I have noticed that the new N scale 44 Tonner I purchased yesterday loses track of it's headlight setting when it comes upon dirty track - the lights go out and then need to be turned back on with the F0 button. I haven't seen this happen since the mid-nineties when it was a normal occurrence with the decoders I had purchased to use with my Digitrax Challenger. On more recent decoders the headlight setting is remembered even after the locomotive is tilted off of one rail. I thought this problem had been fixed long ago through better decoders and programming. Is it just that the ultra small decoder in this tiny loco simply doesn't have room for the necessary circuitry to allow the decoder to remember what the headlight setting was before it momentarily lost contact on the dirty track section?
Regards,
Bill Nielsen
Oakland Park, FL USA
Try running the thing on DC, especially pulsed DC. Now there you will find it's doing interesting things.
This one does seem quite finicky about dirty track. A thorough application of the track eraser, however, does ensure satisfactory performance.
At the suggestion of Erie Chris, I did remove the decoder from one of these things. It performs amazingly well on straight DC (or as 'straight' as rectified DC can be). This thing creeps every bit as good as a Kato, and all this without flywheels or pulse.
I think when i get mine, I'm going to strip the decoder and install a TCS one - they are so much better.
Refer to my post under:
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,9613.0.html