Lima 156 problem

[Pilgrim in France]

I have recently had installed the Lenz standard decoder in 6 Lima DMUs and a railcar. They all work perfectly except for two which are in the 156s.Though they will start anywhere on the layout on speed setting 1, getting them to react to any change of speed is problematical. I can usually get them to increase to setting 4 after a few attempts but beyond that can take up to 20 attempts, and as for getting them to stop, it is often impossible. I have cleaned the wheels and pick-ups as well as thoroughly cleaning the track but there has been no improvement. I have also tried adding weight, but again there has been no improvement. What I can't understand is that there is never a problem getting them to start.

Any advice (apart from buying a replacement Hornby chassis) would be greatly appreciated

[deltic79]

Worth checking whether there are any capacitors still fitted to the motor and remove any you find. They can cause erratic running with DCC decoders.

[Suzie]

It is likely to be the wheels and pickups still. The easy fix will be to upgrade to a better decoder (I have a Lenz Gold in mine) that is not fussy about poor pickups. The problem is that once the train is moving there will be momentary losses of connection to the track and on a basic decoder it only takes one tiny glitch to lose a whole DCC packet, and when that happens regularly you lose virtually every packet while the train is moving hence the lack of response.

 

Given the anount of effort that is required to improve the pickups on Lima (involves rewheeling as well with something like Ultrascale to get rid of the traction tyres) it will probably be best to look at upgrading the decoder to any that has asymmetric braking capability and ideally one that has a stay alive.

[WardRail]

Hi

 

My 3 Lima sprinters have all been repowered with Hornby chassis (direct replacement) with no further DCC operational problems - any small size decoders will then run them nicely I use TCS M series decoders myself, tucked into the roof above the glazing and switch the original Lima traction weight across to the Hornby chassis (both driving and non powered coaches) and find a new home for the too light Hornby weights I generally replace both powered and unpowered chassis (mainly cos I'm using code 75 track, which Lima flanges don't like)

 

Adjust decoder CV's to taste but remember it hasn't got flywheels, so put CV 54 to 10(ish) and CV 55 to 30(ish) - you might try those settings with the original Lima motor as well - it should improve the running and try CV's 2,3 and 4 at 10, CV 5 at 180 and CV 6 at 60. Those figures are what Richard Johnson (DCC Concepts) advised me to try as a basic setup for Lima locos. Make sure the non traction tyre equipped wheels on the driving end (both bogies) are clean (shiny gold in colour) as mentioned previously, and ease the motor spring covers outward a bit - they shouldn't be hard down on the top of the hole the brushes sit in.

 

Hope that helps

 

Best

Matthew

[Pilgrim in France]

Thanks for the suggestions. Though there has been some improvement they are still not entirely satisfactory so will go down the route of replacing the chassis with Hornby ones.