Hey all, I am having some issues with my Blackstone C-19, it is a DC sound equipped locomotive. It has given me relatively good operation over my spotty track work for the last year and a half. I was testing it on a new spur I built with a very steep 4 to 5 % grade. The locomotive was pulling two cars. It got stuck on the incline so I turned up the power. The locomotive lurched forward and a little to quick for my reaction and ran through a switch locked for another track and derailed. The locomotives drive wheels derailed where a wire connected to the track. I rerailed the locomotive and now it gives me an error 12 reading, which corresponds to motor overload failure. I contacted Blackstone and they told me to check the connections between the tender and locomotive, nothing appeared wrong. They asked me what my powerpack was. I use two Railpower 1370's for my layout, which have worked fine up until now, but I was informed by Blackstone they weren't recommended because they use pulse power and they are an older style powerpack pack. I switched my locomotive to my test track which uses a very basic powerpack but has had no trouble running the C-19 before, and got the same error 12 reading. The sound still comes on and as I throttle up it whistles, but it won't move, the headlight blinks twelve times and then it goes out. Blackstone recommended I send it back for them to take a look at, but before I do that I want to get a second opinion from some of you guys here. The sound on the locomotive did sometimes get a little crackly after long periods of operation. Should I be looking at new power packs and if so any suggestions? Are there any fixes for Motor overload failure, can someone also clarify the meaning of that? Does the locomotive need lubrication or cleaning? The C-19 was my freight and switching workhorse, I have a Key C&S #9 locomotive that still operates well on the layout, but the Blackstone C-19 is needed for freight operations, and I would like to get it back in service asap. Thanks for any advice/help. (I posted this same post on HOn3 forums in order to get the most feedback possible.) Alex
Your best bet is to send that loco in for repair. If you were using DCC and had a programing track you could try to rest the loco to factory setting, some times this helps when decoders act funny. Soundtraxx stuff is famous for over heating, maybe the board got a little to hot and became damaged. Good luck!
I was told it is when the decoder and motor stop working in sync or something along those lines. I have a friend with a DCC layout I might go see today and I might try to reset the locomotive, if that doesn't work I will send it to Blackstone for repair. Thanks for the response. Alex
Not sure, the sound still comes on when I turn on the locomotive and when I throttle up it whistles twice, starts chuffing (without movement), and the headlight blinks 12 times, and than everything shuts off. I honestly have no idea if I could test the motor itself, but now I am curious too. No luck today with the DCC, I will do a little more tinkering, but it might just be best to send it to Blackstone, I need the locomotive for track testing and I have already spent a month tinkering with no luck. Alex
Well I went out on a limb and installed DCC on my layout. The conversion was seamless and #346 when I entered its number into the DCC system and it responded and started working again! Thanks everyone for the help, I will post an update soon for my layout. Alex
Alex, Glad you got it going, and have upgraded your layout to DCC! Did you have to reset the decoder to factory defaults, or did it just run OK on the DCC right off the bat? Also, just curious, have you tried since on DC to see if it's working again as well? Thanks for letting us know how it worked out... Bill in FtL
I just tried it on DC and it works! (Although now that I have DCC I won't being using the DC very much). I put the locomotive on the track when I first installed the DCC system and it didn't work right off the bat. I put the #346 in multiple unit mode with another blackstone locomotive (I received a Blackstone C-19 #345 as a Christmas present) and it started working again. I than took #346 off multiple unit mode and it worked by itself. I am not sure why this solved the problem but #346 is back up and running and man is it fun to run two Blackstone locomotives on a DCC system in the same consist. Thanks for the help and interest and I will be posting a layout update sometime this week. Alex
