Hello to all.
I need some insight here if I can.
I started my own service center here at home doing work for anyone who has a toy train. Also I have been doing for our only local hobby shop that sells toy trains. Well here just a bit over a year ago I took in a Lionel 8644 2-4-2. I assume it is a mpc era locomotive. It had the printer circuit board set up on it & it has gone bad. Unfortunatly when I called lionel I was told that that particular board was one that had to be sent in for replacement. To make this long story short…
I sent in the board thru the store & some where inbetween there & Lionel it has dissapperd now I have an engine with no board to send back for a replacement…Actually I have 2 I also have the Percy engine here too with the same problem. So I need some dirrection here. I have my dad looking thru some engins he has for sale so that I may offer the customer a replacement at a reduced cost do to the problem with the store & lionel.
Is thier a way of getting the boards I need out side of sending them back to Lionel or is their some way of fixing these type of boards. The cuciuit boards I know bassically nothing about but if you give me an good old fashin e-unit I can make that train run just like an old song.
Thank you for the help.
Take care & Merry Christmas to all.
If that engine has a D.C. motor, why not use Lionel P.N 610-0103-100 Electronic E-unit. They have used that for a number of years. Hope this helps.
Bill
Ed, I’m not sure which exact loco you have there. Most of the basic Lionel steamers for the past 17 years have been 4-4-2’s. Around 1999 or so, Lionel offered some very basic starter sets that came with lesser steamers… I remember one, a N&W that had no front guide truck. I believe these locos ran foward only: they had DC motors, but only a rectifier so they ran off AC current from a normal transformer, but only one direction.
As a side thought here, maybe you already know. But you can go to the Lionel website and there’s a link for service illustrations. I find the specific search function a little difficult, so do a catagory search like for steam engines. Sometimes you have to cross reference one product (that might not be specifically listed) to another one that you know is similar. But there’s a wealth of information as far as part numbers go. That will make ordering parts from a parts vendor easier.
The modern reverse boards that I believe you need are a very common and available part. Brasseur’s has them as well as the Train Tender. The big difference in them is that the steam locos have a slightly smaller sized board inorder to fit inside the smaller space inside the steamer. But you could use a diesel sized board and put it in the tender. Also a basic K-Line reverse board will also work (they were both made by Sanda Kan), but the wire colors are different. An after market board made by TIA or Dallee will work too.
I have a whole load of extra reverse boards if you couldn’t find one elsewhere. But they are the slightly larger size variety, so they might not be the easy fit inside the plastic housing of the Lionel steamer that the board snaps into. Actually, I know I have some smaller boards from the Industrial Switchers and I’d bet they’re the same ones used in the steamers, since Lionel does cross use parts for the basic train items.
Also putting a regular board into one of the bottom end one-direction only steamers will make it run F-N-R. K