I bought a Lionel 3461 car from a very reputable dealer who has replaced part of the collector shoe for free. The repair technician told me that this car is famous for not handling 027 turnouts well. The collector shoes hang up on the frog, derail the car, and sometimes (as in my case) pull the collector shoe through the truck assembly.
Another dealer told me that the car should have no problems on the turnouts.
Just wondering if anyone else has trouble with the car. If so, how did you fix it? I have filed the leading edges of the collector shoes a little with no success. Thought about filing the bottom of the collector shoes a little, too.
My cattle car, milk car, and automatic brakeman car have no trouble on the turnouts. I have a mix of 5122 & 1122 turnouts & all are a problem for the log dump car.
Any help will be greatly appreciated. If it turns out not many of you have had trouble, I may just buy another car if there is no fix for the one I have.
It’s funny that you posted this problem because the other day I was running a few 3461’s through an 027 switch and one of the cars derailed. When I took a closer look I found a pick-up shoe hung up on the switches frog and upon closer inspection the shoe had been pulled out of the truck. I set it aside until I felt like messing with it, I just figured it was a bad shoe but now you’ve got me wondering. I have 5 of these cars and run them over multiple 027 switches all the time and have never had this problem before. I will take it apart and take a closer look today.
I have a 3461 and run it through several 1122 switches all the time and have never had a problem. I have other sliding shoe cars and haven’t had derailing problems with any of them either. Is it possible that the spring that holds the shoe down has too much force?
ADCX Rob - the shoes were installed by trainz.com. The repair was also made there.
dsmith - I heard about spring tension from another dealer. The only way to adjust seems to be to reverse the copper ‘spring’ by removing the rivet. Don’t know how I would replace that small rivet.
Sorry to hear some others are having this same problem.
Think I’ll go with filing the edges a little more, but I think filing the whole bottom of the shoe might help. That would decrease the lift as the shoes cross the turnout. Maybe I’ll wait a day or two & see if others have a better idea.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” If it don’t work, you can’t hurt it, right?
Paul, that’s just about what happened with mine. The small brown shoe plate (TC-109) that holds the shoe in the assembly broke and pulled through. At first, I thought it had never been installed, but without it, the shoe simply falls through the assembly.
Thanks. I tried that somewhat. I’m not sure of the best way to do it. I inserted a small slot screwdriver under the end of the spring near the rivet & lifted slightly. It wasn’t easy to get to & I didn’t want to over do it.
If you think this is the proper fix, I can put a little more force into it. As I mentioned, if it don’t work you can’t hurt it.