Rayman4449

Got your email thank you and just sent a reply

Sorry I should have specified to look at my signature. www.rayman4449.com

The GS-4s are now shipping. So far from what I see, 70-3028-1 is what is being sent out. I don't have updates on the other GS-4 versions but should be relatively soon.

I do yes. Visit my website and send me an email to the listed email address and will get a tracking email going with the details

Sounds like you have confirmed it most likely is the speaker. I have an upgraded version available for $25.00 + shipping.

Same issue as I described above and cleans up easily with rubbing alcohol. Of all the engines I have bought for my personal collection none have had that problem. Only some that had bad batch of rubber.

Hi there, I'm not sure how to identify certain production runs. Haven't converted any of these to battery power but with how slow these are stock I would be using a battery voltage as high as your control electronics will allow. Battery voltage affects top speed. For the Hudson I would be getting a good size(ie Mah capacity) battery. I would retain all existing wiring and isolate the track power pickups as is standard practice. I've never seen a wiring diagram on the engines and have just used a voltmeter to determine what the pinouts are. Since you are in the tender this will be straight forward. (Two are track power pickups, 2 are for marker lights and the other 2 are for reverse/backup light as I recall). While you could get a pin out from someone, you are better off doing this yourself just in case there has been some sort of change. If they change the wiring pin-outs and you rely on what someone else tells you they are, you'll end up blowing something up. If you blow something up you will then be spending 10x more time trying to fix and procure replacement parts than if you had just confirmed everything with your voltmeter. Raymond

I've ordered the Split jaws from Reindeer pass as well and swear by them: http://www.reindeerpass.com/splitjawrailclamps.aspx?page=2 Part Number: SJ40030

I believe the last time I ordered I got them off ebay (direct from Split Jaw).

It isn't clear to me what must have happened. There is nothing on the tender itself that would cause anything to short. In any sort of short event, damage will happen in an instant and only a fuse has any chance of providing protection. It is hard to know what is going on but assuming a short occurred, there was an avg amperage load of 3amp on the layout (and if all engines stopped except Big Boy then there was likely 1amp load max). When the event occurred, between 7 and 9amps was allowed to be drawn/shorted which is enough to damage power traces or electronics.(power supply is 10amp max output) because fuse wasn't in-place when it happened. Also, since another tech has opened up the engine and made modifications, it adds variables that I now can no longer account for. If this is now some sort of main PS3 board failure, hopefully this isn't an after effect of latent damaged done by running the engine under PWM as that board currently in there was exposed to PWM power for some time before that was corrected. I do now have a retainer available to slide on the drawbar end to hold the drawbar in place but it fits on tight. As far as the drawbar twisting, need to confirm if the drawbar is twisting when tender is disconnected when you move side to side or only if connected to the tender. Blown internal fuses between the front and rear engine sets would limit power pickup from front engine set and wouldn't impact motor drive not functioning. The fuses I installed should protect the PCB traces in 99% of derailment/track level shorts.

Very nice work

I just confirmed with a phone call that Tom was able to get the engine running on the layout so the analysis I provided was correct.

There are no other battery packs in the engine. This isn't an issue I have run into, but I would first suspect/replace the speakers. Did you use the smoke units a lot (perhaps overfill them) and are the engines stored indoors? I have replacement speakers for $15.00 each. If you are able to drop the tank and take photos of the speaker might be good to see it here if you could post a photo. Front and back.

G scale has always been a small market. Has it shrunk? Could very well be, but I can say sales for MTH has been good enough that MTH is now moving forward with their new SD70ACe in G scale, announced in the thread below. They had the prototype developed some time ago but were waiting for the economy to recover from the last recession. USA Trains is rolling out a UP FEF 4-8-4. So things are still moving in G scale, they just move much slower because of the low sales volumes. The sales volumes aren't there to support the profits to reinvest in new tooling every couple of years. As a result new tooling gets stretched out to much longer time intervals. To add to the discussion points, G scale's wow factor of size also creates a downside which is customer limited storage space which I think also contributes to lower quantities of engines and rolling stock that each customer owns.

