7 months later and I am a little upset but happy....

I would send a letter to Mike and Andy straight away.  They might see you comments here, then again they might not.

Even I work faster than they did

I feel your pain.  Parts availability is a serious concern of mine with any of the new stuff -- MTH or Lionel.  The lack of ready parts, particularly for locomotives made in the not distant past, indicates to me based on my experience working with other (admittedly much larger) contractor/manufacturers a loss of control of the production stream.  This is why you are also seeing more build to order -- it is a way to bring an out-of-control process under some semblance of control from a cost, time to market, and inventory perspective.  It is also why you will see Lionel emphasizing more high-end product (the pricing is more consistent with this model) and why there will be less truly new product, like say what we saw in the roughly 2003-2005 period. 

Jeff,

I had the problem with one gear on my LCT 256. As you said gears are thin and the wheel wasn't seated in far enough for the gears to mesh properly. I was lucky and caught the problem before the gears were damaged and my technician (Bob Barth) ground some metal off of the hub so that the wheel seats farther in and the gears mesh properly (poor explanation). The engine has been working good since the fix.

Just wondering, how did they make the drive train sturdier? The original design definitely needs some tweaking.

There seems to be more available parts for Lionels old trains from the 1940s and 50s than the new ones.

Frankly, after buying MTH PS2 and my first Lionel Legacy last year, I prefer the piece of mind and reliability, as well as availability in general of conventional locos.

And of course the great prices,

I have a PS/3 repair waiting on a board from MTH.  I got some other parts and an orange slip telling me that the part wasn't in stock and asking if I wanted to cancel the order???  Why would I cancel the order??? Do I tell the customer "Sorry, but the board isn't available, you'll have to junk your new engine"?

Could they have found another one to send to you from some dealers out there? Did they at east send you some mail sayinf sorry for the delay? Did you call them many time to check on your order?

And they did not test it before sending it to you or was the problem from shipping?

7 months is waaaaay to long. You are a patient man.

don't get to upset, Ive found this to be the norm

3-5 months if you have to send it back. And I don't even try

to get parts any more. If I need service I cant handle, I simply

take it to JR Junction in Syracuse NY. They are a service station

for that particular Co.

When I flew Turbine powered remote control jets, the turbine was the most expensive part, around $3200-4500! When we needed service, we got in back in two to three days. That is expected from a high priced product that it produced for a very small market. And toy trains and toy planes are pretty similar market compared to video games, skiing, and other sports/hobbies.

IT is about planning to stock spare parts properly.

This parts availability issue is one of the problems that really fires me up at times.   It is one of the reasons why I always keep at least 2 PS/2 kits on hand all the times.   I fix them myself, and pay for them myself even if they are under warranty.  Why?   Because I can't imagine waiting 7+ months for them to find a part to fix it!  MTH, Altas and  Lionel all save a lot of money on people like me who have just totally given up on warranty repairs and I just buy my own spare parts and fix it myself.  

Sadly, I have 2 Atlas Santa Fe F3s that stutter at low speeds due to having a bad TMCC board.  I don't have a spares for these.   I'd like to order parts from Atlas to fix it myself, but they want me to send it in for repair instead. They have had the issue since they were new in the box but the hassle of sending them and waiting has kept me from doing it.  They run ok once up to speed so I've just lived with it.   At this point they are likely not covered under warranty any longer and Atlas will charge me for this defect.  It is something I can easily fix myself in a single evening if I could just get parts!

Yet all of them (except 3rd Rail) get all high and mighty about being a certified repair person and not sending replacement TMCC/PS-2 parts for any kind of warranty repair.  Somehow mailing the loco and having it get more damaged in shipping is a better solution for them.  Not to mention having it set on their shelves for 6-12 months while they wait for parts.  

It's all rather ridiculous if you ask me.  

YIKES!  I hope that I don't have to wait 7 months for my warranty repair that I just sent in in January.  It's a LTC PS3 piece and the pickup roller assembly broke in pieces!

The repair shop, an MTH authorized shop at that, said that he was told they can't get the part!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I'm starting to worry.

- walt

Amazing coincidence in timing!!!

A few days ago I decided to contact Midge at MTH apart what I was told by the repair shop guy.

While I was typing the above she sent an email to me showing me that she has the part in her hands and will be mailing it today!  Don't know what the repair guy might have asked for but I sure am happy that the part is on its way.

And to relate more to the original post, I went to this particular repair shop for the very first time because my last repair was damaged in route back to me, but this place is an easy drive for me.

- walt

This makes no sense to me?  How does build to order fix QA or improve manufacturing process?  MTH kind builds to order in that they don't make a lot of extra engines.  Their market is smaller.  There seems to have been a lot of issues with High end Lionel stuff going back for issues especially smoke.

In the end, production QA is effected by many other factors that have nothing to do with the cost of the item, or amount made if your doing it right.  G

not to worry,

I bought a Lionel Corp standard gauge

baby blue comet set. Loco went on the

fritze, dealer sent it back, got it with in

two weeks. So I guess it just depends

on how busy they get.

John, this is standard form for MTH and it does not ask you if you want to cancel, rather it states "if" you wish to cancel you must contact them, otherwise they will fill the order when it comes in.  You may want to cancel, because other techs have the part you need.  So there are other venues.

MTH did run out of FET boiler boards and they have an order placed.  Lionel runs out of smoke fans, and such, before the order is replenished.  It is life with just in time processing and manufacturing policies.  Sometime your not in time

There have been gear issues with the tinplate.  I think part of it is the design and part the manufacturing QA.  The tolerances for the gears is critical.  G

The replacement center gear is wider and the wheel gears appear a tad wider also. I have attached a picture of the MTH version that I have versus the Lionel Corp. unit. The original gears were just too far apart to fix and it appeared that the center gear was so far in that there would be no way to align it.

Thank you for the kudos in patience.

They never did offer to find another one. No emails whatsoever regarding the delay. I found out about the delay when I did not hear anything after 2 months and found the status on the website search.

My wife and I called them more and more frequently as time went by.

The repair tech did call me on my cell and told me it was running and all was good. It took almost 2 weeks after the call to get it to shipping and then shipped to me. Since the screw that holds the boards down was not replaced during the service they let go during shipping. I did test it again tonight and it still runs so far.

I don't want to argue but it has been my experience tht when manufacturers lose control of the production process - anything from quality to inventory or delivery - one strategy is to try to slow the process down, in very general terms.  BTO eliminates a couple of the production and captal variables and makes it easier to "clean up" the product and better manage inventory.  You are right in the sense that it is not a magic cure but simply one tool that can be used.  None of this is bad as it in a quiet way is an acknowledgement of ome of the issues and an effort to correct them.

I agree with what your saying if the "importer" owns the process or if volume is part of the cause.  I just didn't understand the linkage to build to order which is really a marketing strategy in my mind.

Errors in management killed the pre-order strategy, because consumers didn't trust it when items could be had for much less than pre-orders (which were meant to get the best value for customer, while helping management know how much to build).  But, we digress from the topic of parts availability.  G