Make sure the shrink wrap is also tight on the ir sensors other than that Listen to the other experts... I don't try to fix anything on my engines so I don't explore it enough to help 

I just had an engine serviced and returned to me fully repaired with a 7 day turn around.

Great news. Hopefully this will shut some of these guys up.

Rod Miller