Our 675 steam locomotive has been running rather well around the Christmas tree for the past few weeks. It had a hiatus last Christmas while waiting for its brushes to be replaced. Our repairman noted at the time that a loose wire/piece of winding (from the commutator?) had caused a lot of arcing and had thus worn down the brushes over time, or something to that effect.
When I went to power up the 675 last night (having not run it for about two or three days), it just sat there with its light on and buzzed. No amount of reverse-unit engagement could make it move an inch. When I tried to coax it forward by hand, I noticed a dramatic show of sparking and arcing coming from behind the middle driver on the engineer’s side of the locomotive.
Might this be another case of a loose winding and/or wire interferring with electrical conductivity, and will the entire commutator need to be replaced if this is indeed the case?
For safety’s sake, I have shelved the 675 for now, and will likely get our repairman to look at it in the spring (I’m not mechanically competent enough to dismantle a steam locomotive, particularly a Lionel 675 with its maze of connecting anjd eccentric rods). Our 2343, 622, and 8800 (with the 675’s whistling tender coupled on the back) will join my father’s original Marx loco in under-the-tree operations for the remainder of the holiday season.