You know those days you head down to the layout room, hit the light switch, plug in the transformers, turn on the layout lights and crack the throttle and begin to watch the trains rolling and then it happens… a short that kills the action, your favorite accessory just stops working, a derailment that sends your favorite loco to the floor, or worse yet your new power pack takes a dive… Argh, yet we plod on to fix the problem and admit we still love our trains…
My latest grief was a Sam the semaphore man was causing a short in its base between the semaphore ladder and wire hook up… took me almost an hour to find it! Had it fixed the next day but it really tried my patience and my train run time that night. Unfortunately the short burned out my sound activation button as well (I tell ya just hand me anything with electronics and I will burn it up in less than 2 seconds) Do you guys have a similar experience that really tries your patients? Its a real bummer too when you do something stupid that causes the costly problem…
Yep. A couple months back,I left the points on a switch on the mainline thrown for the siding rather than the main, and my big Mike derailed sending almost its entire train to the floor, 4 1/2 feet below. Broken door guide here, bent coupler there. sigh Twenty+ pounds of train + half throttle on a KW + 4% downgrade + 4 1/2 foot drop. I also have a dent in the floor to remember the event by.
When you try to show off your layout and stuff don’t work or you have a big wreck.
Today I nearly sent two post war NW-2’s to the bottom level from about six feet in the air on a ceiling mounted track that I just hooked up to a type R transformer. Read the instruction manuel first about voltage post outputs and it was wrong or I have a transformer acting up. After the derailment I used a multimeter to test the voltage outputs first, then I hooked it back up and it runs correctly now.
Still have an open circuit somewhere for my lower level house lights, have them on a 12.5 volt DC invertor from Radio Shack and it has a circuit breaker in the back, need to check it again.
Update 5-27-08, both power invertors from Radio Shack died on me, one kept popping the breaker without anything hooked up and the other just has no output.
Showing off the neat action of the sawmill and it starts to jam. Showing the trains run and units that have stayed coupled for hours and hours of run time start to become uncoupled.[banghead]
Flawless operation for days and suddenly dead sections due to dirty track
Funny you should mention that, my postwar AF couplers are pretty good, they only uncouple over a rerailer now and again, but I can adjust them and the stop, but what is the deal with the LTI AF couplers… they open as they please, and never seem to couple repeatably unless both are open, have you seen this?
This is all the fault of my (Murphy’s) Laws. Just ask Buckeye. Sorry. Even happens to me. Everything derails suddenly in the far corners of the layout. Backdrop unexplicably falls down. Whistle button sticks.
From the responses so far, it appears most have an occasional “one of those days”. Lucky you. I seem to have one every day. I do both “O” and “S”. Since I jumped into AF, I have had “one of those days” every day that I try to fix something.
Recently, I purchased on Ebay a perfectly preserved AF #293 Pacific, except that it was not running. The vendor sold it honestly, saying it was not running. But I got it because it looked so good and the price was right. Surely I could get it running. I put it on the track to see what it would do or not do. The E-unit made the familiar buzz and the engine headlight shone brightly. But no engine sound or movement at all.
Yesterday was the day I picked to try to fix it. Got new brushes and brush springs and then proceeded to disassemble. The old brushes were half worn, but I would think they could be used for a while longer. Anyway, I took the armature out and inspected it. The commuter-commentator-commacazee face, whatever it’s called had some dark streaks and a bit of gook between the three spaces. Cleaned it with alcohol and carefully scraped out the gook. Then, using a burnishing cloth polished the face. Lubbed the worm gear, put in new brushes and brush springs and reassembled the motor. Just as I got the last screw inserted I found a washer laying under the unit. After disassembly again, found where the washer came from and put it in place. Just as I finished reassebly again, another washer appears. That one came from the back end (worm gear side) of the assembly. Third time is a charm. I checked to make sure there were no binding issues. Turning the armature by hand turned the wheels, so everything looked good. I did spray the e-unit located in the tender with electrical contact cleaner. Incidently, this engine not only looks in terrific shape ext
From the responses so far, it appears most have an occasional “one of those days”. Lucky you. I seem to have one every day. I do both “O” and “S”. Since I jumped into AF, I have had “one of those days” every day that I try to fix something.
