Heljan 7mm AC Railbus - Problem with getting power to the motor

[brossard]

Over the last while I've been wrestling with my Railbus.  It stopped running and I found that one of the motor connections had broken.  The motor and wiring are such a tight fit that I suspect the stress on the very wimbly wires was too much.

 

Anyway, I did get it back together and after making the connections to the board, it still won't go.  Yes, I took a picture before disconnecting so I have a record of where things should go.

 

Now, at one point I did inadvertently connect the track to the AC output of a DC controller ( ), but things seemed fine afterwards.  In the course of the wiring repair I did confirm the motor is fine (sigh of relief).  I also snipped the wires immediately before the mini plug after reassembly and connected them direct to the controller - the motor works.  The lights all function so the pickups are working.   Therefore, the problem must lie in the board.   I'm wondering if I did damage the board because there's a black spot on it:

 

001 by John Kendall, on Flickr

 

Could someone who has installed a decoder advise whether the black spot is normal?

 

Thanks

 

John

Edited October 15, 2017 by brossard

[brossard]

I think we can stand down.  A closer look and the damage is to the blanking PCB, not the main board.  I'll be installing sound, so it's moot.

 

John

[dhjgreen]

Just for completeness, that PCB looks fried.

[brossard]

LOL yes, that's what I thought too.   I wonder if it protected the motor from damage.  The main board is fine though.  In the immortal words of Roseannadanna "never mind".

 

John