Railking C&O Yellow Belly Hudson (PS2) Stopping

This does come up on occasion.  Could be the processor or the power supply.  Last one I saw the power supply board was going bad and could not provide good voltage to the processor when it warmed up.  I do think this would be repeatable on your home layout though.

A test might be smoke on vice off.  Also, it could be a bad smoke fan motor, but a bad motor would have immediate effect.  Yours sounds thermal, which points to a board issue.

Swap your power supply board between a good engine.  IF the symptom follows the PS board that is the issue.    G

G, 

Thanks. I don't feel comfortable swapping boards, etc. Will try to reproduce at home later and report back here.

Hoping this isn't a major issue as this is a popular engine at public shows and, quite frankly, I can't afford to put yet another set of boards in this engine. 

I do not think this will be a full set.  It is one or the other, and it might be a simple enough component fix.  My sample size is not large on this issue, but I had one that was a processor board that would continue to work but just draw high current over time.  The engine was used in a lashup and they pulled lots of freight cars.  That still sits on my bench and I can't replicate a problem on the bench tester. But a new processor board fixed the issue.

The other was a bad diode on the processor board that was an easy fix.

The third is the power supply.  It is on my bench to see if I can fix it.  The 5V starts out fine, then rapidly lowers to the low 4 to high 3V.  Trying to find a component that may be overloading the Regulator before I change the regulator.

Maybe a local shop or club member can do this for you.  Not too hard in steam.  

If you can replicate it at home, you can then send me the boards and I can isolate it.   G

Does it only do it when pulling a train?   

Yes, train or no train. 

I ran it for 45 minutes in conventional (maybe 13 volts or so). No issue. Ran like a champ. Later this evening or tomorrow I'll hook up my DCS system and try it again. 

My local dealer/tech is very sure it is the board(s) but didn't put it on the test block. Either one or both boards are bad according to him but we didn't test it in the store, etc. I'm not really willing to put a third set of boards in this engine but want to keep it with cruise control (ERR board?), chuff, whistle bell (MTH Locosound board?) and of course lights and smoke. DCS is not that important but is wonderful. As long as it has the previous features. Being a bit tight on $$ (new cars, water heaters, etc - when it rains it pours!!!), I don't want to (can't) sink a ton into it. If I can reproduce the issue, I'll email GGG and we can discuss the options. 

Thanks all!

The low volts conventional and also high volts DCS are good test.  Also do both with smoke on and off.  That is if it doesn't fault right away.  G

Just did a test. Tried to replicate what I was doing at the B&O museum yesterday. All done with DCS. 

Started at 6:30 this evening. Ran between 40-50 SMPH which is approximately what I was doing at the museum. Had 3 coaches, one less than yesterday. Ran constantly, except for a 5 minute stop until 8pm. During that 5 minute stop, I added the F3 Rugged Rails mentioned in my original post. The F3 usually doesn't take long to start acting up with DCS (fine in conventional). I added the F3 around 7:15pm. 

Both engines ran like champs until 8pm when I shut it down for the night. The C&O Yellowbelly generally ran with the smoke on the entire time. Maybe 20 minutes of no smoke. Varied the speed slightly but didn't leave the 40-50 range. 

Will try similar test again tomorrow. 

I imagine there is some issue that was going on at the club with the track, power supply or system.  I would say your engine is fine.  The ones I have seen would act up with in 3 minutes.   G

What power supply were you using?  We have used  8 PW  ZWs and every now and then  the  ZW's internal  rollers loses  connection and strange things happen.When it happens we just move over  to a different handle. usually B or C, they don't get as much use.

I use Z-1000s (and a Z500) at home and we use Z4000s on the Tracker layout. 

I let the C&O orbit the layout on DCS today, similar to what I did yesterday. Also reversed the direction to that I was running yesterday. No issues and it ran like a champ. 

I'm kind of surprised I can't reproduce this at home. I was (and still am a bit) convinced it was my engine since it did it at two shows in a show and was the only engine doing it at the show, not to mention my Rugged Rails F3 runs in a similar fashion on the Tracker layout.