I’m iinstalling sound in an aristo mallet and I’m a bit stumped hoping someone here can help out.

I’m installing a phoenix PB11 big sound into an aristo mallet the tender is the vanderbuilt with commonwealth 3 axle trucks. The tender has the plug and play board inside.

Question #1. The tender wheels are wired for track pick up but they do not pick anything up. By putting voltage directly to the wheels I get zero power anywhere. Is there something I am doing wrong? a switch that needs thrown? There is onlr one jumper in the sockets for the revo are there supposed to be two? I have tried both front and back trucks and got nothing. Yes my meters and power supply work and yes the loco runs.

Question #2 Which plug should I put the sound system into? The VAR or FIX? I’m assuming they mean fixed and variable? would the fixed be for constant battery power and the variable be for track power?

Thanks for any help.

Terry

I figured out the answer to #1. The center axle draws from 1 side, the far axle from the coupler draws from the other. The whole truck doesn’t draw power. My only excuse is i’m tired… But, you would still think they would design the whole truck to pick up power.

Terry

Terry Burr said:
I figured out the answer to #1. The center axle draws from 1 side, the far axle from the coupler draws from the other. The whole truck doesn't draw power. My only excuse is i'm tired..... But, you would still think they would design the whole truck to pick up power.

Terry

Terry, you may be tired, but you are not wrong. What you are experiencing is poor quality control of Aristocraft. The Vandy tenders are wired wrong.

Somebody here had a schematic of how to wire the tender correctly. It involves unsoldering one or two of the power leads into the PCB board and reversing polarity, then resoldering them.

I’m tired, too, so I won’t even try to tell you which ones. Perhaps Tony, who is upside down, will be awake enough to help you out.

Terry,
I have never seen the Mallet tender. However it is probably (incorrectly) wired the same as the Pacific tender. Unfortunately the write up I did for the Pacific was at MLS and those articles have been lost by MLS when they re-jigged the website.

Basically the tender pick ups are wired to the wrong terminals in the tender.
The easiest way of sorting it out would be to plug the loco in and use a continuity meter with a “beep” to see which terminals are connected through to the loco pick ups and track. One probe to a track and one probe to a terminal. Then unsolder the tender pick ups and resolder them to each terminal that is connected to the loco. Do one side at a time to avoid mistakes.

I will have a poke around my web storage and see what I can dig up.

Is this a new locomotive that we don’t know about?

How long have AristoCraft been making a Mallet?

Explainments, please.

tac, ig & The Curtiss Lumber Company Boys

tac;

It has been in production for at least five years by now. The Mallet is a USRA 2-8-8-2 design that became the Y3 class on the Norfolk & Western Railway. I don’t have any experience with this locomotive, but others may fill you in with additional information.

Regards,
David Meashey

After looking into the tender more, I found the wiring isn’t wrong just poorly executed. On a three axle truck only two wheels pickup power and they aren’t on the same axle. With some simple wipers aristo could have had 6 axles picking up power. Oh well.
My problem was I was hooking power up to one axle, hence no power to the board. Once i put the tender on track power viola! I figured out the problem.

With that solved anyone have an answer to #2?

Terry

Terry Burr said:
I'm iinstalling sound in an aristo mallet and I'm a bit stumped hoping someone here can help out.

I’m installing a phoenix PB11 big sound into an aristo mallet the tender is the vanderbuilt with commonwealth 3 axle trucks. The tender has the plug and play board inside.

Question #1. The tender wheels are wired for track pick up but they do not pick anything up. By putting voltage directly to the wheels I get zero power anywhere. Is there something I am doing wrong? a switch that needs thrown? There is onlr one jumper in the sockets for the revo are there supposed to be two? I have tried both front and back trucks and got nothing. Yes my meters and power supply work and yes the loco runs.

Question #2 Which plug should I put the sound system into? The VAR or FIX? I’m assuming they mean fixed and variable? would the fixed be for constant battery power and the variable be for track power?

Thanks for any help.

Terry

There should be 2 plugs, one is 2 pin and one is 3. 3pin is for speaker and 2 pin is for power to sound unit. Ive never seen them say fixed or var but
that could be something new on the newest run of mallets. If you are running track power the Var is what you want. Be aware that the newest run of the mallet it has been reported that a few a caught fire and burned "down"to the ground pritty bad. Aristo some what blamed it on Phoenix, Pheniox said NO NO to that. Mostly likely an issue with the board in the tender. Just be careful if you own a newer version.

