Oxford Rail Dean Goods Smoking from the wrong end

[Solli]

Hi All,

 

I've been lurking on RMWeb for a while gaining inspiration for a new layout (to be constructed following a house move planned in the next 12-18 months, planned to give me a whole room to play with ), though this is the first time I've posted something. 

Seeing how much knowledge and experience is out there, I figured there may be someone out there who would be able to help me with a bit of a problem with my Oxford Rail Dean Goods. 

 

In brief, as my planned layout would be DCC, I'm scratching the modelling itch by converting my existing stock to DCC. The turn came for my Dean Goods which, being DCC ready, should have been simple. 

I tested the model on DC initially to check all was well, then opened up the tender to expose the socket, and made the conversion with a DCC Concepts Zen Nano Direct. When i tested it again, it initially worked, then stuttered to a stop. Every time I checked it it just stuttered after that. as part of the troubleshooting i reinserted the blanking plug (the only one I've ever seen with a 100 uF capacitor soldered onto it...) and ran it on DC again. After a slightly rough run, smoke starting coming from a resistor on the PCB and smelt of burning plastic. Its here I am stuck with whats wrong because once I put the plug back in, that's how it left the factory! I've no idea now why I've fried a resistor. I've not yet tested the decoder in another model to see if that's survived.

 

Does anyone know what may have happened, and what the solution may be? I'm tempted to pull out the PCD and hard wire in the decoder, but then I don't want the same thing to happen to the decoder! 

 

Really appreciate the help in advance!!

 

Cheers, 

Olli.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Welcome!

 

Sadly top suspect would be a motor fault, causing increased current draw. Back to retailer I would suggest with the fault description. Whatever you do, don't reinstall the decoder. The mechanism has to be working satisfactorily on DC before decoder installation, and this mechanism clearly isn't.

[Solli]

Thanks for the reply! 

I was hoping it was something simple but evidently not... I've had a good run of largely trouble free conversions so I guess something had to go wrong soon! 

 

Thanks!

Olli. 

[Harlequin]

One of the coils in the motor of one of my Dean Goods shorted out and the motor had to be replaced. It has never been the same since but I confess that I haven't spent much more time trying to work out what's wrong with it now.

 

I have two other Deans, neither of which is a good runner.

 

Other people on here have had similar experiences with them.

 

[Solli]

Ah ok so it's not just me having issues. 

I would assume that if that's what's happened with mine is also need to swap out the socket PCB as I wouldn't trust that resistor any more. 

 

I've written to Oxford so will see what they have to say for it. 

 

This is my only Dean Goods but I have an Oxford Adams Radial on the workbench to do. I hope they haven't used the same motor in that.... 

[Solli]

Just to close this one out, Oxford agreed there was an issue and asked me to go to the retailer for a replacement, or they could supply a replacement PCB. Rails of Sheffield agreed to replace the model without any issues. I just hope the replacement doesn't have the same issue...