Channybear

Hi Peter, I have 4 MTH locos, 3 O gauge and 1 HO. I think they are terrific, with all the smoke, lights and sound operating, they are quite spectacular. I recently bought myself a birthday present, a new Premier O gauge Big Boy 4014. Postage to Australia costs about $AUD300 so I was horrified when it died last week. As in your case, factory resets etc didn't work, but then I found the problem. The connection between the loco and the tender had come loose, I pushed it back up into place and bingo! - one all smoking, all dancing Big Boy was back on the rails. The horror of an inconvenient and expensive warranty return vanished like a bad dream. So there you go - don't forget the loco/tender connection, it may look OK but if the connection isn't quite there, the train is dead. That may not have been the case with you, but I offer this as another MTH owner.

I recently bought an MTH Premier O gauge Big Boy with a "steaming whistle" only to find that its operation is restricted to the MTH proprietary DCS control system. The loco has a dual DCC/DCS capability and works well on DCC, including a loud, non steaming whistle, but obviously MTH want people to buy their DCS system, to get all the little extras like "steaming whistles". A separate smoke generator provides the "steam" for the whistle and I would like it to operate when the DCC whistle button is pressed. I'm currently awaiting feedback on the problem from MTH and NEC, the makers of my DCC setup, but am not hopeful of a positive response from either of them - "Just get a heap of DCS gear, me old mate - problem solved." Has anyone successfully taken over DCS operated features, including smoke generators, with a DCC decoder? If so, please let me know how.