Technical

Here is a post that I left on the Hornby forum recently, I would be grateful for any Live Steam advice, many thanks...

"Hi there.

My father had very kindly handed down his 2 x live steam locos, controller and transformer to my son (although I love playing with them!)

We have been getting everything up and running, but have found that both of the locomotives will not seem to react to left-hand input to the controller. The right hand input seems to work perfectly.

So, the result is that we cannot change the train's direction.

I have stripped one of the locomotives, checking all components are secure, clean, and functional according to online advice.

The main observation is that when a righthand control is applied, the electric motor functions normally. But when the lefthand control is used, the onboard led flickers, but the electric motor only vaguely moves, but barely 1 degree of a potential 360 degree rotation.

The controller's voltmeter returns to zero when the left hand controller is used, but the controller indicator lights green. The right hand controller shows the normal 8 volts.

I double checked the voltage output to the track, and the lefthand output is prett much zero. I opened up the controllers, and wiggled things, all "looks" fine.

So I assume that there is something wrong with the controller's lefthand output.

The locos are, Flying Scotsman and a Mallard type (I forget which exactly).

Sorry to ramble on, I would be grateful for any advice.

(Guy, Hampshire, UK)