Hello. My apologies to anyone who attempts to help with this problem as it is getting the better of me. I will try and describe the situation as clearly as possible and will answer questions for clarifications as quickly as possible. I'm working night shift so running down to the layout to make a change isn't a possibility. At this point, I guess you could say I'm gathering data and possible steps towards resolution. Thanks in advance to everyone!
The layout: A large Lionel Fastrack; singular circuit with a connected inner / outer loop using 060 remote switches covering four 4x8 tables. The layout has a parking spur with a wye ending at a dual engine house. There is another spur off of a switch for parking alongside the engine house as well. Power is a Z-4000. TIU: Ver 5.0 Rev L. (The switches are not isolated for power yet, they run off track voltage).
The MTH fleet:
1. PS2 Streamlined Hudson Chessie Loco.
2. PS2 Pennsylvania Turbine Loco.
3. PS2 N&W #612 Loco.
4. PS2 GP-7 #5600 Chessie diesel.
5. PS3 GP-9A #6010 Chessie diesel.
6. PS3 GP-9B #6010 Chessie diesel.
7. PS2 John Deere F-3 diesel.
The problem: One of the PS3 GP-9's will automatically startup at power up of the transformer and will intermittently start moving. Nothing has been pushed at the remote yet except the power button to initialize handset. The moving engine will not respond to anything until selected via remote and then only the shutdown has any effect on it. It will power down and then power up with full remote controllability. I have completely reset both TIU and remote to factory and manually deleted all engines as well at one point. I have factory reset both GP-9's to no effect. I have added one engine on the track at a time and configured the Remote with name and address changes. I have been able to have the twin GP-9's on the track by themselves without problem and their names and addresses are unique. Controlling one or the other or both is possible until power to the TUI is removed. Starting the layout up again will cause the one GP-9 to power up and start moving. If I have 6 of the 7 engines on the track with the one not on being the offending GP-9, all engines are controllable independently and behave / perform normally. Putting the two GP-9's on together create the problems. The one GP-9 that this is a problem has been to the MTH folks in Columbia and they had it on the track for an hour trying to recreate the problem. It makes a liar out of me. Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated. One more data point: The loco mysteriously started displaying the maintenance required message and shows 1100+ on the odometer. I've only had it for a few months and it hasn't been run anywhere close to that distance. Short of putting it on the shelf and not using it, I'm out of ideas. Again, I can't go downstairs to try any suggestions as I'm at work. I will print all the advice out and try them in a day or two. Thanks... -Mark
