Tomix ED61 with a Poor Temperament

[GDorsett]

It would appear that I have finally gotten my first factory dud. Either that, or something else had gone wrong.

I have a Tomix ED61 that is having power (?) issues. It will randomly slow down and draw a LOT of power for about thirty seconds, then randomly accelerate back up to the normal speed. When it slows down, all other locomotives on the circuit will also slow down, however, they do not slow down when run by themselves or with other locos, it's just with the ED61 on the tracks. This happens whether it is alone or has another loco for company. I have disassembled both trucks, cleaned out the grease, and used my lube of choice (Woodland Scenics HL655 gear lube) and still no luck. I removed a hair from one of the trucks, but it did not affect how it ran.

Ideas?

Notes:

I purchased the Tomix Track Cleaning set and have been using the ED61 as a backup or helper loco where needed. It sees use, but wasn't often as it didn't weigh a whole lot and could not pull my usual trains over hills, nor could it pull the track cleaner it came with over grade crossings or switches when the brush was installed. I try to exercise locos I know won't get used a lot every month or so. Bring them out and send em around a loop for a few minutes. Is this too long to wait between exercises? It only started doing this recently and is about a year old. Ran really well up until early December when I was updating an old platform for a holiday display where I was going to need it as part of the rotation to pull a train.

[cteno4]

Those are the most vexing! That is an odd one. Since you have cleared all, the first line things, I’m left with either something is severely binding at times in the power train, but that should not lead to a huge power draw while happening just the slowdown mainly, or the motor is shorting some to cause a the big amp draw (path of least resistance for the current) and the slows the train. This is dc, right?

 

also try running without the light boards. I do remeber a long time back an odd one like this for a member and in the end it was the light board and a component was probably goingnand causinng large current draw across it and thus sapping current to the motor.

 

its good on you to exercise the locos but in general I’ve not had huge issues at all with some sittingnyears between uses. Some times take a miniute to get the cobwebs out and one older loco have an old grease on the worm gear (pre silicone greases) harden up, but most all don’t seem to mind...

 

cheers

 

jeff

Edited January 10, 2019 by cteno4

[GDorsett]

This is under DC. Only have one N scale with DCC in it andI forgot to set it to run on DC power as well.

There is no power short that I can see.

Have not tried without the light boards. Will add some N scale to my desk-top test track and see if that helps, although it's difficult to test.

 

Another note:

It's random. Doesn't happen always, but when it does, the time ti lasts is also random. It's very irregular.

[cteno4]

This is odd.

 

it does sound like some sort of short that’s allowing a lot of current draw to happen. When you say power drop do you have an amp meter on your power supply? Random like that can be electronic component slowly failing. Usually it’s heat related but at times it can just be random.

 

jeff

[GDorsett]

I do not have a way to test power draw. I am assuming that it draws more power because all locomotives on the same circuit will slow down as well, and any lit coaches will dim.

Locomotives was not hot after running.

Seems odd that the LED boards would be failing after only a short time of use.

Edited January 10, 2019 by GDorsett

[chadbag]

10 hours ago, GDorsett said:

Seems odd that the LED boards would be failing after only a short time of use.

 

Electronics, if they fail, usually fail quite soon.