There's nothing like the smell of burning decoders

[bnsf971]

There are days you should just stay in bed. I have an Atlas Classic C425 that is DCC ready. I installed a decoder, programmed it, and life was good. Yesterday, I was running that engine, and after stopping to pick up a cut of cars, I accelerated out of town. Or rather, I started to. As soon as I throttled up the engine. It stuttered, I heard that singing squeal of a shorted decoder. Smoke came billowing out of every orifice, and the train ground to a halt. Crap. I opened the engine up, and the decoder looked like I had hooked it up to the local power plant's main feed, and thrown the switch.
Investigation showed the screws that hold the motor had loosened, and the torque of the motor had allowed one of the motor contacts to touch the frame of the engine, with spectacular results. I tightened the mounts, added a small strip of electrical tape to the contact strip to keep this from happening again, reassembly, and the unit was back on the road again.
So, if you have a locomotive with the contact strips that might be able to touch metal, go ahead and preemptively fix the problem.

[rhpd42002]

Another lesson hard learned, but, thanks to this and other Forums, others can learn before the same problem befalls them.

Thanks for the info & heads-up, Terry.