Wiered problems on the Ruschbahn Cooked Chip (55021) in my Big Brown Mallet (21852.1)

[dunnyrail]

Whilst at the Ruschbahn for his Operating Day yesterday, a strange Electrical problem started to manifest itself. We were loosing power quite a bit. The same happened today as we were just playing trains rather then demonstrating the layout to the Letchworth Model Railway Club gang. We had checked the voltage from his Massoth kit which even from a direct feed was down from around 21v to 18v (AC). Having decided to give up the gost as it was time to go home we decided to LIFT off locomotives and just push stock into the Storage Garage. As I recovered my LGB Brown Mallett all burst into life and the loco was found to be very very hot at the top of one of the tanks. The following Pics show the damage and the two chips from the loco. Note the small round part shown below one of the chips and the brown burn marks on that chip. Frying Tonight.

The good news is that the Loco is OK on straight DC. So a couple of replacement chips will probably sort it all out. Phew.
JonD

Below the 2 chips, note missing bit from the bottom chip. I wonder what caused the part to come off:-
- Had the solder melted.
- Or was it just poorly manufactured and when it fell off caused the chip to fry?

Damage to the top of the tank can just be made out.

Damage inside the tank.

 

[dunnyrail]

Whilst at the Ruschbahn for his Operating Day yesterday, a strange Electrical problem started to manifest itself. We were loosing power quite a bit. The same happened today as we were just playing trains rather then demonstrating the layout to the Letchworth Model Railway Club gang. We had checked the voltage from his Massoth kit which even from a direct feed was down from around 21v to 18v (AC). Having decided to give up the gost as it was time to go home we decided to LIFT off locomotives and just push stock into the Storage Garage. As I recovered my LGB Brown Mallett all burst into life and the loco was found to be very very hot at the top of one of the tanks. The following Pics show the damage and the two chips from the loco. Note the small round part shown below one of the chips and the brown burn marks on that chip. Frying Tonight.

The good news is that the Loco is OK on straight DC. So a couple of replacement chips will probably sort it all out. Phew. There may also be one chip that has not been damaged.
JonD

Below the 2 chips, note missing bit from the bottom chip. I wonder what caused the part to come off:-
- Had the solder melted.
- Or was it just poorly manufactured and when it fell off caused the chip to fry?

Damage to the top of the tank can just be made out.

Damage inside the tank.

 

[Philbahn]

What time was this ? Only last night it threw it down here, so I parked a train in the shed and hit the emergency stop. Then several minutes later I looked out of the window the train was running again. Nobody had been near the handset. Any connection???????????

 

[AndyRush]

I can confirm that the train set is running perfectly now that JD has taken his exploding engine away !

I'm glad it was 'only' a chip....

Andy

 

[dunnyrail]

Yes we had that rain and some thunder too around 1700-1800 yesterday. I can confirm that the layout was all alive and we did some running in the garage. I wonder if that is the connection.

It also took us an age to get things running with any reliability, though this was mostly to do with crud thrown up by the Very heavy rain. Much help from the Somesay Team in this respect.
JonD

 

[stevelewis]

Reading this and noting the mention of Thunder I do think that it may well be something to do with the thunder.

Some years back there were a few articls in the USA mags regarding Thunderstorms and the need to protect against them. There were pics of twisted G scale track etc!

A couple of years back we had a bad storm in the middle of the night, it was almost but not quite overhead a house 1.5 miles away was struck causing around £20K damage.

The next day I came to switch on my railway and found that my Central station was not functioning, no leds lit and the transformer indicated a short circuit. also in the area several computer madems/routers had been damaged and were irrepairable.

The apparent cause was aparently not direct lightening strike but an effect of EMP ( elctro magnetic pulse) caused by close lightining!!!

At the time my system was not plugged in, BUT THE CENTRAL STATION WAS CONNECTED TO THE TRACK OUTSIDE AND IT WAS THOUGHT THE PULSE TRAVELLED BACK THRO THE CABLE¬¬

I think therefore we must perhaps be more aware of this possibility and take precautions, for examples I NEVER leave the Central stations connected to the track when not in use thesedays and certainly remove all power plugs from the mains when not in use.