Hi there, Just got off the phone and wanted to summarize the discussion. The problems described indicate system operation issues and below are what I see as the problem: Regarding not operating on the main layout but working fine on the bench, the one thing being done differently is on the bench when track power is turned on, track power was being immediately set to 18v soon as power was turned on. On the layout, the voltage was being very slowly turned up to 18v. Slowly turning up the voltage can and will make the engine auto power up and startup in analog mode. What was explained was they could blow the whistle and bell with remote but engine wouldn't move.... Yes that is correct. When the engine starts-up in analog mode you can still blow the bell and whistle but it won't respond to commands to move from the remote as it is in Analog mode, not Command mode. Whenever track power is first applied with TIU in place, it is imperative that track power go to 18-24v immediately and not slowly turned up. When that happens the engine will stay silent just like it does on the bench. (The fact that it works every time on the bench and not on the layout is an indicator of an operational issue and something was different between the two, which was the focus of my questions to try and determine what was different/changed.) The other problem described was that user could not get the engine to move when trying to run under straight analog DC power. When a PS3 engine first powers up in Analog DC (or AC) (without the TIU connected to the track/power supply wiring), the engine will power up (Lights, sound and/or smoke) but will sit static and won't move. The engine wont move till you drop track voltage to 0 then raise back up. So this is normal behavior and is designed this way so that if an engine accidentally misses a TIU startup signal on the layout that you don't have engines taking off running on the layout at max track voltages which is not good. Here are the different modes and how to operate under each: DC Analog operation: Settings/Configuration TIU = Completely disconnected from power supply and track power wiring DCS/DCC switch on engine = Set to DCS Steps: When you first apply power to the track the engine will power up (Lights/Sound and/or Smoke) but engine will not move. (not moving is correct behavior) To get the engine to move, flip your direction switch to the middle (OFF) where track power is cut off. Then after about a second, flip to the direction you want the engine to move and it will start moving. Instead of using the direction switch you can also use your dial to turn voltage down to zero then back up and then the engine will move. From our discussion and saying that the engine would not move under analog power with the switch set to DCS, this is why. You must drop voltage to the track then bring it back up for it to move. DCS Command Control: (With TIU & Remote or TIU & WIU) Settings/Configuration TIU = Is connected to track wiring. If connected 'Passively' then power supply goes to FIXED 1 output ports of TIU only with + to RED and - to BLACK. (If track power polarity to the TIU terminals is incorrect, you will get Engine not found when trying to use the remote. So polarity to TIU is critical. Polarity to engine does not matter in this case because it is PS3 equipped. DCS/DCC switch on engine = Set to DCS Steps: Have DCS/DCC switch already set to DCS on engine with track power off (and engine having been sitting with no power for at least 30 seconds. Turn power to the track on. (Track power needs to be increased to the 18-24v QUICKLY or instantly the moment power is turned on). After track power is applied, the engine should sit there quiet with NO sound, lights or smoke. It is powered up in command mode and waiting for commands. After you apply track power, WAIT ABOUT 5 SECONDS and let the TIU fully boot up. Note: If you turn track power up slowly the engine will power up under analog mode and auto power up. That is what I think is happening here. It was explained that track power was being turned up very very slowly which for sure will cause the problem. (Note: For any engine that is powered up but not moving and you have the TIU in place, you can use your remote/Wifi app to select "Legacy Mode" to change the engine to DCS Command mode so you can fully control the engine with the remote/App) On the bench when track power is turned on it goes instantly to 18v but on the layout track power was being slowly increased. This sounds exactly like the issue. I will also note that you could be having an issue where the voltage is set so low that the engine powers up but the TIU isn't powered properly. DCC switch: The only time the DCC switch should be set to DCC is if you are trying to use DCC control equipment (Digitrax systems, etc). So for DCS or Analog DC/AC users, you will NEVER need to flip that switch. Just leave on DCS and forget it. To summarize: I believe the problem here was two-fold 1) DC Analog operation, could not get the engine to move. This is most likely because was not dropping track voltage and bringing it back up. Motors dont engage until you drop voltage to zero and then raise back up. If the switch is set to DCC, the engine will start moving immediately soon as track power is first applied. 2) Engine not responding on the layout but was on the bench Track power was being applied instantly to 18v on the bench but very slowly on the layout. Applying power slowly to the engine when trying to run under DCS control will cause engine to startup under analog mode and not DCS mode. If track power is instantly applied to 18v on the main layout this should clear the issue. Also, after track power is turned on, WAIT ABOUT 5 SECONDS and let the TIU fully boot up. This has been a bit of a saga with damaged TIUs and erratic control prior to this and took time to identify that the power supply being used was PWM (Pusle Width Modulated) which was causing all the problems and headaches up to this point. PWM power can and was damaging the TIUs being used and creates absolutely havoc with model train control electronics. So a lot of progress has been made and are just down to what appears to be a couple of system operation items. Anytime anyone ever has issues and can't seem to resolve them, I recommend to stop and read/re-read the following two checklists I created and have posted on my DCS Tips page: Operational / DCS System Setup Checklist: http://www.rayman4449.com/DCS_Tips.htm#Quick_summary_checklist-Operational_DCS_System_setup Track/Layout & Power Supply Checklist: http://www.rayman4449.com/DCS_Tips.htm#Quick_Summary_Checklist_Track_Layout-Powersupply_to_maximize_track_signal Raymond

