Hi, I purchased a Long Island steam engine made by third rail back in 1999. I never ran it. It sat on a shelf in my son's room. I recently built a layout with o-72 track and tried to run it but it wouldn't go. When I throttle up I hear a quick blast of the horn, and then it's dead. I've run other engines on the track and they work fins. What could be wrong?
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Is it equipped with PS1? It would need a new battery.
Did you buy it new?
3Rd Rail was using QSI back then. They never used PS1.
what transformer are you using?
Hi, I purchased a Long Island steam engine made by third rail back in 1999.
Do you mean the manufacturer was Sunset, 3rd Rail, i.e the 3rd Rail division of Sunset Models Inc.? If that is the case, those models came with conventional electronics, and prior to 3rd Rail TMCC command control.
Could you please provide more specific information about your model? That way more folks will be able to help you.
Try cleaning the wheels and rollers. I have had engines that won't run until this is done. This includes new engines. Also, make sure that the wire between the engine and tender is firmly attached.
You didn't mention if this engine is conventional or if it has a command control system. 3rd Rail uses Lionel's TMCC in its engines. Does this engine have command control?
PS-1 as mentioned in another post is MTH's first command system. 3rd Rail does not use the MTH system in its engines because MTH will not license its system to other companies. Therefore, you don't need to worry about the PS-1 battery.
Joe
If it was made in 1999 it most likely has QSI OEM electronics, or possibly an early version of Protosound. In either case, it requires a fully charged battery to function. The original battery is most likely shot. You need to remove the tender shell and replace the NiCad battery with a new 8.4 volt rechargeable NiCad cell. You should charge it up before installing it. Be sure it's an 8.4 volt cell; some cheap "9 volt" rechargeables only put out 7.2 volts. IF it has Protosound you can use a NiMH cell or a BCR, but a QSI OEM system doesn't have enough umph in the charging system to use a NIMH cell or BCR. The way you tell the difference is, a QSI OEM setup has three boards in the stack and Protosound only has two. If you post a picture of it with the tender shell off there are about 50 guys on this forum who can tell you what it is.
Contrary to some previous posts, the original version of Protosound was created by QSI and licensed to MTH. Weaver used Protosound in its locomotives before switching to TMCC. I'm not sure if 3rd Rail ever used Protosound or just QSI QEM before they started using TMCC. All of my older 3rd Rail engines have QSI OEM. QSI OEM and Protosound are quite similar in operation.
I believe this engine is the H6sb 2-8-0. The electronics in it were similar to early QSI and they came with an OTT sound system . I have two of them. One seemed fine when i last ran it a year ago, the second one ran but the sound had a loud hum which seemed to get louder as the engine ran. I do not believe that there is a battery in these engines. They are not TMCC. I am not sure why your engine is doing what it does. Thinking that it may be related to a capacitor which is probably used for the power to the sound system .
For the other posters on this thread, there was a short period where #rd Rail used QSI sound and the engines that have it have a Nicad battery on board just like the MTH. They were not subject to the scramble issue that some MTH PS-1s suffered from.
The Ott sound system did not use a battery. If the engine in question was purchased in 1999 I would expect it to have QSI, but if it was an older model that had been on the dealer's shelf for a while it certainly could have the Ott system. If that is the case, I can't help. On those rare occasions I have run into an Ott sound system, I have either gotten rid of the locomotive or tossed the Ott electronics in the trash and replaced them with something better.
The QSI sound systems used by Weaver in the early 1990's did not require a battery
I do not know why QSI would use an OTT sound system.
The only engines in my experience that need a battery to start up is the MTH PS1
Ooops! I didn't know what system was used in that engine back then. Some engines have the grease dried up so much that they won't run after that amount of time. Probably a bunch of reasons we could guess at too. The OP needs to say what model he has to help him.
Southwest
I would agree with you about the OTT system electronics. The one engine i have that has the loud hum, that is a candidate for a tmcc ERR upgrade I think.
In the prototype, the H6sb was a rather small consolidation. It has a small low sides tender and I would guess the reason why QSI was not used is that there may not have been enough room for the Boards.In any event, there probably us no battery in this one.
Be careful with opening the grease port . This engine has sprung drivers and you dont want those flying all over the place.
I would suggest that a call to Third rail by the original poster might help. The folks there have been quite helpful with thus engine and they may have some ideas for you to diagnose and get this running.
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