After 50+ years of being dormant, I finally got the old set up and running. it seems that each time the speed control is turned off, the direction cycles from reverse, to neutral, then forward. Is this typical?
Thanks.
Response deleted, neither accurate nor helpful. Misread the question.
Yeah, it is typical of a loco with a 3-position E-unit. It has nothing to do with the transformer itself.
Consider yourself lucky that everything is working good after 50 years of storage. Your loco has an electro-mechanical unit that has a solenoid that basically acts like a 3-way switch, which controls the direction of the current coming into the motor itself, which controls the direction the armature of the motor spins, thus the direction of the locomotive.
Usually the more expensive Lionel locomotives came with the Forward-Neutral-Reverse direction. Cheaper ones came with a 2-position E-unit that ran Forward-Reverse only.
The only thing that seems odd is that yours is starting the cycle in Reverse. Maybe someone tinkered with it at some point in time? Maybe it actually came that way by mistake.
You might want to check the gears of your locomotive and see if they are dry… could be they’ll need a little lubricatrion. The 1033 is a great mid-range Lionel transformer and my favorite: make sure the power cord isn’t frayed. And if the transformer gets abnormally hot in a short period of time, you’ll want someone who knows about them to check it over. The 1033 will get a little warm after using for a while, but if they’re in good condition, they won’t get hot.
Thanks all. I probably have the sequence screwed up but it surprised me nonetheless. It’s probably working as advertised. Before I even fired it up, I lubricated just about every point I could find and after abou ten minutes of running I did it again. So far, so good.
Thanks again.
If it’s 50 years old, it isn’t always starting in reverse. It’s starting in the next step from the previous one, no matter how long ago. It’s only the modern locomotives that forget after a few minutes where in the sequence they stopped and revert to a default state.