Anyone know a good Legacy repair man in the RI/CT/Southern NE area?

AJ

     Alex M does all my Legacy repairs. He is a forum member so do a search for him to get his email. He lives in New Jersey. You can ship your engine to him. I live in Pennsylvania so I drive my stuff to Alex’s home about a 90 minute drive for me.

      He stands behind his work too. I would go back to the guy who repaired your engine see if he can do it right.

     Good luck

JohnB

Check Gunrunnerjohn or Alex. Both appear to be top notch. 

I wonder how he got the whistle steam tied to the main stack motor, those come directly from the RCMC if this is a later Legacy unit.  You're talking about the new 4-8-4 AFT locomotive?

Yes John, I'll post a video of this late tomorrow night.  I couldn't believe it when I get it back from repair!  I never heard of this before.  

I'm still struggling with how you do that with the RCMC without some significant wiring alteration!

Chances are they share a common bowl. I'm betting the main stack fan is just interacting with the whistle steam bowl and forcing some smoke out. 

Is it a strong stream of smoke or just a little?  The video would help. 

HI AJ

There is a placed in Warwick RI where I get help with my engines. Grandpas Train Attic. Grandpa (aka Ray) is a real good guy and I have been pleased wtih the repairs they have done for me.

Reach out to me if you want more detail / info. Obviously there are some fine people (John and Alex already mentioned) on the forum that are quite excellent and can help your efforts.

Paul

If the eng has duel  smoke chamber just replace the gasket.  Lionel has them in stock about $4.00+ shipping

Marty E when the engine is idling with a steady stream of smoke you will see it consistently protruding from he whistle steam as the smoke normally would have continuous flow from he main stack and once the engine gets going you will see both units chuff essentially.  I'll get a video ASAP.  Thanks again everyone!

I have always heard great things about Gunrunner John and Alex among others. Alex recently did some work for me and he was terrific, plus he laughs at my jokes! Always a good thing!LOL

Hi AJ,

This smoke unit is a dual unit , so if it’s not put back together correctly it will leak smoke into either side. Also number 2 pictured below  if that's put in upside down , for sure smoke will leak into either side .

Thank you all for the kind words 

I have found that the baffle #2 on the parts sheet, has to big of a opening in it. The fan pressure from the whistle steam side goes thru the opening in the baffle, and comes out of the stack. The same thing happens with the stack side fan, it blows thru the baffle and pushes smoke pass the whistle smoke fan and out the whistle vent. I have replaced the baffle with one that has a notch in it to allow only the smoke fluid to pass between the chambers, but not big enough to allow air to flow freely.

I think the wick pads they use in the stock factory shipment block most of the airflow between the two chambers.  If you replace them with the braided wick, it probably allows more airflow.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

I think the wick pads they use in the stock factory shipment block most of the airflow between the two chambers.  If you replace them with the braided wick, it probably allows more airflow.

Exactly! That original batting they used blocked a lot of air flow. Every time I see a smoke unit with that block of batting I get rid of it immediately. 

Alex 

I wonder if a replacement baffle with a smaller hole is called for.

Sorry for the delay but here are the videos

I guess I didn't see the issue there.

I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary in the top video but in the second/shorter 5 sec video it appears (when using full screen) that there is a light smoke stream coming from the whistle area in front of the main stack opening.

Its tough to notice in the video the way because the whistle is directly next to the stack.  Trust me its there lol Anyway does anyone think it can be damaging if I ran it? Or should I get it fixed right away?  

Bottom video is definitely better to see what is happening...

AJ

 it’s hard to see but it looks to me like the smoke is pouring out of the whistle smoke stack and main stack at pretty much the same volume. 

Alex 

Yes Alex I'm glad you can see it, I didn't get the best angle in the video and my I-phone 5S probably didn't help the quality either lol Ever fix something like this before? 

No damage if you run it, apparently you just need a better baffle between the dual chambers.

I only looked at the larger video, I see the smaller one really illustrates the issue.

Without a new baffle with a smaller opening to just allow the smoke fluid to pass between the two chambers of the smoke generator.

The smoke passes from one chamber to the other and then passes the idle fan into the interior of the engine and over time covers all of the control system with oil.

But it does help the wheel bearings.

I doubt much smoke is making it into the locomotive, much easier path through the whistle.

The baffle in those smoke units lifts right out, so some aluminum stock and a little time and you can probably fix it.  This is one place where a layer of the old Lionel pad wick in the bottom of the bowl might make sense, then put the shredded wick on top of it.