ELECTRIC TRAINS R MTH E-4 HUDSON STEAM ENGINE OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS Thank you for purchasing the MTH Electric Trains die-cast E-4 steam locomotive. This ¼” scale reproduction of the famous E-4 locomotive measures over 27” in length and weighs over 11 pounds.
Table Of Contents QUICK START - BASIC OPERATION(All 3-Rail Models) PROTOSMOKE™ UNIT OPERATION PROTOSOUNDS® OPERATINGINSTRUCTIONS ProtoSound® DCRU® Reverse Unit Operation (All 3-Rail Models) Whistle Operation Bell Operation ProtoCoupler™ Operation Enhanced Neutral Steam Sounds Squeaking Brake Sounds Tips On Using The Squeaking Brake Sounds Passenger Station Sounds (PFA) Activating and Triggering Passenger Sounds Tips On Using PFA Features SPECIAL REVERSE UNIT OPTIONS Locking The Engine Into Forward or Revers
QUICK START - BASIC OPERATION The MTH E-4 contains state-of-the art electronics with several built-in automatic features for incredibly realistic operation. Despite these advanced features, the E-4 is easy to operate with any compatible standard AC transformer (see the compatibility chart on page 30). All models are equipped with an operating smoke system that should be primed with smoke fluid before operating. Adding 15 - 20 drops of fluid through the smoke stack should be sufficient.
PROTOSMOKE™ UNIT OPERATION (2 and 3-Rail) The E-4 contains a self-powered smoke unit that outputs a steady stream of smoke through the smoke stack on the roof of the engine. The ON/OFF switch located next to the trailing truck must be in the ON position in order for the smoke unit to function. See Fig. 2 below. The smoke unit is essentially a small heating element and wick which soaks up and then “cooks" a mineral oil-based fluid that omits a harmless smoke.
PROTOSOUNDS® INSTRUCTIONS The MTH ProtoSound® digital sound and train control system provides the operator with unprecedented realistic operation on your model railroad. In addition to actual E-4 engine, CD-equivalent 16-bit digital sounds, you get the following features: 1.
transformer throttle to the off position and then back on again to enter the forward phase. Interrupting the power too quickly may cause the system to re-enter RESET (signaled by two dings of the bell). Should this happen, wait longer before interrupting the power to enter the Forward phase.
Reverse). Once the bell is turned on, it will continue to ring when the engine is cycled into forward or reverse until you press the bell button or re-enter NEUTRAL and turn the bell off with the whistle button. In fact, because of ProtoSounds® state-of-the-art design, the microprocessor remembers its last command. Therefore, unless you turn the bell off before you quit running your train, the next time you run the engine, the bell will come on.
transformer if this occurs and run your engine at a slower speed before firing the coupler. If the coupler continues to open erratically, try lubricating the knuckle with light oil as indicated Lubricate in Fig. 5. Proto-Coupler® Knuckle Figure 5: Lubricating The ProtoCoupler ENHANCED NEUTRAL STEAM SOUNDS The enhanced Neutral Sounds can be automatically heard whenever the engine is in neutral. The sounds, which include Steam Pop-Off, Steam Blow-Down, and Steam Injector sounds occur every 2 to 30 seconds.
while the brake sounds play. Note: The brake sounds will not be heard if the transformer throttle is not set above 14 volts and/or not reduced below 8 volts. TIPS ON USING THE SQUEAKING BRAKE FEATURE Because the squeaking brake feature always plays for approximately 3 seconds, it is possible that the brake sounds will play longer or shorter than what visually seems prototypical.
Operating Proto-Sound® Passenger Station Sound Effects Passenger Station Announcements (PFA) Proto-Sound® is equipped with operator controlled Passenger Station Sounds, referred to as PFA. The PFA sequence is designed to simulate the arrival, disembarking, embarking and departure of a passenger train in a Passenger Station. This easy-to-use feature allows you to play digitally recorded sounds of Passenger Station sounds while your engine is parked in the Neutral State.
Bell d OR Horn Whistle Direction To Play PFA, Stop Train Direction. This Can Be Done by Pressing the DIRECTION Button or Cycling the Transformer Handle. At This Time the Train Will Stop in Neutral. In a Few Seconds, An Arrival Message Plays, Followed by a Background Noise. STOP Bell d OR Horn Whistle Direction Bell d OR Horn Whistle Direction Change/Press Direction- The Train Will Remain In Neutral. It Will Continue to Play More Background Noises.
