# MTH-how to get out of neutral



## alroz (Apr 26, 2012)

Hi Everyone,

Testing out my new MTH freight steam set, I have seemed to place
the system in a neutral and cannot get it to go forward.
the system comes with their DCS remote commander and it is Prot3sound 3.
the DIR (direction button) can be hit 4 separate times for slowdown, neutral,
reverse and forward however; using this button will not disengage the neutral. I get sounds etc. now, do I know for sure it is in neutral, not really.
Any ideas? it seems that MTH's tech support does not work on Monday's.
Cannot believe a company of this size has no support people on a specific day.

Alroz


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## Big Mike (Dec 2, 2011)

well, lets see, its been some time sense I've used one of those ,but I do remember if I press the puttons too fast it would confuse the little remote and lock the thing up, I would power down, remove the batterys, and start over,and try to remember to slow down my commands a bit ,this seemed to work better,now with the DCS system, this is not a problem. 
BTH command control does not have neutral, forward, stop, reverse 
hope this was help full ..................Mike


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## BigAl56 (Dec 14, 2011)

Is the battery charged? I have problems with my older MTH the battery gets old and does not have enough charge to make it through the reverse power cycles.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Was this a "factory fresh" set that was never out of the box? If it has been run on a full DCS layout, it MUST be reset to factory defaults using the full DCS system. You can't do the simple transformer reset and get it working if that is the case.


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## Big Mike (Dec 2, 2011)

areizman said:


> Is the battery charged? I have problems with my older MTH the battery gets old and does not have enough charge to make it through the reverse power cycles.


 the new proto 3.0 locos do not have batteries,caps. are used now.............Mike


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## alroz (Apr 26, 2012)

Hi All,
.
Ok found the issue. It seems the tender car was not totally connected to the engine.
There are little pins on a stem so to speak on the end of the engine, this needs to be snapped in to a stem hanging in front of the tender car. I guess because of this,the engine was not getting a signal to pull the trains.
Works great now. Thanks for everyone's input.

Aroz


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## Big Mike (Dec 2, 2011)

alroz said:


> Hi All,
> .
> Ok found the issue. It seems the tender car was not totally connected to the engine.
> There are little pins on a stem so to speak on the end of the engine, this needs to be snapped in to a stem hanging in front of the tender car. I guess because of this,the engine was not getting a signal to pull the trains.
> ...


 
cool,glad you got it !:thumbsup:.............Mike


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I haven't seen the PS3 tender connection yet, I've heard is was something unique.


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## servoguy (Jul 10, 2010)

I have a MTH 2-8-8-2 that is a few years old. It has had the battery replaced with a cap. In order to get it to run, I have to set the transformer voltage to 6 volts or less for a few minutes. Then it works normally.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

That's normal for a PS/2 locomotive with one of the BCR units (or a plain supercap), the unit has to charge so it looks like it has a good battery.


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## servoguy (Jul 10, 2010)

Yes, but it doesn't work if the track voltage is above 6 volts.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

It'll charge the capacitor, then you just reduce the voltage to zero and wait a few moments and proceed.


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