A friend has three Railking N&W Class J engines with PS3 that all exhibit the same issue. Model numbers are 30-1675-1, 30-1634-1, and 30-1676-1. All were purchased new around 2016 or so and have had the issue to some degree since new. They are run conventional only on a very clean Super O layout powered by a Z4000, usually between 11-16 volts.
The problem is a sudden loss of power at the engine. Engine abruptly stops, the headlight goes out while sounds remain up but go into shutdown sequence, even with voltage still supplied to track. This happens randomly on layout (no pattern evident) and is usually most prevalent after a cold startup. Most times engine will restart but not always. Have tried multiple factory resets.
Yesterday we tried/tested some things on the worst offender 30-1675:
1) Cleaned p/u rollers/roller pins and tested conductivity/resistance between both rollers and the wire nut connection.
2) Gently bent the p/u arms downward to ensure good contact with center rail.
3) Removed engine shell and tested wire continuity from drawbar plug to wire nut and CB plug(s) and reseated plugs.
4) Removed tender shell and tested wire continuity from drawbar plug to CB plug and reseated plug.
5) Tried a cable tie at drawbar plug on engine side.
6) Changed drawbar to short version (brand new).
Tested engine on track after each step with same results. Engine will sometimes run for half a loop or more or may run for just a foot or two before stopping. Owner said the engine sometimes improves if you can get it to run for a few minutes.
I recall that there was an issue with running these engines in conventional (no problems running with DCS) when engines were new. A call to MTH service back then was no help. We're hoping that maybe someone has come up with a fix for the problem over the years. BTW, I did try a forum search but no luck there either.
