Repair Help - MTH 20-3044-1 Premier Steam Locomotive Union Pacific FEF 4-8-4 Northern

Unfortunately sounds like a PS3 upgrade is in your future... 

Why is that unfortunate?

It's about 99.9% sure that you have a failed 5V PS/2 board stack, those are mostly non-repairable.  The fix is to replace those with the PS32 board with 5V connectors, it's a pretty simple installation.  You don't have to do any rewiring, just replace the speaker and mount the new board.

You forgot to mention that awful smell...

Seriously, sorry for your misfortune.

Just for the record, did you still have the original white battery in it?

The FEF was notorious for this failure. I have repaired many.  The PS-32 board mounting is unique and needs to go inside the engine.  G 

UPMav#488 posted:

Why is that unfortunate?

You need to upgrade the engine now... Would be unfortunate for me, unsure about you.

GGG posted:

The FEF was notorious for this failure. I have repaired many.  The PS-32 board mounting is unique and needs to go inside the engine.  G 

That seems to imply a complete rewiring of the rig, probably just buy an upgrade kit.

No rewiring?  Just the tight fit in shell and requires proper mounting with heat sink.  Going the upgrade route, which a lot of lazy or non qualified tech have done; eliminates all the engine light features.  G

George, I misunderstood, I thought the board was in the tender.  I see now it's in the locomotive, so I'd certainly try to fit the PS32 board in there.  I've had a couple that I had to remove the plastic case to fit, but I made sure they were protected.

For a scenario like this, I just use my 1/16" aluminum sheet stock and make a custom heatsink.