Hi. We have a Lionel RS-3 (NYC) that we bought about 2 years ago that stopped going. It used to work fine, but now only hummed and went if you gave it a push in the right direction, but would not start on its’ own. When it ran it sort of sputtered and stalled and ran erratically. I thought it was due to the fact that my 2 year old son pushed it so much and figured it was the gears. Pushing cannot be good for engines. But now he’s 4 and understands so I thought we’d look into replacing the power truck. I researched it online and found the truck in several websites (through this forum) for around $20+ and also read about converting it to a 8 wheel drive. I went to a local train store and asked to get a new truck, figuring I could replace the bad one and rebuild it to be a second powered truck, and he went through all the trouble of finding me a new truck. When he got it in, he asked me to bring the engine in, and tested the engine and said “I don’t think it’s the truck.” He told me to disassemble the engine and connect DC to the motor to determine if it was the motor, or the board. When I did that, I discovered the motor shaft was wrapped with gunk so much at the pinion that I decided to just clean it and lubricate and reassemble and try again. The engine ran about half speed at full throttle and I said “let’s run it like this for a while.” We did and in about 20 minutes, it let out a small poof of smoke, and ran twice as fast. From then on, it runs great, forward and backward, starting with many cars in tow. Any explanations??? We’re so happy it works again! Special thanks to:
Traditional Trains & Hobbies
Address: 411 Jericho Turnpike, New Hyde Park,