Jumpy old intercity 125 not working

[Tom fn]

i bought a second hand intercity 125 (yellow and blue) from eBay, it was dcc ready and my track only works with dcc fitted trains. So I payed for it to be changed and they did. when I tried it, it ran perfectly but now when I put it back on the track about a year later and it stops and starts and has barely enough power to move its self let Alone 4 carriages and a dummy engine. What can I do and can I do anything my self or do I have to pay for someone to do it for me? Please help

[Chrissaf]

Welcome Tom to the forum with your 1st post

.

In order to help us to help you......

.

Some questions:

.

In the year this loco has been in storage, have you been running other DCC locos on your layout without issue?

.

If you haven't been running ANY locos for the last year, now that you have started again, are any other locos affected by this (or similar) issue or ONLY the 125?

.

Does the distribution of DCC power around the track rely solely on the physical connections made by the metal track joining fish-plates?

 

[Augustus Caesar]

All sorts of issues could cause this and the obvious ones are dirty track but more likely dirty wheels.

 

Having said that, I have had issues with this model with lights not working properly. This was due to contacts not being made correctly inside the model. You may have a problem with wheel contacts.

 

Open the loco and check all of this. Take out the screws and gently pull down the rear of the loco chassis about 1cm or so. Then slide the rear AWAY from the body without pulling it further down if that makes sense.

This is becasue of the contacts for the lights. Be careful also to remove the body only a fraction away from the chassis when the front of the body is clear as there is a connecting wire from chassis to body for the cab light and can be easily pulled off.

 

Then check wheel contatcs. The service diagram will show you where they are.

 

Of course, it could be another issue but it's worth checking these anyway. Hope this helps.

[poliss]

It may just be stiff from lack of use. I had a similar problem recently with one of my sound locos that hadn't been run for years.

Put it on the layout. Sound was fine but it wouldn't move. After a while, even the sound went off. I thought I had blown the decoder. A week or so later I tried it with my new DCC controller. Sound was back, but it still wouldn't move. After a little 'encouragment' (giving it a push), it moved in reverse but not forwards. After a few laps in reverse, I tried forwards again, and voila, it started moving. She's fine now, fingers crossed.