60 YEAR OLD TRAIN FRUSTRATIONS

I will give you a A for trying to repair your old post war trains.

I will give you a A plus if you purchase all brand new track and take all of your items to a good authorized Lionel repair person. Your service center may have all the light bulbs you need. If not, a good hardware or auto parts store should have the bulbs.

Can't blame you for trying.  As a late friend always said, "It was broken before I worked on it, so if it's still not working, so what?"  But realistically, I'd take the 2026 to a knowledgeable repairman. 

Ok...  Jim will give you and A+ for passing this on to some good people.  Not a bad idea, but if you want to do this yourself.  Here are my suggestions:

1.  Buy "Greenberg's Repair and Operating manual for Lionel Trains 1945-1969"  Type that into Amazon and it will pop right up.  It is a very good detailed review of every accessory, operating car and engine Lionel made during that period and it includes track and switches.

2.  Do use some outside help.  I do not like to mess with Transformers and there are several good old timers who do excellent work very reasonably.  Search the forum and several will pop up.  I use Ken Kohler and he rebuilt my ZW and made it like new.  lioneltransformers.com

3.  Find a good postwar parts dealer.  Search the forum and several will pop up.  I use Jeff Kane at ttender.com

4.  The forum will provide lots of help but ask one question at a time.

5.  Persistence and Patience work very well.  Take your time we all have the rest of or lives.... 

6.  Specific to the 2026.  It is a wonderful engine.  When you get all the parts, which are identified by number in Greenberg's book, and you lay the engine on its side to install the rods, put one side on and slowly turn the wheels, if they bind remove the main link and rotate the cam 180 degrees then try to rotate them again until you get a 360 degrees rotation.  Turn the engine over and repeat the process.

 

I have a great feeling you have the pump to do this.  80% of my joy in the trains is tinkering with the equipment and getting it to run perfectly.  That 2026 is indestructible.

Based on what the original poster said, I highly recommend finding people in his area to service both items properly. He should have no trouble finding good repair help in PA. 

Rob

I think Jim Sutter has the right track for you to jump on.

Thanks all for the advice. I'm a retired electrical engineer from the semiconductor industry and it's part of my psyche to try to do things myself; and know when to ask for help.

So it's best to ask persons who have been down the road and have the experience or advice as given within this forum.

And this is what I got-Thanks again

I am not quite 40 and these blasted trains are giving me much heart burn.  After a lot of time of trying to get my first engine working, the second engine has been problematic.   My MTH SD70 keeps tearing up its wiring harness.  I am probably going to have to replace much of it after the Christmas Season is over.

 

Note, I typically just run the trains at Christmas around the living room using 031 turns. You would think for a $300 engine, that the wiring harness would be a bit more robust.

Everything s fixable except for the Windows 8.1 machine, that is beyond all hope

A few years ago, I got my dad's Lionel 249E (about 1937) and Marx 666 locomotives (not a lot newer) and associated cars. I was amazed that after decades in his parent's attic, they ran okay. The lights even worked! However, I did need to rebuild the 249's e-unit, as it would often stop and start, perhaps like what you are experiencing. Any time it found a joint in the track that was at all dicey, it would stop, and sometimes almost immediately get thrown in reverse. 

 

The rebuild was pretty straightforward, mostly cleaning (lots of contact cleaner), a bit of emery paper to the contacts, and light lube. Works fine now.

 

Fred

Posted by Redonionite:

 

electrical engineer

 

I knew he was an engineer.   Its all in the attitude....  "Down but not out...."

For the ZW roller rivets, you can crimp the ends with pliers to just slightly deform them to keep them from coming out.

 

The 2026 sounds like it needs a new axle. To properly quarter steam engine wheels needs a press with wheel cups. Can be done without one, but not recommended. Advise seeking out a repair facility to lower frustration level.

 

Incandescent and LED replacement bulbs for trains available here.

 

What remote track section are you using? For 027 or 0 gauge track?

 

Here are the service manual pages for your loco, depending upon what year built.

1948-1949, 1951.

 

For laptop, see if you can load old operating system if you have an installation disc. If not, if the original hard drive is not dead, the drive can be taken out and cloned onto your new computer. Just tried Windows 8, and it is a totally different beast.

 

Larry

Thanks TrainLarry
ZW-previously had the Olsentoy page bookmarked for the ZW parts and completely missed the parts diagram info on the 2026 engine-great help

Remote track-Lionel 6019; 2 are black in color and another is tin plated color-but I don't know the guage. Thinking about getting new 2026 pickups for hot rail to see if that helps.

I searched forum and probably missed engine LED light suggestion and will look again

In the meantime, I found my wife's brother set from the 30's and engine-258-that's in need of many parts

So I'm compiling a list of things to buy and want to minimize shipping costs

Incase you run into trouble doing your repairs, here is the name of two fellows in Pennsylvania that could help you.

 

HARRY J. CLEAVER

41 WOODLAND DRIVE JACOBUS, PA 17407 Phone: (717) 428-2673 cleaverstrainrepair@comcast.net
Factory Trained Authorized Service Station

 

Robert Barth

P.O. Box 667

Perryopolis, PA. 15473

724-736-0488

Agreed on the ZW rollers, if your careful, you can crimp the pin with pliers, but don't want to pinch it down so tight that the roller won't turn.  You can also remove the arms to get at the rollers more easily if you need to, but there are a lot of pieces, insulators, etc to keep track of.

 

If your 2026 has rollers, it should be the later version, if it has plated sliders, it's the early version.  Both are nice so you should be set once you get it cleaned up.