MANY COMPUTERS HAVE A WARNING TO PROTECT AGAINST ELECTRIC STORMS IN THEIR INSTRUCTIONS STRANGELY I HAVE NEVER SEEN SUCH A WARNING IN MODEL RAILWAY DIGITAL EQUIPMENT!!

 

[KeithT]

Reading this and noting the mention of Thunder I do think that it may well be something to do with the thunder.

Some years back there were a few articls in the USA mags regarding Thunderstorms and the need to protect against them. There were pics of twisted G scale track etc!

A couple of years back we had a bad storm in the middle of the night, it was almost but not quite overhead a house 1.5 miles away was struck causing around £20K damage.

The next day I came to switch on my railway and found that my Central station was not functioning, no leds lit and the transformer indicated a short circuit. also in the area several computer madems/routers had been damaged and were irrepairable.

The apparent cause was aparently not direct lightening strike but an effect of EMP ( elctro magnetic pulse) caused by close lightining!!!

At the time my system was not plugged in, BUT THE CENTRAL STATION WAS CONNECTED TO THE TRACK OUTSIDE AND IT WAS THOUGHT THE PULSE TRAVELLED BACK THRO THE CABLE¬¬

I think therefore we must perhaps be more aware of this possibility and take precautions, for examples I NEVER leave the Central stations connected to the track when not in use thesedays and certainly remove all power plugs from the mains when not in use.

MANY COMPUTERS HAVE A WARNING TO PROTECT AGAINST ELECTRIC STORMS IN THEIR INSTRUCTIONS STRANGELY I HAVE NEVER SEEN SUCH A WARNING IN MODEL RAILWAY DIGITAL EQUIPMENT!!

The other possibilty for damage of this type is induction.
Years ago an uncle of mine had one of the first digital cordless phones. Whilst using it during a thunderstorm it burst into flames
and burned his ear!

 

[stevelewis]

Reading this and noting the mention of Thunder I do think that it may well be something to do with the thunder.

Some years back there were a few articls in the USA mags regarding Thunderstorms and the need to protect against them. There were pics of twisted G scale track etc!

A couple of years back we had a bad storm in the middle of the night, it was almost but not quite overhead a house 1.5 miles away was struck causing around £20K damage.

The next day I came to switch on my railway and found that my Central station was not functioning, no leds lit and the transformer indicated a short circuit. also in the area several computer madems/routers had been damaged and were irrepairable.

The apparent cause was aparently not direct lightening strike but an effect of EMP ( elctro magnetic pulse) caused by close lightining!!!

At the time my system was not plugged in, BUT THE CENTRAL STATION WAS CONNECTED TO THE TRACK OUTSIDE AND IT WAS THOUGHT THE PULSE TRAVELLED BACK THRO THE CABLE¬¬

I think therefore we must perhaps be more aware of this possibility and take precautions, for examples I NEVER leave the Central stations connected to the track when not in use thesedays and certainly remove all power plugs from the mains when not in use.

MANY COMPUTERS HAVE A WARNING TO PROTECT AGAINST ELECTRIC STORMS IN THEIR INSTRUCTIONS STRANGELY I HAVE NEVER SEEN SUCH A WARNING IN MODEL RAILWAY DIGITAL EQUIPMENT!!

The other possibilty for damage of this type is induction.
Years ago an uncle of mine had one of the first digital cordless phones. Whilst using it during a thunderstorm it burst into flames
and burned his ear!

Could well be Keith, but what ever it was it did cause quite a few electrical failures in the area, shows we must be a bit more aware of the possibility of this happening more frequently with the way the weather is these days!!

 

[dunnyrail]

Steve,
many thanks for your post and PM to make sure that I read it. After the first post by Philbahn I also remembered the articles in the USA Mags. Now I will need to do something more positive to disconnect the Layout Wire from the track when out of use. I am not so sure that a switch is the best option. I have some nice multi plugs + sockets that will do the job. Only now need to remember to uncouple the things after an operating session. The thought of my nice new Massoth Kit going up in flames or just now working any more does not appeal.
JonD