I'm using TMC see in legacy only i'm going to try to post a couple videos for my YouTube page just so I can give you guys an idea what's going on
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Might be a silly question, but does your base have earth ground connection? i.e. the ground pin goes into the wall outlet.
TrainingDave posted:Might be a silly question, but does your base have earth ground connection? i.e. the ground pin goes into the wall outlet.
Yes The crazy thing about it is it only happens a certain engine and actually in a certain area of the layout on all three lines ?
Definitely a signal issue. Have you had the engine apart? Often, the problem is caused by a disconnected or pinched antenna wire.
Bruce
it is not the holding of the remote, it is your hand and body acting like a larger antenna.
where is you base located?
and could you hold the phone horizontal? the picture will be better to view.
brwebster posted:Definitely a signal issue. Have you had the engine apart? Often, the problem is caused by a disconnected or pinched antenna wire.
Bruce
No I haven't had any of the engines apart personally I don't mess with them I take them in to have them fixed when I have a problem But thank you for your input sir
bigdodgetrain posted:it is not the holding of the remote, it is your hand and body acting like a larger antenna.
where is you base located?
and could you hold the phone horizontal? the picture will be better to view.
Got you on the body has an antenna the base is located rate in this area that I'm have all the issues actually the closest possible to the track it's right under the table right in that area stretch that I'm having problems and from what I've read before you that Lionell likes you to have all your ground wires run under the track with your track but mines kind a spiderweb out.
Well I'm going to get out a couple other engines this weekend and double check the engines I have on the layout that I know had no problems they were my first test engines that ran and run by there and see if I'm still having problems with them not really sure what to do.��
Looks like a ground plane issue due to multiple parrallel tracks. There are numerous threads on the forum if you do a search.
Mike Reagan also did a video explaining the problem and solution. The ground plane problem is discussed at about the 7:00 mark. Your particular situation is discussed at 12:38
I had the same issue I bought a plug wired up a single wire to the ground post of that plug and ran the wire around my layout mine was caused by multiple levels of the layout. I'll bet if you take the remote away and use just your hand the lights will stop flashing too. the flashing shows a signal issue and since the signal runs thru the ground rails I would think you might have a ground issue in that area of the layout the reason it is only some engines is because some engines are a little better at picking up the signal and there picking it up from somewhere else and not being affected by the signal drop in that area. before I ran the ground plane on my layout I had some engines that would run great no issues at all and some would stop all together and some would just flash in certain areas the ground plan fixed them all. one way to check it is get a wall plug with a ground post hook only a single wire to the ground post and lay it between the rails in that area and see if it goes away lay it between the loops of track
RickO posted:Looks like a ground plane issue due to multiple parrallel tracks. There are numerous threads on the forum if you do a search.
Mike Reagan also did a video explaining the problem and solution. The ground plane problem is discussed at about the 7:00 mark. Your particular situation is discussed at 12:38
Thank you just got home will be checking the video out.
Jhainer posted:I had the same issue I bought a plug wired up a single wire to the ground post of that plug and ran the wire around my layout mine was caused by multiple levels of the layout. I'll bet if you take the remote away and use just your hand the lights will stop flashing too. the flashing shows a signal issue and since the signal runs thru the ground rails I would think you might have a ground issue in that area of the layout the reason it is only some engines is because some engines are a little better at picking up the signal and there picking it up from somewhere else and not being affected by the signal drop in that area. before I ran the ground plane on my layout I had some engines that would run great no issues at all and some would stop all together and some would just flash in certain areas the ground plan fixed them all. one way to check it is get a wall plug with a ground post hook only a single wire to the ground post and lay it between the rails in that area and see if it goes away lay it between the loops of track
Thank you for that info I will try the ground wire tonight, with all the grounded rails you would think signal would not be a problem lol. Thanks again I will update.
Charles7777,
Here is my suggestion, run another Legacy drop from your 990 base to the opposite outside rail in that section, as we do when we run the DCS/Legacy combination, giving you a dual Legacy Signal to your engine, I use a gold single Banana plug to connect the track wires to the 990 Legacy Base, to assure the wires are connected properly, this will probably give you the signal that you are now loosing, and your TMCC/Legacy Engines will pick up the double signal and should run correctly.
Also if you have your Legacy 990 Base plugged into a multi plug Bar, plug the Legacy 990 Base directly into a well Grounded Wall Outlet, most Multi plug Bars are not properly grounded for the Legacy 990 Base requirements.
PCRR/Dave
Dave, the signal in question is not the track signal, but rather the distributed earth ground signal. Your suggestion does nothing to improve that signal. Truthfully, I've never heard of having to run a track signal to multiple drops.
