What to do when you buy a new to you MTH engine from eBay?

First step: Pray hard.

Second step: Not having a charging port means it's a "5-volt" board.  It may last for years, or for minutes.  I would not invest in a supercap to replace the battery, because of the limited life expectancy of the 5-volt board.  If the battery is white, replace immediately; actually, wouldn't hurt to replace it with a new battery

I just listened to a podcast today where they mention a 5v board and how bad it is, just my luck that I have one, figures.  Same with my Rev G TIU which died after a 1/2hr.   Possible to replace with a Lionel legacy board down the road?

Putting Legacy in is possible, but a major chore, you have to make all the wiring harnesses, etc.

I say run it until it craps out.  Some of the 5V boards are still working, I have a few.  Others have died and been buried, but that's another thread.

Ok thanks.  So far so good and it does have a charging port (round) I just found. The front green marker lights didn’t light but the rear red ones work. Running laps now. No issues otherwise. The couplers work so that’s a big plus and the pfa works too.  Heavy locomotive!

Change the battery, check speaker for flaking, apply lube where called for,  and run the wheels off it!

The front marker lights may work if you play around with the various softkeys.  Sometimes one will affect others.

Any harm doing a factory or feature reset? Is that needed?  And I think the battery just died. Runs ok but makes a clicking sound and no horn or bell. Now to find a battery...

Stuck with the DCS Explorer for now so no soft key capability but I will try it after I replace the battery.  

Factory reset might be a good idea, to delete anything prior owner may have set.

@ctcharger posted:

Any harm doing a factory or feature reset? Is that needed?  And I think the battery just died. Runs ok but makes a clicking sound and no horn or bell. Now to find a battery...

Always a good idea to do a factory reset on a reset.

Just an fyi, explorer doesn't always play nice with early ps2.

ctcharger - jhz563 brought up an important point about 'checking the speaker' if you're not already aware of it.  

Some early Proto 2 5 volt locomotives were equipped with a bad batch of speakers, causing the metal coating on them to flake off over time.  Consequently you should check to see if there is flaking metal or shiny metal shavings on the speaker magnet or nearby because if there are, the shavings can create shorts and possibly fry the PS2 boards.  So in that case it's best to replace any flaked speaker BEFORE running the engine anymore.

Good Luck and enjoy playing with your new train.

@ctcharger posted:

• downloaded the manual
• oiled the wheels and gears I can get to easily
• tested the battery (looks like an early PS2 board, no charging port even), battery appears to be fine, sounds and voices are clear
• turn down the volume to a reasonable level (hello! )
• turn off the smoke until ready (yeah, it is an electric engine that has smoke for the water heater, who knew?)
• runs great (early MTH Bi-Polar with die cast everything, wow is it heavy) even at low speeds in both directions, wheels must have been dirty as it stuttered in spots but all good now
• lights work
• couplers fire front and rear
• should I open it up and grease it?
• should I replace the battery with a capacitor now?
• I don't have an operating TIU so no way to tell how much mileage it has but when I do, I will check it out
• start looking for a PS3 board now to replace the early PS2 board or should it be fine?

The first thing I do, is wait till wife goes to the bathroom.  Then run out to the car and sneak it up to the layout.  Be completely done with the task before she comes out.  No brainer here.

Opened it up which was scary. Never done it before. It has a capacitor already so I left it. Seems to be running ok again after a factory reset. I think the wheels and part of my track might be dirty so I will “run the wheels off” as it tows my track cleaner car. And... blowing the horn never gets old 😀.
Some of the insulators came off during the process. Is there a low adhesion glue I can use? They will drop back on but I just need them to not fall off, rather not super glue them in.

@Bryant Dunivan 111417 posted:

The first thing I do, is wait till wife goes to the bathroom.  Then run out to the car and sneak it up to the layout.  Be completely done with the task before she comes out.  No brainer here.

Or do it early in the morning before she's out of bed. Usually works for me.

The first thing I would do would be to PRAY.

So it ran for almost an hour and then started acting "weird" which is what it did yesterday.  Before I knew it had a battery replacement capacitor, I did ask a eBay retailer if their capacitor would work on a 5v PS2 board as they care clearly marketed as 3V PS2 replacements.  The answer was only buy if it you have a 3v PS2 board so I didn't.  Also, as it was running, it found a small dead spot in my track and would go lights out for a moment which my MTH diesel switcher and Liberty Liner blow right through and so I was not aware of it.  Plus, when I pull the Liberty Liner and switcher off the track, the lights stay on and if they have something to say, they say it.  I have some replacement (8.4v) Ni-mh batteries on the way so when they arrive, I am going to replace the capacitor and see what happens now I know how to get into it although the battery is in an awkward spot.  Thankfully the board and such are in the other part of the Bi-polar and I left 2 of the screws off so I can get back into it easily.  That's the working theory anyway and the battery replacements I see all say 3V so I should take them at their word.

