TMCC / 3rdRail Troubleshooting: Suspect motor and/or TMCC board

Do you have a Cab1  just curious if you have the same problem using it. I wondering if for some reason there not receiving the signal correctly. You said you tried a reset. Wondering also if the antenna in the engine is receiving the signal there all 3 rail wondering if there may be a problem. The second set does not seem to be a motor problem as you can get them to run. 

How about a complete reprogramming. Make sure nothing is on the tracks when doing so. It should not be a problem but have come across with TMCC where it was. I even had one off the tracks but sitting right next to the track and a problem because it still had some power from the 9V battery. To be honest with you I had the symptoms of the first engine one time when I needed to replace the batteries in the cab1. But do not believe this to be your problem. 

Its either got something binding in the drive, check all the rods or there is an issue with the board but i bet some drive rod pard is bent causing it to bind

Need to see which TMCC operating system to help.  Old TAS system, OEM Lionel or newer ERR.  Does it have cruise or not.  You can try reseating the boards.

For the first one I would swap a known working R2LC in.  G

These sound like TAS EOB issues. The 2-10-2s may be TAS SAW boards too. Continuous whistle usually means the board is not seeing the speed sensor on the flywheel. If they all have EOB boards you can try reprogramming them including the key strokes for startup, etc. The manuals for TAS EOB and TAS SAW boards can be found in last sticky at the top of this forum.

Pete

First engine sounds like an antenna issue. Depending on the vintage, some of their tenders had the whole tender and frame isolated from the wheels along with the coupler and drawbar. Look closely for insulators on the coupler and drawbar, the best clue is insulated axles. If it was an aftermarket upgrade, most guys try to just isolate the shell (I now bury a strip antenna in the coal pile). Easiest way to troubleshoot is to pull the shell off and/or disconnect drawbar from engine. This is the first thing I check whenever I get a new (used) 3rd Rail engine.

Second set of engines look like a combo of cruise off (if equipped) and low track voltage. 

Would be nice to know what TMCC controls you have (SAW, EOB, or ERR).

As soon as he moves the throttle on both, the buzzing starts which makes me thing the motor is comming on but its not able to move due to increased resistance in the drive. Take the belt off and see if the motor moves thru all the speed steps

Thanks for the contributions everyone.
Up to this point, I've only been able to tackle one engine's issues so far - the O-5.

I can provide that the board is an R2LC08. Engine/tender do not look like they have been modified.
As far as reprogramming - I've done what I've found so far: Engine in program mode <Engine ID> <SET>...<Engine ID> <AUX 1> <4> <SET>. Have also tried <8> instead of <4> - no joy.
Photos of the tender disassembled are provided, for what they may be worth.
In short, nothing appears to be disconnected, or wiring severed. You are all smarter than me on these issues, but I'm wondering about the antenna issue theorized - all the other signals are received and acted upon (whistle, coupler, direction, smoke). It's only the movement that won't work.
I'd perhaps be curious to hear more about the tach theory. I disassembled the locomotive and could see that the motor tach strip are all in place. I could see the sensor that looks at the tach strip. But visual is all I could do. Not sure how to go about testing that particular functionality.

Regarding the tach sensor it should be .030" away from the flywheel. With the shell off the engine and plugged into the tender the LED should flash when detecting a stripe on the flywheel.

Here is a link to the manual.

https://ogrforum.com/...OB%20Complete.pdfPet

I was able to verify a good tach signal: Tach led illuminatd and would flash when I rotated the actual tachwheel.
Went through the manual and performed program steps on page 28 and 29. When I got to the step of pressing the "BOOST" key to get the engine moving in the lowest speed step, I was still confronted with the same initial symptom: whistle would blow non-stop until throttled back down. No movement of the locomotive or motor.
What should I be looking at next? Manual didn't have a problem/troubleshooting section addressing this specific situation.

Thanks.

Can it move at all in conventional? 

The TAS EOB board blows the horn when something is amiss, I think you have a board failure.

Norm has a good suggestion. If it moves in conventional then there may be an open in the circuit between the sensor and the main board in the tender. Bad tether or connector??

Pete

You can bypass the EOB speed sensor by turning cruise off. See instructions.

EOB Cruise Control Guide (With CAB-1 Commands):
Your model is equipped with Train America Studios E.O.B. (Engineer On
Board) Cruise Control. All features of the cruise control can be accessed
through entering commands using the CAB-1 remote. Enter the
commands slowly as it takes time for the signal to be received by the
circuitry. With this system you can operate your model in 3 modes, 32
Step Cruise compatible with Lionel, 128 Step Cruise, compatible with
MTH and Cruise OFF. Enter the following commands slowly, pressing
each button and waiting 1/2 second before pressing the next.
[DIR], [AUX1], [AUX1], [AUX1], [1] - 32 Speed Step Cruise (Lionel Comp.)
[DIR], [AUX1], [AUX1], [AUX1], [2] - 128 Speed Step Cruise (MTH Comp.)
!!!  [DIR], [AUX1], [AUX1], [AUX1], [3] - Cruise Control Turned OFF !!!

If the model operates fine without cruise, then leave it that way. If you want to upgrade with ERR components, we got them.

Scott Mann

my Sunset Allegheny sounded just like your second video. It was before I had learned that you could reprogram them.

Maybe the start voltage was off or whatever. I also couldn't control the loco at times and had to put my hand over the tender to get it to run in some areas. Not knowing any better, I just yanked it all out and installed MTH ps2 board set and MTH smoke unit. It seemed like an archaic system to me.

I have the board set still laying here and never looked back at it. I run mainly all MTH so it was the best solution for sound and smoke. Later on, I had acquired a M1 that I used just at Christmas around the tree, and had it on the shelf the rest of the time. I learned here on the forum to program the engine and get much better control out of it. I did not know just how much the TMCC system could program. I am not the kind of person who likes to memorize functions and such. So it will probably remain one of the few TMCC stock engines I'll keep.

BTW, I don't use the stock smoke unit. I hate those old heater tube types. Great engines. I would like to put PS3 into them now with fan driven smoke units.