I’ve had a second generation RS-3 since last year’s ECLSTS. Tonight I ran it in a different way than I’ve probably done before and I was surprised by the results.
Sometimes I run my RS-3 on track power, and other times I throw the switch and run it with a battery trail car. It usually works great either way. When I’ve used the trail car in the past, I didn’t have my Cheesy Sound Car along for the ride. Tonight I did.
The sound car is designed for track power, but is programmed to get it’s speed trigger from wheel magnets. So I switched the RS-3 over to batteries and cranked up the track power. I ran several trips around the Wye enjoying the 60+ weather until after dark. I left the train parked on a powered tail of the Wye to go inside for a while. So the sound would shut down, I hit All Stop on the track power remote and went inside.
45 minutes later I came back out and Cheesy Sound Car was still in idle mode. Thinking I must have been out of range when I hit All-Stop I put my LED tester to the track and found it dead.
Turns out that the RS-3 was leaking enough battery power back through the wheels to trigger the Phoenix 2K2. It was running on it’s internal battery, but sensing power at the track pick up. A few minutes later the 2K2’s battery went flat.
I understand why I can’t leave my battery car connected when I run track power (because the batter connector becomes an MU power connector), but why is battery power leaking back to the track when in battery mode?
And if some battery power leaks down to the track, then some track power could be leaking up into the battery circuit.
This concerns me.
Has anyone noticed this before? Is a re-wire needed t correct the leak?
JR