Activating Passenger Sounds (PFA)- Detailed PFA Instructions Arming The Passenger Sounds Feature Before the Passenger Station sounds can be heard, the feature must be activated. The feature can be activated in one of two ways. ARMING THE PASSENGER SOUNDS FEATURE Before the passenger station sounds can be heard, ProtoSounds must activate the feature so that the next time the engine enters the neutral position, the sounds can play, The feature can be activated one of two ways.
volts or less and press and hold the whistle button for at least three seconds. You will hear the bell turn on and, after three seconds, you should hear a short horn blast or air release. Once the horn blast or air release is heard, the whistle button can be released. The bell will continue to chime, so if you want to turn off the bell ringing, simply press and release the whistle button. Interrupt the transformer throttle to enter the next directional state (either forward or reverse).
an air release sound, followed approximately 2 seconds later by an Arrival Announcement. Following this arrival announcement, the sounds of doors opening and the conductor saying “Watch your step” is heard. At this point, various Passenger Station sounds can be heard, including passenger footsteps, muffled voices, baggage being moved about and whistling for a taxi. Additionally, several conductor highlights will be heard in the foreground.
TIPS ON USING THE PFA FEATURES PFA is a unique feature of Proto-Sound® that is completely controlled by the operator. You decide how, when or if you want to utilize the feature. By reviewing the following tips, you should find solutions or suggestions to the various operating scenarios you might encounter when using PFA. Tip #1: You can escape the PFA sequence by interrupting the transformer throttle before the man’s whistle plays in Event 1 (neutral).
Special Reverse Unit Options Reverse Unit Lockout Operation For operators who wish to lock their engine into a single direction, Proto-Sound’s® unique design eliminates the need for a lock-out switch on the locomotive. This will allow users to run the engine on layouts equipped with block signals or stop stations that would normally cycle the engine back into neutral. Note: The feature must be first turned on by accessing RESET Feature 40 (See page 23).
SELF-CHARGING BATTERY BACKUP Proto-Sound® state-of-the-art design includes a self-charging battery backup system for improved performance at any speed. The battery ensures that power to the sound system will remain on during directional changes, while setting RESET options or when travelling over spots of dirty track and switches. The self-recharging battery backup system is automatically turned on or off whenever track power is turned on or off.
MANUALLY ADJUSTING THE PROTO-SOUND® VOLUME Your ProtoSound® system has two types of volume adjustment. A manual turn knob on the bottom of the chassis (See Fig. 6 below) allows you to control all the sounds in the system and a remote control “RESET" option (Option # 6), allows you to control the volume level of the engine sounds remotely from the transformer.
USING “RESET" TO PROGRAM PROTOSOUNDS® Proto-Sound® is equipped In RESET Mode Advance The Throttle Move The Throttle with Up & Down From Up & Down From High Voltage To Low High Voltage To Low several programmable 4 More Times 2 Times features which are accessed in the RESET Listen For 1 Clank state by moving the Listen For The And 1 Clink Sounds 2 Clink Sounds transformer throttle up and down between full voltage and low voltage (8 volts) without shutting the transformer off completely.
Remotely Adjusting The Engine Volume - Reset Feature 6 – (1 Clank, 1 Clink) Reset Feature 6 allows you to change the volume setting of the chuff sounds without affecting the volume of other sounds, such as whistle, bell, enhanced neutral sounds, etc. To use, cycle to Reset 6 and press the Horn/Whistle button.
Programming For Whistle In Neutral Operation- Reset Feature 25 -(5 Clanks) Reset Feature 25 allows you In RESET Mode Move The Throttle Push The Horn/Whistle Button Up & Down From Until You Hear to operate the Whistle while High Voltage To Low 2 Bell Dings 25 Times the engine is in the Neutral state.
