New MTH Turbo Train Problems

Now John, you know that I go for the unusual. I'm planning to buy another Turbo Train if MTH does the other Amtrak scheme.

I'll save the rocket motors for a New York Central RDC.

Good day to you all,

Just received my CN Turbotrain. Nervous to what I will find in the box after reading yours postings. Like a surgeon I retreived very carefully the cars from the box and already a piece of plastic between the 2 two torsion rods on the buggie of the intermidiate car was loose in the box... Oh no, here we go again! What do I do with this piece? Do I glue it up back in place?? Need some advices please.

I was expecting this train a lot as I grew up in Montreal and saw the turbo out of the Central station many times in my youth.

It is not a pleasant feeling to pay hard earned cash for top of the line trains and be anxious if it is gonna work.... Remember , these are NEW trains. It is my third issues involving new trains with operational problems and will probably bee my last major purchase.

Will try out the train and come back to you how it went.

Jacques.

Sure would be nice to hear a response from MTH on the forum about these issues....

Alan

That makes sense. Thank you!

That's what I used to do for my HO layouts as I never used sectional track, just flex. The curves I made were from 24-inch to 30-inch radius, which would have been equivalent to Ø87 and Ø109 in O-Gauge.  My current O-Gauge layout mains are Ø108 and Ø99.

All that aside, I sure hope that the MTH Turbo Train problems are resolved, and all of you who have or will have this beautiful train can enjoy it.

Alex

In contact with MTH they said they would be making some more Turbos later this year!

I would not be suprised to see them release the VIA and other Amtrak versions of the Turbo. Perhaps can get some of the issues people have been having corrected as well!

So far my set is running fine, and looks great.

Good evening to all.

I have assemble very carefully the set together with the torsion bars in place. Did a few laps on my 0-96 curve loop (gargrave track). Everything worked fine. Sound is great.

But looking at the set closely after I notice tha one torsion bar was loose. The little plastic support bracket was broken and I found the small broken near my tracks.

I called MTH service dept. Ben told me that this piece can be replace and will send it to me when it will be in stock. I will be getting a few more in case others may break.

I had a very good service from the parts dept.

I caution all of you be very gentil when manipulating the torsion bar and their support brackets as these pieces are fragile and may be important in the stability of the train while negotiating curves. Personnaly, I won't take this set to train show and I would recommend MTH to make the support bracket out of metal.

Jacques 

This morning I called my local toy train dealer and canceled order for the PC unit that I have had on order since day one after seeing here that there are two more reports of gear failures.

Later around 1300 hours exchanges emails with an individual at MTH.  Received a pretty extensive reply.

First off as of this morning MTH had NOT gotten back any of these "broken" units.  So obviously they do not have anything to evaluate to form a response to. So we have to wait for MTH to get broken units to evaluate.

I was also advised that they did in fact tested these units on various manufacturer's O72 track systems WITHOUT issue.  This individual did point out that even when laying sectional track one could get non-uniform curves (kinks and bends).  And that this problem is minimized somewhat with roadbed based track systems like RealTrax and FasTrack.  The built in roadbed is maintaining the curvature.  So this makes sense to why O72 RealTrax and FasTrack users are not experiencing the tracking problems.

Time will tell, but I am not taking any chances.  I have plenty to run but am very disappointed to feel it necessary to pass on this.

If you are experiencing operating problems, broken parts, etc: with your Turbo train, call and inform your Hobby Shop Dealer and/or MTH (410) 381-2580.  I spoke to Julie Mitchell at Just Trains, she hasn't heard any complaints from any of her customers who bought the Turbo train until I called.  She had me call MTH to get a RA #.  One of my coaches went dark(this coach is not in the picture), cable disconnect between cars, and the torsion bars are breaking.  If MTH does not hear from you, they will think there is no problem.  Take those trains out of their boxes and run them!

Could anyone please tell me what the passenger station announcements are for the Amtrak and Penn Central Turbotrain?  I like the CN's announcements being done in English and French.

Chas

Sadly. the issues with the Acela seem to be echoing with the Turbo; so lack of good engineering is not lost on just one of the manufacturers.

The Turbo's torsion bar plastic connections seem pitiful considering the forces at work. I cannot begin to explain a broken gear on a new engine. As for cables disconnecting . . .  Sheeech! And, MTH engines are usually not so strict on 072 curves.

I was just thinking of reconsidering my view of the Turbo as an "ugly boat on wheels" when this new thread popped up. I may wait until the second generation Turbos come out.

In contact with MTH they said they would be making some more Turbos later this year!

I would not be suprised to see them release the VIA and other Amtrak versions of the Turbo.

And hopefully they will make the "fantasy" State of Illinois/IC turbo. There is an Artists rendering in Jason's book!

Well....I have to agree with and have the same feelings as expressed above by AlanRail.  Unfortunately....I have one waiting for me to pick up along with extra cars but with all of the problems shared by current owner/operators,  I am pretty nervous.  Shipping back and forth to get it repaired is expensive and should not be the buyer's responsibility.  This indeed is starting to look like MTH's "Acela"...lets see if they will step up and do the right thing. 

For those of you who are waiting for the next run....it might be a long time coming if the current model needs a complete redesign and in fact may not happen....again like the Acela.  I suggest that you do as Steve suggests above, return the broken units so that MTH gets notice there is a problem...of course if they read this forum, they should know by now.....

