Hi everyone,

I recently bought the 31100 double locomotive set with the swedish Da (3019...) and Swiss crocodile (3015...)

The SJ locomotive is a gem, but I have my concerns about the crodocile and wanted some input if anyone else has the set or expertise. In brief, the locomotive works well with three exceptions:

1: its is really loud. Some lubrication did help a lot, but still noisy. (more so than a 3015, but at least tolerable and in acceptable range now)
2: The motor gets pretty warm. Again not to a super concerning level, but enough for it to stand out
3: This is my big concern- after 5-10 minutes of running the decoder itself (21pin) gets REALLY hot. As in "almost burns your finger" hot. It heats up the whole front case/nose shell of the locomotive.

Now number 3 being mentioned, the locomotive does run rather well and continues to, but I find once hot the occasional input from the MS2 is missed, or I have to stop/start power from the MS to jolt the decoder awake again.

I think its a bad decoder, but any other ideas? The dealer is asking for details that need to be replicated on the erradic behavior once worn in order to send in for repair since he feels they always run hot, which of course is hard to reliably replicate. (although the heat itself happens 100% of the time)

Thoughts?

If the motor is very loud and runs hot, then it is probably experiencing more friction and thus drawing more current than it should. This will in turn cause the decoder to get hot.

I had a similar problem once with my 3039 Br110. The gears were somehow creating a lot of friction, and howling like a banshee. I tried oiling the gears , the motor, the axles, but nothing worked. Then because I had over-oiled the motor it started smoking and getting very hot. Eventually the decoder started cutting out, probably due to thermal overload.

In the end I resorted to stripping the whole motor down. I found that the gears were binding in a certain position so I took them out, filed the edges down a bit, cleaned and oiled them, and put them back in. When I assembled them again there was much less binding, and when the whole motor bogie was again in one piece it ran nicely. There is a slight rattle which is probably due to wear in the gears, but at least it runs cool.

I don't know how this would relate to a 3015 type crocodile, but those old style motors are heavily geared and maybe they are not quite lined up properly?

Thanks all. I think I need to send it back under warranty, despite the potential wait time involved with repair and the dealer making it fairly clear it would be a hassle for him.

To be continued...

its always a problem with type of issues, its under warranty but sending it back would cost again a lot of money (guarantee not worth it when you live outside of Europe. it could be a soldering issue and you may open up the loco and see if there is any visible part which just doesn't look right.

Tough titty as they say, he is the dealer and has to handle the warranty issues.

It must be minimal trouble for him to sent it back with your note explaining the problem (make sure you do include a note including that it has to run for a period before it gets hot). The dealer doesn't have to verify your complaint, just pass it up the chain for repair.