 

There are two different 258's as well.  The early one has the diecast frame red spoked wheels.   Later style is  all sheet metal and more an 027 style engine.  If you can post some pics and we can help you more.

 

For the remote tracks, not sure what you are meaning, but the early ones in both O and 027 have 5 plated rails on a bakelite base.  Subsequent 027 versions were all tin some with only half of the 4th and 5th trails present.   They all, I think, originally had a four conductor wire to the controller.  Interestingly the pin outs at the 0 and 027 controllers were different I think as well.  Some guys only run two wires from the controller to the remote track and the other two to the power source to save on wire and to get higher constant voltage which will usually help the remote cars function more snappily.

The 6019 is an 027 remote track. Your loco should not stop on this track. Pull out all the  track pins and make sure they are clean and not rusty, and that the track is live. Run a lighted car over the track. The light should go out only when the roller goes over the center electromagnet (red insulated part). If it goes out anywhere else, the track is not getting power properly, either the center or outer rails.

 

Larry

TrainsRMe,

 

That quote is great.  Thanks,

 

George

2026 types are pretty easy to work on. the drivers on any steamer(except maybe the Turbines) can be a pain to get back in sync. Jeff @ The Train Tender can help with any parts. The transformer I would take to a shop and let  pro work on it.

The turbines(and Berks) are no different than any other when it come to quartering the wheels, except it's even more critical because the side rods actually do transmit power from the geared axle to all other drivers on models after 1946.

   Q:Want to replace engine light with LED-if I ever get engine to run again!

There are drop-in replacement LED bulbs on the market. I would recommend Town & Country Hobbies part #LED-1445WW (bayonet base) or LED-1447WW (screw base), which is an 18v LED bulb designed to work on AC or DC. The bulb emits a warm white focused beam, which would be the right color and style for a locomotive headlight. 12v LED bulbs intended for car interior lights will not work out of the box because these bulbs run off DC; 14v LED bulbs might fail if the track voltage is set above 14 volts.

 

5. Need many #51 and #53 light bulbs-again hope to buy at show

The #51 and #53 incandescent bulbs are very common, and can be purchased from hardware stores or online too. The LED-1445WW and LED-1447WW bulbs mentioned above are direct LED replacements for the old bulbs.

 

-John

 

 

The Lionel factory service manual recommended against removing the arms to replace the carbon rollers. They can be difficult to re-install.

The manual also warns against bending the roller arms. They are brittle, and can break. I can attest to this, I broke one before I knew better.

 

Here is the first manual page.

One more thought:

 

A typical engine service on a 2026 locomotive does not require that the wheels be removed from the motor assembly.

It might be easier to get a replacement motor assembly from Ebay. Here is one I found with a simple search: Motor assembly It is not mine, and I do not know the seller. 

It sounds like you have a 1952 version 2026, based upon your mention of pickup rollers. Here is the first service manual page for that version.

There is nothing to get frustrated about. Lionel Post War engines are some of the easiest to get repaired. It is common for them to need some type of work even if it is simple cleaning, after all they have been around for a long time.

 

Parts are pretty easy to get you just have to look around. One of my favorite places to start is http://www.drtinkertrains.com/  of curse there have been some other ones listed.

 

Again there are many fine books out to help anyone do everything at home.

 

When one of my post war trains defeats everything I have tried I find this place second to none in train repairs. http://themotordoctor.com/

 

I have tried some of the local guys and for general work they do a good enough job but the motor doctor has been perfect.

 

I too like to figure things out and for me that is part of the fun in running trains. I'm just as happy at the work bench with a disassembled train as I am at the controls making them run on the track. Maybe that is why the most impressive part of my layout is the maintenance bench and equipment/supplies.

not disagreeing with you Rob, but I've had drivers off my 671,675,and one of my 1666s, and the Turbine was by far the easyiest, at least for me!

In response to various-appreciated-comments 

1.I think I'm going to take the 2026 to the local person (Perryopolis) for repair. Will also get the LED light per above recommendations from AcelaNYP

2.Remote track 6019-I ran 2 other engines and they did not stop when passing the remote track and if I kept the 2026 going "fast' it also did not stop; just when going "slow". So somehow the 2026 is a problem

3.Engine 258 photos attached-is it beyond repair and not worth it?

More for sentimental reasons to use with metal cars and "funny" couplers.

4. I'm going to tackle repairing the ZW knowing that I can always find somebody to do it right if I screw up!

 

your picture isn't coming up (at least not for me). as far as sentimental value is the main part. When Dad gave me his trains after I got married, one was his 6110, considered by some the lowest train ever made. It hadn't run right for years. I took it to my local train shop, and was promplty told "it's not worth bothering with"

Mom & Dad were living in Michigan at the time, and Dad found out about Braussers. We took it in, and Dean not only got it running great, he made it look like new. Worth bothering with, maybe not to some, but it was to me!

Another shot to add attachments regarding engine 258

I don't see anyting on 258 that couldn't be fixed. 

258 looks good to me, too - absolutely deserving of being fixed.

at the very least the 258 is missing its 3rd rail sliders.  They should look like the ones on this early 2026.  The second pic shows what the slider looks like.  You can get them from all the normal suppliers.  You can also use the same C clip to attach those pilot wheels as are used on the normal freight car trucks.  It looks pretty nice, I am sure a good cleaning will put it back in fine running order.

 

 

 

This just shows the two sets of fingers and the drum all of which need to be cleaned usually (or replaced in an extreme case).

 

With your history as a EE, this is probably right up your alley.