Guns,
My layout runs both DCS & Legacy and after taking MartyF advise on setting up the Double Legacy Signal on both outside rails, my layout runs perfectly. I am simply passing this double Legacy signal advise along. If I were him I would give the double signal technique a try, even without the DCS, if he has DCS he should set it up as MartyF advises using the out, on the TIU's Black Channels. You are taking for granted that his signal problem, is simply an earth ground problem, maybe - maybe not. I actually believe he may have some faulty track in that portion of his layout, sense all the rest of his layout has a strong signal, and this double Legacy feed to opposite outside rails may actually cure his problem.
I also advised him that most multi-plug bars are not grounded properly for Legacy use.
PCRR/Dave
Has anyone tried running a earth ground wire between 2 parallel track buried in the ballast? 3 track perhaps 2 earth ground wires. ?
Or would a earth ground Zig zag pattern underneath the layout work as well?
Dave....Adding an additional signal wire from the U connection is a good idea IMHO depending on the track.... Probably don't need it with Lionel tubular track, however with it's not going to hurt anything. We like to drop feeders to both outside rails (GarGraves) which eliminates most of the problems due to lack of continuity at frogs , switches. Apparently the TMCC signal will jump over a dead joint but not forever.
Pine Creek Railroad posted:Charles7777,
Here is my suggestion, run another Legacy drop from your 990 base to the opposite outside rail in that section, as we do when we run the DCS/Legacy combination, giving you a dual Legacy Signal to your engine, I use a gold single Banana plug to connect the track wires to the 990 Legacy Base, to assure the wires are connected properly, this will probably give you the signal that you are now loosing, and your TMCC/Legacy Engines will pick up the double signal and should run correctly.
Also if you have your Legacy 990 Base plugged into a multi plug Bar, plug the Legacy 990 Base directly into a well Grounded Wall Outlet, most Multi plug Bars are not properly grounded for the Legacy 990 Base requirements.
PCRR/Dave
This is exactly what I'm going to try to do are used to have a bigger layout with multiple lines next to each other never had a problem but I was not running legacy at that time just cab One
Gregg posted:Has anyone tried running a earth ground wire between 2 parallel track buried in the ballast? 3 track perhaps 2 earth ground wires. ?
Or would a earth ground Zig zag pattern underneath the layout work as well?
Dave....Adding an additional signal wire from the U connection is a good idea IMHO depending on the track.... Probably don't need it with Lionel tubular track, however with it's not going to hurt anything. We like to drop feeders to both outside rails (GarGraves) which eliminates most of the problems due to lack of continuity at frogs , switches. Apparently the TMCC signal will jump over a dead joint but not forever.
Yes matter fact I did last night I ran a wire rate between both tracks it really did not make a difference in my case
I would like to thank all of you for your responses and your information but I'm going to try Dave's idea first, yes Dave I do have the legacy plugged into a surge strip plug I will be changing that also thanks again for the info.
Charles7777,
Let us know if the technique cures your problem.
PCRR/Dave
Pine Creek Railroad posted:Guns,
My layout runs both DCS & Legacy and after taking MartyF advise on setting up the Double Legacy Signal on both outside rails, my layout runs perfectly. I am simply passing this double Legacy signal advise along.
Given that you run Fastrack, the signal is on both rails already, so it's a mystery, at least to me, how that helped. However, whatever works for you. 
bigdodgetrain posted:
Thanks for that link, just checked it out tomorrow I will be changing some things, but I maybe needing that peace from Dale I have read a lot of Dales post over the years and a few others, great info now I'm at the point of my layout to utilize the tips.
Pine Creek Railroad posted:Charles7777,
Let us know if the technique cures your problem.
PCRR/Dave
Dave this is going to be long story lol But with a happy ending, first I did change from where I had the legacy power cord plugged in at and went right to a main outlet, but here is the crazy thing a while back my ZW with 180 bricks had a short in D and so I went with my old power base for this line and plugged a 180 brick in to it. that's when I seen that my ground wire from the base was hooked to the D common on ZW. So I move the wire to C common on the ZW, started running the same engine that I had problems with and no flickering of lights ran smooth happy, happy. This weekend I will be getting back two engines that I had checked out but they did not find anything wrong with them, so I think I solved the problem. Thanks again for all info Charles.
Charles7777,
It happens all the time, correct wiring is mandatory ! Glad you got everything back in order and running well again. Let us know how the other 2 engines run on your tracks now.
PCRR/Dave
When running the earth ground wire, can you run this wire to a terminal block then run feeders like a star pattern to various sections of the layout? Does it hurt to daisy chain the earth ground wires? When running the wire between parallel tracks does the wire have to be at the same height as the rails or can it be slightly below the rails? The Mike Reagan video seemed to explain many of the issues with the Lionel system. I had given up buying TMCC related engines. I hope this earth ground wire resolves the issue.
