Help required please due to problems resuscitating my LGB/MTS digital based garden railway

TimGDB

TimGDB

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I have not operated in my garden railway for two years and only infrequently for five or six before that and promised my grandsons - one of whom recently became 6 , the other is 11 - that it will be working in the school holidays. I have achieved the basics of some of the trains running satisfactorily without derailment in my very sloping garden which required considerable ‘civil engineering’. However, none of the extras such as electric points and some built-in sound which so appeal to children are functioning properly. Firstly, I cannot get the electric point decoders in the blocks of 4 to work though I have followed the instructions in the LGB manuals robustly, instead of getting the S after pressing point function and previously connecting the programming top to my remote I get a capital C and on pressing F that changes to a small d followed by two blanks. I did successfully manage all this went first constructing my garden railway and I followed exactly the same procedures, hopefully it is not because all of my four decoders have ceased working due to non-use.

Secondly a number of my favourite LGBT sound inbuilt sound locos with a pair of Buhler motors - the Rugen and the Sachsen - have only one motor functioning therefore having to drag the other that’s not suitable for gradients et cetera and two logos do not work at all. I have tried dismantling to put life is directly to the wheels or motor as one does with brushes on 00 locos but this has not proved successful . Finally I have a number of Bachman and Accucraft logos that used to work through my MTS by assigning the code 0 but they no longer do so, they do just make a slight hissing sound and I have tried all positions of the switch under the Smokebox to differentiate weather is it North American/ NMRA et cetera. Though my grandsons have been the nudge I needed I really want to get fully back into the hobby myself and happy to meet up with anybody nearby, I do have some never used live steam as well, I live in Mumbles, Swansea. I will try some attachments but am usually informed the videos are too long.
Best wishes,
Tim Bull
 

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Your Rugen is I guess the Diesel with the flycranks as shown in your middle picture? Often known as Wizzy Cranks on here. The Rugen also has 0-8-0 locomotives and the recently introduced by LGB 2-10-2 Tank.

Quite often if the loco has seen some working one of the motors could be trashed. Replacement of both is generally the best option. But in your case it could be that the lubrication is well old and needs cleaning of to be replaced with new fresh lubrication.
LGB 51020 for the gears
LGR 50019 for the bearings and the rear of wheels where pickup brushes rub on.

Sorry cant comment on the point decoders, they appear to be witchcraft to me.
 
dunnyrail said:
Your Rugen is I guess the Diesel with the flycranks as shown in your middle picture? Often known as Wizzy Cranks on here. The Rugen also has 0-8-0 locomotives and the recently introduced by LGB 2-10-2 Tank.

Quite often if the loco has seen some working one of the motors could be trashed. Replacement of both is generally the best option. But in your case it could be that the lubrication is well old and needs cleaning of to be replaced with new fresh lubrication.
LGB 51020 for the gears
LGR 50019 for the bearings and the rear of wheels where pickup brushes rub on.

Sorry cant comment on the point decoders, they appear to be witchcraft to me.
Click to expand...
Thanks Jon, I have some 51020 so will try that, the Rugen is an 0-6-0 steam tender. The middle picture is the removed bogie with motor from the OBB diesel and I’m thinking there must be a way to test whether the motor will respond to a power feed in the same way that they normally do to providing power to each brush on my old Hornby dublo locos after a period of non use. I can’t understand why the motor would fail after relatively little use but perhaps more a problem with the complex digital chips and wiring shown in the first photo.
 
TimGDB said:
Thanks Jon, I have some 51020 so will try that, the Rugen is an 0-6-0 steam tender. The middle picture is the removed bogie with motor from the OBB diesel and I’m thinking there must be a way to test whether the motor will respond to a power feed in the same way that they normally do to providing power to each brush on my old Hornby dublo locos after a period of non use. I can’t understand why the motor would fail after relatively little use but perhaps more a problem with the complex digital chips and wiring shown in the first photo.
Click to expand...
Ok for the OBB diesel you can test out the motor. Put the base back on and just run a power cable to the skates. Just touching them with the power on will work, but better to use a clip of some sort if upyou have one then turn up the power with the unit upside down. If you can power both bogies in this fashion you ought to be able to make out the dodgy one if indeed one is dodgy. If you get nothing the feed from the skates could be faulty somewhere. As you can see in the picture the skates and wheel plungers are connected by that silver wire.

If the skates give you power ok, now test each wheel leaving the power to the skate one side then each wheel the other side. Repeat for the other side, the purpose of this test is to prove that the plungers are taking power from the wheel to the motor. You can do this test on your locomotives.Though if you do it with the DCC still connected you will need to use DCC power. Fir the OBB dismantled you can use DC. Often a 9v battery in good condition is enough to prove a motor like your OBB disconnected from the chassis.
 
When testing the bogie, the 2 outer pins of the connector go to the motor and the 2 inner to the wheels and skates. You can either bridge the pins 1-2 3-4 and provide power to the skates or just provide power direct to the outer pair.
 
I have only had my garden railway outside for 4 months and have blown one of 2 motors already. I have had 2 derails just today. Part of the hobby. What I did is reduce the grade of the railway seeing as I have much less power now. Good luck we all need it.
 
TTaannggss said:
I have only had my garden railway outside for 4 months and have blown one of 2 motors already. I have had 2 derails just today. Part of the hobby. What I did is reduce the grade of the railway seeing as I have much less power now. Good luck we all need it.
Click to expand...
Had my first derail in a very long time on Monday, but then y GS was running coach first down a gradient towards a curve (LGB R3) at full chat, so not surprising. Good job Playmobil is so hardy to such things :)
 
Oh that engine had a rough start.... Remember when I tried using 22 volts and blew the control. I am not throwing that motor out but not using it for now. I have 3 rolling stock. I might try 1 more then that is that for now. My 8 foot long storage tunnel can only hold one more car anyways. It is all good I think. It is a good hobby for someone who is retired who has a lot of spare time. No gain no pain with a train. Jim
 
With r1 curves on a main line. This hobby is a nightmare. I have to dayly get my level out ..get on my knees and make sure the track is almost perfectly level and smooth...or ..kaboom derail. Rain ..wear and tear ..squirels...and so on quickly deteriorate the track conditions.
 
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This thread really needs breaking into two..

One to deal with getting the loco(s) to run with both motors working.
Possibly a mention of track maintenance, and servicing of the loco's?

The second, to address (no pun) the problems of control (lack of sound, etc.) with the MTS equipment.
I freely admit, that the MTS system is a mystery to me. At least, unless it has a Massoth Navigator hanging off of it!

PhilP
 
Thinking further Tim has not declared what version of MTS, is it the original or possibly Parallel (most items of MTS should have a paper sticker with “P” on it. Not sure it will make a lot of difference as most items will have been working in the past with whatever system it is.

As for forays into running, the original post suggests that has been attended to so the thrust of this thread are MTS issues.
 
Greg Elmassian said:
Can you tell from the underside view it is a 4 pin, vs 3 pin block?

Ttaannggss, blowing motors is not typical in the hobby, and I have blown 1 motor in 20 years, and I deserved it, I ran it way out of it's capability.

Quite often it is a brush issue or a connection in LGB.

Greg
Click to expand...
Looks like a 4 pin to me, If it were a 3 pin, one of the bus bars from the pickups would be going to one of the outer positions to directly connect to the motor.
 
When engines and systems have not been used for awhile, the P system starts up as serial. Track has power as the DC engines have a pinging sound. I would try to test the DCC engines on DC power. Also if stored it is possible the decoders defaulted to address 3. To set up older MTS engines it is very easy with the computer interface/software.
 
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