Now I know it's not uncommon in the real world but I've never had any model do this before. I was running an I/M TM as the middle unit in a 3 unit lash-up, long hood forward, when it appeared from one of the short tunnel sections on the new, still-under-construction layout billowing smoke and flame.mg: The PC board area at the rear is where the trouble is as it's all charred. The chassis runs fine even after the fire although the rear light doesn't work, which is no loss. I can only think that the PC board contacts had been touching the frame but any observations would be welcome as I don't want a repeat performance. Never a dull moment with these locos!
Wow! I would say that is a new engine from IM! Is it running on DC or DCC? Would that make a difference? Is there anything inside the plastic shell? Some type of light shield?
I had a similar incident with an Atlas SD50 DCC loco years ago... It was lapping around our modules at a show and all of a sudden, it hesitated, then PooF! Out came a little spark and puff of smoke and left a similarly melted spot int the shell. It was fairly new, so I sent it back to Atlas and they replaced it for free! Harold
Wowah, you shouldn't run your dynamic brakes so hard. Yeah, something shorted out on the light board. Did you save all the smoke so you can somehow cram it all back in to fix it? If not you need to send that one back to IM.
Looks like it may have just been a resistor failure. Occasionally when one fails (in any electronics application) it will overheat and catch fire. They can fail just due to a manufacturing defect in the resistor and not any fault in the circuit. Its only function is to regulate the current through the light (LED) so its failure would not affect the motor operation. I agree with the others, time to send it back to IM.
IM handled this better than I expected. They offered a replacement loco but I advised them that I only needed a replacement shell as the chassis ran well with other designated locos. They sent me a full loco in exchange for the damaged shell.
YAY!!! a happy ending. That is good to hear that IM stood up to the plate and hit a home run in the customer service category.