I shall pray also!

and thankfully the last loco I bought before I knew about 5V PS2 and all is thankfully a PS3 (whew!)

Plan B would be to replace it with a PS3 board (maybe from another loco?) and upload the sound files from my PC which I have never done but I have heard this is possible.

The battery or capacitor does not keep the train moving.  It only keeps the electronics operating for a few seconds after power is cut.  Your other locos may have different roller spacing or different outer rail pickup configurations.  Specifically, what loco do you have (Model number)?

@RSJB18 posted:

Or do it early in the morning before she's out of bed. Usually works for me.

I just walk in with my new purchase, look at her and say "Yeah, I bought this, got a problem with that?" Ever hear the song  "Move It on Over" By George Thorogood?. . . LOL!!!!

I looked at eBay again and the battery replacement looks to be right for the board from J and W electronics (red case).  So that may not be it. The lights do go off for a moment when it hits the dead spot.  I suppose a capacitor could go bad maybe?

This is the model:

MTH 20-5535-1 Milwaukee E-2 Bi-Polar Electric Loco w/PS2

20-5535-1 | MTH ELECTRIC TRAINS (mthtrains.com)

Very nice loco.  I suspect it's a weak spot on your track that didn't show up before due to roller spacing

could be, the Liberty Liner is quite long but the diesel switcher is not so I will run it today and see what happens.  It is a nice loco, I love the all black paint scheme from back in the day and it weighs a ton. 

On ps3, the capacitor keeps led lights on. On your vintage, not so.  Check roller springs.  Also, better yet, fix the dead spot.  Have you checked that power is on both rails?

I have not, I will do so with my voltmeter and have a look.  I will check the roller springs too and see how they compare to the others.  Thanks!

Rubber cement always works and can be removed easily and safely. If not at local stationary store amazon for sure. Hope this helps It's really great for gluing passengers in their seats

Ok well it might be this simple. I checked the rollers and they seem fine. Also, for as long as the thing is, the rollers are pretty much as close as you can get.   But then I noticed they stick out pretty far and this thing is heavy. I think I pinched the rollers under the cab and so they were sliding instead of rolling. Now it is running great and the dead spot was just the curve I think that jammed up the rollers. It is running laps now so we’ll see. I hope that was it, such a cool locomotive. Live and learn!

So embarrassing, ran for an hour with no problems. Sound, pfa, couplers, the whole bit.  Green marker lights still out but no issues otherwise. Whew!

Update:

learned that with a BCR, it should sit for a minute to charge. Did so and was scolded by the crew to “get going!” which was pretty cool. After watching it go through some switches, it appears the rear roller is not picking up. I will replace it and see what happens. I noticed in my MTH SW1500, which is newer production, has 4 middle rail rollers! A Bi-polar should have something like 10. 😁

Actually, with supercaps, you can start runing right away.  But if power is cut within a few seconds, as when you start a train that has an unknown derailment & breaker opens, the onboard data can get garbled, which requires a deletion from system and re-add.

Anyone recommend someone who repairs MTH locomotives? I have a nice EF-3 set that I would really to make operational even if I have to buy a legacy boards for them.

I recommend GGG.  He's done some work for me and is both reasonable and knowledgeable.  Gunrunner John is also good.

Ok great. I am going to see what happens in conventional mode first. I am trying to use DCS explorer and it may not work on an EF-3 with only one loco slot open. Not sure. Bothers me that the lights don’t come on though. My Liberty Liner has 2 powered units but they are connected with a cable so it shows up as one unit. The EF-3 just couples with a pin, even underneath the 2 powered units.

ctcharger - I agree wth what RJR said.  Their email addresses are in their profiles and, if you contact GGG, he - like gunrunnerjohn - may suggest a cheaper yet reliable alternative rather than installing Legacy which apparently is a "major chore."

Good Luck!

Agreed, that is a last resort for sure.

Purchased these units recently.  Other than the track/panto power source switch being labeled wrong, they work great in a straight section.  For some reason, the C unit is derailing on 0-90 curves so I need to trouble shoot that.  If anyone has experienced that before, please let me know.  I will figure it out eventually but any help would be great.

https://mthtrains.com/20-5696-1

One other thing, check the motor to truck mounting screw to make sure it's tight. I recently bought two used MTH RS-27s and both had one motor that was just about ready to fall out because the screw ( on the bottom of the truck in line with the motor) had backed off, due to years of direction changes I suppose.

I did that to myself, it looked like it was tight, wasn't even close.