TMCC signal loss on two engines

It sounds like you are not getting enough of the airborne signal from the house and earth grounding system.  (The engines' antennas do not pick up the track signal!)

1.  Is the power supply for your Base plugged directly into a 3-prong outlet at the wall?

2.  Are there specific areas where the problem is worse (e.g. near overhead tracks, trackside metal buildings, multiple parallel tracks)?

 

Locomotives vary in sensitivity.  You could also improve the engines by adding additional antenna mass.  If the GP9 is a plastic shell, this is fairly easy.  I don't know the specifics for the Mikado.

Flickering lights are a loss of TMCC signal, so the problem is not too much signal.  Hand over enhance what has been called the ground plane and allows the TMCC to receive the signals.

 

Now the big question is it your layout or is it these 2 engines.  How many other TMCC engines do you have and do they work well on your layout?

 

First step would be to inspect these two engines and ensure the antenna wire, boards are all connected/seated well, no part of antenna touching frame ground.  If that all looks well, if you could test these engines on someone elses layout where a lot of TMCC engines run fine, it could help you determine if you have 2 engines with R2LC with low sensitivity, or a layout that has ground plane issues and poor TMCC signal strength.  G

I'm guessing the K-Line steamer has an isolated tender shell for the antenna.  If so, make SURE it's totally isolated.

I have written an in-depth description of the TMCC signal at http://www.trainfacts.com/trainfacts/?p=317 .  This will help explain what happens with multiple tracks, overhead metal, etc.

The track does have two mainlines and a yard on one long straight and the area by the yard has the worst signal. They seem to act up the most next to the yard. 

 

I had a friend suggest creating a TMCC booster and may try that. 

 

If I were to run a ground wire around the layout were would I place the wire. Underneath the Layout? 

 

Between the main lines or the yard and main lines. The main lines and yard add up to 3 blocks.

 

It's a little vague on the best placement of the ground wire? 

 

Dale I read your webpage on this issue and thought I would try some practical tests.

 

Running a ground wire very close or under did correct the issue. The problem is that this is not practical to add the amount of wire and correctly position it so the signal gets to these two temperamental engines out of the 8 that work fine.

I might as well line the benchwork with tinfoil and ground that. It would be easier. 

 

So I still  believe there is an issue with the products being too sensitive or might be installed built assembly issue.

 

I created a test track and used a ZW with the command base on one 2ft piece of track not connected to anything. 

 

The engine was a lot better but it still exhibited the same issues  but much less. I would still loose control and had to place my hand near the tender to gain it back. It worked 3 our of 4 times . The headlight flickered only after moving not constantly as before using the whole mainline. 

 

I sent back the Atlas to have them straighten out their issue and I will have the gentleman that installed my Electric RR take another look at the install as I believe there is something wrong with the engine. 

 

Thanks for your help. 

 

I can now put my layout back together. 

Sounds like it is the engines.  Thanks for the feedback.  I have experienced this with a unit, and you can spend many hours working inside the engine trying to improve reception and once you swap out the R2LC all is fine.  In fact I had one engine work fine with the antenna not installed, after the receiver was changed.  G

I've often considered creating a TMCC booster product.  Since the issue seems to normally be the ground plane signal, what's to stop someone from amplifying the 455khz signal from the ground plane and distributing that around the layout.

I've done no work on the concept, but hearing about issues like this makes me wonder if that would be a useful product.