Recently, I purchased on Ebay a perfectly preserved AF #293 Pacific, except that it was not running. The vendor sold it honestly, saying it was not running. But I got it because it looked so good and the price was right. Surely I could get it running. I put it on the track to see what it would do or not do. The E-unit made the familiar buzz and the engine headlight shone brightly. But no engine sound or movement at all.
Yesterday was the day I picked to try to fix it. Got new brushes and brush springs and then proceeded to disassemble. The old brushes were half worn, but I would think they could be used for a while longer. Anyway, I took the armature out and inspected it. The commuter-commentator-commacazee face, whatever it’s called had some dark streaks and a bit of gook between the three spaces. Cleaned it with alcohol and carefully scraped out the gook. Then, using a burnishing cloth polished the face. Lubbed the worm gear, put in new brushes and brush springs and reassembled the motor. Just as I got the last screw inserted I found a washer laying under the unit. After disassembly again, found where the washer came from and put it in place. Just as I finished reassebly again, another washer appears. That one came from the back end (worm gear side) of the assembly. Third time is a charm. I checked to make sure there were no binding issues. Turning the armature by hand turned the wheels, so everything looked good. I did spray the e-unit located in the tender with electrical contact cleaner. Incidently, this engine not only
I had the uncouple at re railer too and a little tweaking on the coupler height did the trick for me too. More frustrations the link couplers which make up about half of my inventory. They can be a pain. There is a neat tip in this month’s CTT to take a small piece of foam like from a store meat tray and make a block for between the uncouple and coupler to prevent it from kicking open. I’ll try it next time I come across it.
As for the 293, been there done that! Something I do when troubleshooting is separate the tender from the loco when I can. For the old style plug in tenders it is easy. Insert a jumper between the center pin sockets and apply voltage at the outer pin socket. I took an old jack plate and made a rig to make it even easier.
Thanks for the advice. I am a little “touchy” concerning those fingers: I was trying to bend one of those on my first AF - a 302 Atlantic - when it broke. Thankfully, PortLine Hobbies had a replacement (which I have not installed yet).
I presume the drum needs removing in order to polish it?
If you pull the finger boards off, you have plenty of room to clean the drum, just rotate it as you wipe it with a cotton swab dipped in isopropal alcohol. If there are stubborn scratches I used a polishing wheel on a dremmel and it shined it up really well. I tried to avoid removing the drum to prevent distorting the housing, thus causing the fingers to get stuck in the drum again. yeah, I broke lots of fingers if they were not worn out already, bought of fingers on the boards on ebay for less than 10 bucks.
Got the finger boards off the drum. The two bottom fingers have holes at the spot where they touch the drum. Does that mean they’re worn or are they supposed to be that way? The drum definitely needs some polishing - looks a bit pitted. I ordered a new set of fingers from Portline Hobbies just in case.
Yea, I can remember one day when I left the crossover switches lined between double track and took my eyes off the train for a while. It crossed over from one main track to the other and ran through an open drawbridge putting a Lionel original NYC F unit onto a concrete floor. Ouch! Luckily the only damage was a broken coupler on the rear and a frame slightly bent which I was able to straighten without breaking it. Since then, no more drawbridges are left open-ever. Ray (SPMan)
The holes are indication of being worn and needed to be replaced. If you get into old AF, keep a set or two of fingers on hand, and a somke wick, and a few feet of super flex wire. You will need it eventually
Bill so how did it go? yeah these fingers are the first to go, even if they are not worn out sometimes they don’t touch causing you the main headache…but if you get this E unit working right she purr like a kitten…
Have not made the journey to TMCC… have thought about it and love the operation aspect and sound capability, I just have a curse with electronics… just let me look at them for one minute and zap they are gone!
Just yesterday I had a Linex Lionel oil pumper, was having a ball with it, then I wanted to move it to a new location on the layout, a wire slipped off the screw on terminals when I had the power on and the 16 v AC power supply did a strife across the electonics board and zap! no more pump motion! Argh… it will probably be another 30 bucks at the Lionel repair shop. [soapbox]
Actually last Thursday. I installed an ERR Cruise Commander in my TMCC Jr Berk and when I put the shell back on I heard a POP! Then when I put it on the track and powered up… nothing… checked the Run/Prg switch and I had smashed it when putting the shell back on! [banghead] Now I’m a bit afraid to open it back up and see if I snapped the board as well… [sigh] Called the LTS and ordered a new switch… have to stop there tomorrow to see if it is in… then it is home to reinspect the damage…