Trip for the 150th Golden Spike Celebration is complete - 05/19/19 - Union Pacific UP crew, left to right (844 to 4014): Ted Schulte, Kirt Clark, Bruce Kirk, Garland Baker, Troy Plagge, Jimmy Thompson, Don Crerar, Austin Barker, Ed Dickens. Kevin Andrusia - 051919 UP crew, left to right (844 to 4014): Ted Schulte, Kirt Clark, Bruce Kirk, Garland Baker, Troy Plagge, Jimmy Thompson, Don Crerar, Austin Barker, Ed Dickens. Cyberdoctor - 051919 Bob Kise - 05/08/19 Scriptunas Photo Gidget Transtrum (051919) James Guffey 051319 Greg Brubaker 050819 Chris Mohs 051419

Joe McMillan (05/13/19) Steve Alder (05/13/19) R.B. Clark (051319) Robert Davis (051319) Solomon Tucker - (051319) Christian Cuggino (051319) Mike Grothman - (051719)

Great videos and photos, thank you for sharing! Can also follow this thread for photos and videos as well:

Thank you Ben and Sean!

To clarify for anyone reading this later, the question is can a DCC equipped locomotive (with DCC decoder board installed) operate on just analog DC track power. The answer is it depends on the DCC decoder, some can run on DC Analog, some can't. It depends on whether the decoder is dual mode (DC & DCC) or single mode (DCC only). MTH PS3 boards (which have DCC decoders built-in) for example can operate on DC analog. Also note that an engine classified as "DCC ready" means that it is setup to accept a DCC Decoder but that decoder is NOT installed. Expect that most (if not all) DCC ready engines are setup to run on DC analog power.

UP Promo video:

Video in 1080p HD, 60fps and is 1 hour 4 mins long. Excellent video

Union Pacific live stream and video from the 150th Golden Spike Ceremony: https://www.facebook.com/unionpacific/videos/366579940642323/ Trains Magazine Live stream of ceremony: Other videos from the Ceremony: https://www.facebook.com/jeff.cordsen/videos/10218520411018881/ Trains magazine interview on how well 4014 fired: Trains Magazine video at the end of ceremony:

4k Drone footage from 5/8/19: