I just purchased a slightly used Dockside on E Bay. The listing indicated that there might be a problem with the smoke bellows (hasn’t ever worked). Whenever I turn on the smoke, however, the engine shorts out and nothing works. The short is indicated by the lights and accessories operated by my 1033 going out. I haven’t been able to locate a Lionel wiring diagram. Any thoughts or ideas?
Bob
Bob - Welcome to trains.com! [C):-)]
Hi Bob, welcome to the forum. I have the same problem with my SP&S docksider. I havn’t been able to figure it out, I just leave the smoke unit turned off.
The smoke unit is shorted out and the resistor will need to be replaced. I had the same thing happen on mine and this is what it was.
If you look closely, you’ll probably find that the wire going into the smoke unit has the insulation rubbed off and it shorting to the case. You may be able to simply slip some new insulation on the wire to fix this. Personally, I very much doubt the smoke unit resistor itself is actually shorted, that’s a very unusual failure mode for a wirewound resistor. In any case, this should be a pretty easy fix, there is exactly one component in play here, the smoke unit resistor and a wire to the smoke switch! [(-D]
Thanks to all for the quick responses. I will tear into it now with confidence and solve the problem.