Adjusting Chuff Rate - Reset Feature 27 - (5 Clanks, 3 Clinks) Reset Feature 27 allows the operator to “fine tune” the rate of chuff relative to the speed of the engine by setting the minimum and maximum chuff points. To do this with the MTH Z-4000, follow the steps below: 1. With the steam engine on the track, and the transformer thottles in the “OFF” position, press the “PROGRAM” button for the track in use. The display will read “00” and “PG”. 2.
and provide the appropriate bell indicator. The settings for Reset 28 are 1 Bell = ON, 2 Bells = OFF. When the desired setting is reached, lock the changes by interrupting the throttle and cycling the engine into forward. Activating Remote Lock-Out Control - Reset Feature 40-(8 Clanks, 0 Clinks) Reset Feature 40 allows you to enable the Reverse Unit Lockout feature of Proto-Sound®.
NOTE: Special note for steam engines only. Once you have reached reset 18 you have two options. Option 1 resets all the reset features except for reset feature 27 (Chuff Rate) back to the default setting. Option 2 resets all reset features back to the default setting. For Option 1, press the horn/whistle button once after you have heard the 3 clanks and 3 clinks this will reset all the reset features except reset 27 (Chuff Rate) back to the factory settings.
unscrewing the four screws on the plate located in front of the motor. Grease can then be applied into the gear box using a grease tube dispenser. In addition to the internal gearing, it is a good idea to lubricate the leading and trailing locomotive truck “tongues” to enhance their ability to slide on Lubricate Lubricate Figure 9: Lubricate The Tender Chassis Trucks the chassis. Follow the grease points as seen in Figure 8 on page 27.
tire over the wheel. Be careful to avoid twisting the tire when stretching it over the wheel. If a twist occurs, the tire will have to be removed and reinstalled or a noticeable wobble in your engine will occur when operating the locomotive. In addition, it is important to make sure that the tire is fully seated inside the groove. Any portion of the tire extending out of the groove can cause the engine to wobble.
TROUBLE SHOOTING PROTOSOUND® PROBLEMS Although ProtoSound™ has been designed and engineered for ease of use, some questions may arise during initial operation. The following table should answer most questions. If you find that your problem can’t be resolved with this manual, contact MTH ProtoSound Electronics (7020 Columbia Gateway Drive, Columbia, MD 21046, 410-381-2580) for additional assistance. WHISTLE PROBLEMS REMEDY The WHISTLE seems distorted at low voltages.
COUPLER PROBLEMS REMEDY The ProtoCoupler won’t let the engine uncouple on the “Fly”. The power required to fire the coupler open when the engine is on the “Fly” may be greater than the ProtoSound system is capable of providing. As a result, you may experience times when the coupler won’t fire open. Unfortunately, the only solution is to stop the engine and fire the coupler in Neutral.
BATTERY PROBLEMS REMEDY I get no sounds when the engine shifts between the direction states. The battery may be dead or needs charging. See the Battery Backup section for more information. After I turn off my transformer, my engine continues to make sounds before quitting with a ding of its bell. ProtoSounds continues to sound for approximately 10 seconds after power to the track has been shut off. The sounds distort at low voltages. The battery is insufficiently charged or dead.
PFA PROBLEMS REMEDY The PFA feature does not begin even after stopping the engine and hearing the brake sounds. The power was not turned back on once the engine enter the neutral state thus disabling PFA.The transformer throttle was interrupted too quickly in neutral thus disabling PFA. Leave the throttle on in neutral until after the PFA arrival message plays. The PFA sound effects occassionally repeat themselves.
TRANSFORMER COMPATIBILITY AND WIRING CHART ProtoSounds™ is designed to work with any standard AC transformer that uses a “Pure Sine-Wave" format. The chart below lists the many Lionel® compatible transformers, such as the Lionel KW or ZW models. In addition, the chart details how the terminals on these compatible transformers should be attached to your layout.
O-42 OPERATION While the E-4 engine is more than capable of operating on O-42 curves and switches, you may find that certain light freight cars are prone to derailing when being pulled or pushed by the E-4 through O-42 switches. Should this occur, we suggest adding weight to the cars making them heavier and less likely to derail.
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SERVICE & WARRANTY INFORMATION HOW TO GET SERVICE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE LIMITED ONE YEAR WARRANTY For warranty repair, do not return your product to the place of purchase. Instead, follow the instructions below to obtain warranty service as our dealer network is not prepared to service the product under the terms of this warranty. 1. First, write, call, email or FAX MTH Electric Trains, 7020 Columbia Gateway Drive, Columbia, MD 21046, 410-381-2580 (FAX No.