This loco has a 3 pin plug for the speaker and 2, 2 pin plugs.
It’s not my loco but maybe i’ll give him a fire extinguisher with it when he picks it up!
Thanks for the help. I assumed the var was what i wanted, of course I have no manual and the schematics for the new vandy tender aren’t up on the aristo site yet.

Terry

Terry go to the variable pin. You can use eighter but the variable should be used when power analog. If you were DCC or RC then one set goes to varible and the other for fixed so you would have sound when not running instead of battery back up It is used with the P8
Mike

Nick,
I was the one who reported the burnging of my Mallet on another forum. Had many others reporting the same problem in other engines, Yes It was Phoenix board failure. According to Phoenix, they redesigned a new version and left out the termal resistor to cut out over current instead relying on the bridge rectifier for this. Been corrected. Thus a non issue now.

hopefully you can find the old reply as i have a non functioning Pacific tender also.

tac said:
Is this a new locomotive that we don't know about?

How long have AristoCraft been making a Mallet?

Explainments, please.

tac, ig & The Curtiss Lumber Company Boys

Is it a true Mallet or an articulating loco?
That is the question.

It is prolly a model of an articulating beast. If it is, Aristo didn’t make a mallet.

What Aristo made a “model” of is a Meyer Locomotive. They just called it a Mallet because they wanted the sales. The Meyer never caught on in this neck of the woods, but they needed the Meyer design to get around 8 ft diameter curves.

The only reason I know this is because I remember a post that TOC made when the Mallet first came out.

There might be some more information about that difference soon … stay tuned!

Matthew (OV)

Why is it that Aristo gets blasted for “articulating” their 2-8-8-2 to allow more people to buy their model of a USRA 2-8-8-2 Mallet (N&W Y3 class) but yet when LGB did the same damned thing to their model of a NON ARTICULATED engine, essentially creating a 2-4-4-2 using the boiler of a USRA 2-8-2 Mikado, no one complains?

Seriously, why is it that one compromise for operators from one company is blasted while the same thing from another company is lauded?

I don’t know why anyone has to make such a fuss over something so darned trivial. If you have a problem with it, FIX IT or shut up!

I’m here to run trains and learn new ideas to integrate into my own railroad. Not to listen to a whine-fest because one manufacturer double-articulated the MODEL of a large engine, just so people with smaller curves could run the engine on their existing railroad. Further, all this negative commentating accomplishes is to push the newer hobbyists away from the most important part of this hobby: HAVING FUN!.

I would love to have an LGB mike hauling a train up my major grade with an ART Mallet as a helper. Do I care that in both cases the toy trains can go around curves far tighter than the prototype could? You bet I do… because without those compromises I wouldn’t be able to enjoy those beautiful locomotives on my railroad.

Edit Re: Hear/Here typo

Jason, who is blasting Aristo?

Sorry, might have been an imagined issue. It just seemed that people were taking Aristo to task for articulating both engine units on their mallet model, instead of going prototypically having the rear unit hard-mounted. Must have been a longer night than I realized.

I don’t mind taking Aristo (or any MFG) to task when its deserved, however, I do beleive in equality for all… if Aristo is to be tasked for turning their 2-8-8-2 model into a 2d-d2, then LGB should also be tasked for turning their 2-8-2 model into a 2-4-4-2, which if memory serves, is articulated in the standard mallet fashion.

I know where you were coming from Jason. Many get caught up in the Mallet/Meyer “tempest”. No biggie to me.

I seem to recall from my LGB Mike that it has a unique “articulation” in that the drivers are joined in the middle, not two distinct sets of 4-axles.

I “bash” Aristo in the sense that I run my LGB Mike with an Aristo Vandy Tender I equipped with after-market commonwealth trucks.

Would like to pick up an Aristo Mallet some day!

John Bouck said:

tac said:
Is this a new locomotive that we don't know about?

How long have AristoCraft been making a Mallet?

Explainments, please.

tac, ig & The Curtiss Lumber Company Boys

Is it a true Mallet or an articulating loco?
That is the question.

It is prolly a model of an articulating beast. If it is, Aristo didn’t make a mallet.

Further information on the Aristocraft model ‘Mallet:’

1. It is made mostly of plastic with some metal parts.
2. It uses an incorrect scale / gauge combination.
3. It runs on low voltage DC picked up from the track.
4. Speed & direction are remotely controlled through that same power source.

Seems Aristo didn’t make a model of a “locomotive” at all!!

Sheesh!!!

Happy (Model) RRing,

Jerry