I have two of the K-line plymouth switchers. The first one I bought and it worked great for a few months and then it seemed like it wasn’t getting enough power. It would run really slow and the stop totally after a few minutes. All of the lights also stopped working. I took it apart and lubed it, cleaned it, and put it back together with no luck. I bought another one and after about a month the EXACT same thing happened. I am at a loss. I contacted Lionel and they had no answers for me. I am wondering if any one out there has encountered the same problem and if so how do you fix it! Yhese are beautiful engines but…
The only other info I can give is that the were both parked on a side track that had no power to the center rail but the outside rails (common) were “live”. I use a block system and am now wondering if the voltage coming through the outside rails might have lead to a problem in the circut boards. That said none of my other 20+ engines gives me any problems at all.
Voltage is always a difference between two points–there is no such thing as absolute voltage. So, if there was no voltage between the center rail and the outside rails, it doesn’t matter what the outside rails were connected to. Your locomotives were as safe as a bird perched on the 7200-volt distribution lines feeding your house.
That was my thought too but I have absolutely no other explaination for what has happened. I know it doesn’t sound like much but I have over $150.00 invested in these locos and it really upsets me that even lionel doesn’t have an answer.
Have you tried cleaning the wheels first? Second look at the circuit bords inside and see if they look damaged, similar to melted plastic look or a smell of burnt wires may indicate a bad circuit board.
Also being that K-Line was bought by Lionel the Plymouth switchers could have sat on a shelf before Lionel was able to sell them legally because of the lawsuit against K-Line.
Sorry to say that Lionel don’t give good customer service after the sale. My case in point is the Lionel 6-23010 & 6-23011 O gauge switches, Lionel would not help me with the problems I had with these switches, at the 1-800 number theey said they never heard of any problems with these switches and refused to provide any further help. A Williams Trains tech told me these switches are of extremely bad design and to replace them with a more reliable switch.
My train dollars are going to MTH and Williams in the future because of what Lionel did to me.
Consider yourself lucky, my Porter switcher fell three feet then hit the floor- the smokestack is bent back, the side-rod is bent out, it wont move, & the whistle is bent.
Okay. Let me start by saying the highest tech train item ive worked on is an e-unit, although early Lionel pendelum units can get a bit hairy.
Is it possible to remove the electronic gizmos and wire the motor directly to the track, you’ll sacrifice the gizmos and frills, but the engine should run. If worse comes to worse, install an aftermarket drive. Im sure a craftsman company like northwest shortline could come up with something.
If the motors are D.C. you can put a bridge rectifier in and have just forward, the bridge rectifier only costs about $5.00 from Radio Shack, 400 volt 8 amp will do. To check if they work on D.C. use a 9 volt battery to see if the motor will turn at all when hooked up by jumper wires to the battery, use removable alligator clips.
I have not tried to wire it without the electronic stuff but I could…I just don’t want to lose the ability to reverse the unit. I want to use at least one of them as a switcher for the powerplant on my layout. What I would really like to do is just get it back to running order, forward and reverse, even if it means no lights or smoke. I would do it to one of the engines but the lights and smoke are great and I would like to get the other one working properly again.
Buy some jumper lead wires at Radio Shack and use the alligator clips straight to the motor, leave the other wires attached, while the cover is off the unit and see if it can run on a 9 volt battery or an H.O. train transformer.