It just stopped going. Newbie troubleshooting help please.


Sampson

New Member
Hello all,

I am very new to model railroading. I received a free MTH RailKing Harley-Davidson O Scale set. It worked great for the first 5-10 operations to my 3-year-old son's delight, and then it stopped working. I've cleaned and tested the track - 14.6 volts and continuity all the way around the simple oval. I've disassembled the engine and found continuity EXCEPT all the way from the pickups to the engine. There is continuity from the green printed wiring board to the engine, and there is continuity from the pickups to the green printed wiring board, but not all the way from the pickups, through the green PWB, to the engine. I think, and I really am an electrical novice, that the interruption is at the 10-pin printed wiring board that connects power to all areas - sounds, lights, engine. I temporarily rigged some power from a 9-volt battery directly to the engine - that works. But if I rig the same power from the pickup rollers (forgive my terminology) to the engine, no dice.

Being a newbie, I checked to see how much it would cost to just buy a new engine - I was floored - $899.99. That's not going to happen. Does anyone know a way to make sure I have correctly diagnosed the trouble spot as the little green printed wiring board? And if so, what do I do now?

Thanks for any thoughts,
Sampson
Wisconsin
 
Sounds like you narrowed it down to the PWB allright.
Have you looked into the cost of a replacement board?
Failing that I believe sending it to MTH might be the asnswer.
I'm sure someone here has experience with these, could be a simple fix if you know what to do...
 
Are there any copper traces on the board that look burnt or broken? It may be a matter of going over the whole board wiuth a mag glass or a good loupe to see if something has burnt out.

Mark
 
I appreciate the quick advice - thank you.
I sort of hotwired the engine and ran it a little bit for my boy, but I can't believe it's a good idea if I want it to last at all. And the sparks at one particular point were more excitement than we needed.

The underside of the PWB has 10 connection strips, but only 5 are easy to see with the naked eye. I'll bring it to work tomorrow for some magnified inspection, and maybe a repair is in order. Thanks for the feedback.

I'll post if I find a fried strip. Thanks again.
 
I'd really send it back to MTH for repair since it never worked right to begin with. I don't know who long you've had it but MTH will usually honor their one year warranty with a repair or replacement. The more you fool around with it, the more you are likely to violate the warranty. Yours is not the only report I've read of MTH O scale engines failing almost out of the box. They seem to have some real quality control problems.
 



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