Alan

Hi my first time doing this., So far my turbo train runs ok on MTH Realtrax 072., either way that you want to go. But will not run on club layout on 072 gragaves track. It will go around and around, lap after lap AOK on Realtrax. Those plastic pieces that you talk about; one broke on mine and one more broke on one side, but no problem running it. And I was very careful handling it., but very faigle. Did a factory reset with all three pieces hooked together and that fixed the passenger car lights,they were dim and now bright as the rest of the train. MTH tried to light the marker lights and number boards with one LED light but no good. You have to take the body off and bend the post that the led is on about half way in between the marker light and number board and then it will light up both items. MTH cut corners there. Should have been an LED for both items just like on all there other Premier PS2.0 trains.The bodies come off real easy. any body can do it. I hope that this has helped and hope you get this. Hope it gets on the forum too. Might help others out.  sincerely Jimmyjim.

Checked out my two CN sets.  One set is OK, other has problems:

- second smoke unit in rear does not work

- bad led light board in middle car

Does run OK on RealTrax 72, but too tight to use diaphrams supplied.  On RealTrax 72, the side of the cars is VERY close in the turns.

Beautiful sets, but MTH could improve the next ones for sure.

I bougth my CN Turbotrain at Just train's of Deleware but I did not call back Judith about the problems I have with my train my train. She gave me very good service ( as usual). I took the problems directly to MTH so they can make the necessary corrections. I hope like you said, that people run their trains, call up MTH for any problem and the next issue of turbo trains will be better. I hope we can get the improve parts as well.

Jacques

http://www.highspeedrailcanada.com/

Click on top image/video CN Turbo real one some nice shots of it running!

I was wondering for the clearance problems that some are having if you have tight curves I was wondering if it might be possible to remount the coupler pin betweens the cars or extend it. The tabs that stick out that snap into the truck assemble.

If the tabs were extened just a little bit it might work better on the tight curves?

As for the wire connections. These are similar to the wire connections from engine to tender on most MTH steam engines. In time they can work loose and the wiring sets can be replaced with ease.

Just wondering if anyone has any updates with some of the problems mentioned above.

Did most of you get your problem engines back from repair?

There was another post on the fix for not going around 0-72 curves.

But I was wondering about some of the gear issues etc. mentioned.

Mine ran well for a month + but the other night it died in the tunnel. Pushed out with my GN engine set,

took train apart and hooked just the 2 locos together nothing else and wiggled all the plugs and wires. Sounds work on both but the rear wheels would not turn while the front engine spun.

Took engine apart and plugs seemed OK tested a few times no luck.

When I turn the flywheel rear engine wheels turn fine so not a gear issue.

Removed the rear electric motor so that I could run the full train at a show this weekend it worked just fine without rear motor. Ran all day sounds great in both engines. Front smoke unit worked rear did not.

Anyone else have this issue got to call MTH about this and I guess return it!

Just wondering if anyone has tried swapping the red bulb from the front engine with the white bulb in the rear engine for the reverse lights.

The rear engine has a white lens in the body and front has a red lens.

So as is when going forward the rear marker light is white not red, and when reversed the front engine is showing the correct red rear light.

I just swapped the bodies front to rear so I get red on both ends when reversing.

??

Your problem sounds like a bad slave board

Really would like to have one of these in VIA Rail.  But, am not going to go there until I am assured that these problems have been handled.  Hope they are!

Love my Turbo Train but front power unit tether keeps disconnecting after 5-10 minutes at 90+. 072/082 gargraves with two S curves. Is there a fix?

Thanks everybody for these great posts. I've had the Turbo for a few months now so wanted to add my 2 cents worth almost a year later. Rode the real thing several times between MTL and TO. 

1) My NEW Turbo experienced problems within the first hour or two of running, excessive sparking from one of the engines, it shorted out the track circuit and stopped everything dead. Had to return the defective unit to MTH who repaired/replaced it very quickly. My first ever MTH power purchase. N

2) Had several torsion bars come off right off the bat. Used CA to glue them back in place.

3) Implemented the Marty Fitzhenry solution to the connection tabs to extend them to provide a bit more clearance between cars and power units, this was essential to improving operations on my very smooth Gargraves 72" folded dogbone layout.

4) I am still having big problems with tether disconnects between cars and power units after a year of sporadic (light duty) operation. I can get about 15-30 mins of operation before at least one of the tethers disconnects and causes me to have to separate and reassemble all the units to ensure tight connections. This is ridiculous! Anybody got a fix for this??? 

5) I cannot get the bilingual station sound announcements to play no matter what. I'm running in Lionel TMCC conventional AC control environment. Any body else have luck?

6) Thanks for the solution to swap power unity bodies. Will that give me a red indicator light in either direction ?

LOVE the OGR forum. 

The Marty Fitzhenry fix and going from O72 to O82 Realtrax has improved my CN Turbo Train's operation.  Have not had any problem with the very cool bilingual (French) train announcements.  I hope MTH offers a cafe car for the Turbo soon!

in order to stop the connector from coming loose, I removed a u shaped clamp that holds the tether to the body. 

MTH also replaced the slave board a few times.