I have two kids, 5 ans 1.5 ,… They like to hold the button down, I guess they broke it… Any way I of course want a working sounding tender. I took it apart and cleaned the wheels, Its getting power the little fan starts then stops ( 1 second).
Any ideas what I should do???
Buy a part?? I did try testing with my limited knowledge, you know taking it part and trying the wires on the inside… Got the fan to start for a second
You could: A) Take it to your local Lionel dealer for repair; or B) invest in a sound tender that makes the chuffing sounds, whistle, and a few more. The cost should be under $90.
First off CS, get the little guys a couple of wooden train whistles to blow! The little year and a half one will probably like that too.
Now I’m a little confused as to what you tried. OK, you took the tender shell off. Did you pull anything else apart? The motor in the whistle tender is a DC motor and needs DC current if you touch wires directly to the motor terminals. The whole assembly (motor/circuit board and housing) is a rather touch assembly but not impossible to work on. If you unscrewed anything here, you want to be sure you got it back together just as was. I’m pretty good at trouble shooting these sorts of things, but it’s a step-by-step process to eliminate possible causes.
My guess is the problem is not the whistle motor, but something else.
The first thing that comes to my mind as I read your post, is maybe you have either a frayed or broken wire coming off the pickup that snaps into the wheel truck. That would certainly cause some trouble. It’s possible that where the wire goes through the hole in the tender floor (assuming it’s still made of sheet metal) that the wire could be frayed right at that point and is shorting. Also when the train is running, these wires off the pickup move a little and over time can become frayed or loose. I’d look into this potential problem source first.
A very common problem on all operating cars with roller pickups is that a wire has broken or come loose from the copper stips on the underside of the pickup assembly. This assembly snaps out of the truck and can be popped out using a small screwdriver.
You might even call Lionel and explain the situation. I’ve read mixed results in this. I know once I had some “help” from a nephew who accidentally broke something. I called Lionel, explained what happened and wanted to pay for the parts. The woman took my address and the parts arrived a few days later, no charge. So I know Lionel CAN do RIGHT for the customer! Which of course,
How do you know that it has a DC motor, Brianel? All my whistles have universal motors, including the 2671W painted for the Pennsylavia (sp?) Railroad. What is the model number of the tender, CS?
All of the newer Lionel mechanical whistling tenders, from at least the early 1990s(and probably earlier) up through the current Hogwarts Express use DC can motors to drive the whistle impeller.
Bob, you’re right as for this posting. But in other prior posts, CS mentioned he had the Lionel PA Flyer Set and FastTrack… at least by my memory. I tend to take notice and remember the conventional budget guys/topics here, whereas the TMCC/Legacy/DCS or full scale topics interest me little and fly right over my head.
CS has also mentioned having some older locos. What made me assume he was talking about the PA Flyer Set was mention of the small motor. The motors in the postwar Lionel whistling tenders are considerably larger, and are of course AC, as you mention.
Well, it’s all beside the point, since he says he has a newer tender, which I can’t help him with anyway. (But I don’t see anything about the motor either in his post…
