Controller power keeps tripping out

[Bobster673]

Hi I've got a Flying Scotsman Live Steam set which was bought new but has been in its box for a couple of years. Have set it up as per the manual, all ok and started fine. Then the power to the controller tripped out, which I can reset by unplugging the transformer, however every time the engine warms up it trips out again. Voltage meter is running about 15V. Any ideas as to what the problem could be would be gratefully recieved. Many thanks. Rob

[OOLiveSteamClub]

Are you sure it has water in it?
Adrian Campbell

[Go_West]

Fill up with water and put engine on track when the power unit trips pull the small white plug from the tender to the cab reset the power by pulling out the plug and replace, if the unit does not trip but the buzzer in the controller sounds and the power ON LED flashes then the fault is in the engine or if the power unit trips straight off try putting a sheet of paper under all the loco wheels and reset, if the unit still trips the fault is in the tender.

[brianandbillie]

I have the same set up, my train was running and stopped both red and green lights went out. I now find my controler cuts out even when it is not connected to the tracks. I have checked there is no short on the track and the train has water and oil.Any

ideas

[Brightstar]

How much water did you put in the tender. You need about two and one half of the big sringe full not 2 and one half millilitres. I made this mistake the first time I tried out my live steam engine

If you only put in 2.5ml then it boils away almost

instantly and the controller will keep triping.

[Go_West]

[reply]brianandbillie

When you say it cuts out these controlers will if they do not detect an engine they are not like standard power unit that one can switch on and power will be supplied to the track with or out an engine. Try this and let me

know what happens?

1. First with no engine Disconnect the lead at the plug end to the track and switch ON power turn heat control up full, if OK then.....
2. With no engine on the track replace the plug with the power still on if the unit shuts

down and a buzzer is sounding, switch OFF then ON again as a time out will kick in if no engine is seen by the controller. if OK switch OFF using the rocker switch at the back of the unit then......
3. Fill a cold engine with water and put it on the track

press the rocker switch to power ON
if the controller trips as soon as you switch ON then you have

[Go_West]

[reply]brianandbillie part2

3. Fill a cold engine with water and put it on the track press the rocker switch to power ON
if the controller trips as soon as you switch ON then you have a fault in the engine if no lights in the cab red or green

then it trips it can be a brocken wire from the tender to the engine so look at each wire at the tender end and give them a tug to see they are sound.
if the lights come on and the unit trips after a few seconds might be the heater has burnt out.

When

checking for faults there are mant things that can make the unit trip points poor wiring wrong connections burnt fish plates so first carry out the checks above and

[TerryB]

Hi ...I would check the fish-plates and power-to-track connections firstly [rather than suspect the loco] .......As most of the problems I have had similar to the one you describe have been poor track connections.
HTH
best regards
Terry

[brianandbillie]

Thank you for your advice I followed your instructions and now the train is back working. the only thing I can put the failure down to was the connections between the engine and the tender, the wires were okay but I did push the plugs with a srewdriver

perhaps that did the trick. Again thank you very much for your advice

[rgmichel]

Recently,I had a tripping out problem as described here. By swapping tenders on two locos, I proved that it was the tender. I checked the resistance across the wheels with an ohm meter, and the bad tender had high resistance, while the good tender had

low resistance. I figured that is because the heater should have a low resistance, and which looks to me like my bad tender has a bad tender heater. The only thing left to prove this to go through and make sure there is not a bad electrical connection between

the wheels and the heater. So my present conclusion is that, apart from lack of water, the most likely tender problems causing the controller to trip out are poor electrical connections or a bad heater, but I am still learning the foibles of these magnificent

machines.

[rgmichel]

There is a thermostatted cutout attached to the heater, which I forgot about. This might show a high resistance too. When I have done the testing I will report.

[60157]

hi to have had this prob today and before and the prob i have put it down to is the tender wheels are starting to stick whitch means very soon will need to get some more wheels so will have to send it back to hornby as abigails have not a lot of parts

left

[rgmichel]

There is an issue with worn out contacts at the wheels, especially if someone has been less than careful when putting the wheels back. This will bend the contacts and cause problems. However, there are so many contacts, a set on each wheel, that it is

unlikely this would give the high resistances seen by me on the tender that is giving me trouble.

The parts issue is a real one. I have been scrounging for parts for several months now, and I did manage to find most of what I want. I am still after

some A4 buffers for example. My feeling is that tender wheels can still be found, but it takes a bit of searching. I have one spare set now, so I am ok for a while.

[Speedy_trains]

Bobster673 said:

Hi I've got a Flying Scotsman Live Steam set which was bought new but has been in its box for a couple of years. Have set it up as per the manual, all ok and started fine. Then the power to the controller tripped out, which

I can reset by unplugging the transformer, however every time the engine warms up it trips out again. Voltage meter is running about 15V. Any ideas as to what the problem could be would be gratefully recieved. Many thanks. Rob

[Speedy_trains]

Hello Bobster i have similair problem but when I run the FS in a circle. After a while i found the problem and that was ther front wheel boggie, the wheels touch the front cylinders in a bend and the the result is that the power unit will shut down. If

I run the train without the front boggie the train will run perfect no problem at all but it looks uggly. Could it be wire comes to metal chassis inside the loco, do anyone of you have a solution for that problem?

/Speedy_trains

PS I have the

same problem with my second FS but the A3 Papyrus runs perfect.

[TerryB]

Speedy_trains said:

Hello Bobster i have similair problem but when I run the FS in a circle. After a while i found the problem and that was ther front wheel boggie, the wheels touch the front cylinders in a bend and the the result is that

the power unit will shut down. If I run the train without the front boggie the train will run perfect no problem at all but it looks uggly. Could it be wire comes to metal chassis inside the loco, do anyone of you have a solution for that problem?

/Speedy_trains

PS

I have the same problem with my second FS but the A3 Papyrus runs perfect.

I get that problem with my Papyrus .......I find painting the cylinders stop it.
I use B&Q BBQ paint [its heatproof].
My Mallard has never had any such

problems.

hth
T.

[Speedy_trains]

TerryB said:

I get that problem with my Papyrus .......I find painting the cylinders stop it.
I use B&Q BBQ paint [its heatproof].
My Mallard has never had any such problems.

hth
T.

[rgmichel]

I found the answer to my problem, above, It was the thermostat cutout that is under the tender boiler. It cuts the power out if the boiler runs out of water. This cutout went bad on my tender. I obtained a used one from Hornby America (thanks Arvids) and

this fixed my tender. It revealed other problems with that loco, but c'est la vie!!!