As a repair guy whar are the biggest issues you experience?

WOW…!!!!   lol…!!!

Great post, thanks for posting.

  A soldering iron, or micro torch (if your aim is good), taken to a screw head for just a few seconds will usually soften thread lockers enough to get stubborn fasteners to turn, though it will likely be slow and "gummy".

 Even works well on the red stuff on small fasters and with fine thread.

  I'm not a "train repairman", but there was a test station here as a boy, I had sat and watched near as many clean/lube/repair sessions as run sessions. Some maintenance normally preceded, or was done while running, except special occasions.

 I see repair as another part of the hobby, that is to be embraced as a fun challenge at times. 

 I always seemed to come across people that are selling theirs, and I perceive they would like to keep it, but feel "lost" about caring for them. I offer a lowball buy, and the option to come by for some running and repair. (to personal for cheapies, and cry babies, so far, so good).

 If they come, my offers usually get much more reasonable .

And I will do basic work for some of these folk, just for a bite to eat, or a 2 liter of soda, a good coffee, etc.

If nothing else, I get to run different equipment for a while(so do they).

Its my tiny contribution to the hobby. 

  I wont spend time on board units outside of basics, I don't even have a command system. But only one MTH left un-helped.

  Lack of info is why I still run mostly PW myself. And I usually only do a half a dozen of those a year max.

So what do I see?

Wiring, cleanliness, E-units, transformer rollers, and breaker repairs are the common PW problems that have kept more than one for sale ad, from being renewed.

 Regulators, reverse boards, and cooked motors on board units.(only 6)

I have only had my own SOS, and a Walthers reverse board be totally toasted.

what !!  no pinched wires ??  thats what i see the most for warantee work

...No 1 issue - broken tethers

From there I find batteries and motors on the modern stuff, and sticky e-units and dirty armatures on the PW stuff. 

Only had to change out a couple of rectifiers in some old ZW's and on occasion had to replace one of the ZW rollers.

The rest are all over the map...broken couplers, bent axles, lamp replacements, smoke unit elements, broken valve gear, bent rods, but oddly enough never had an issue with driver quartering.

Parts are coming from MTH in good time today and Lionel parts come very fast.  

All the mentioned above.  John is correct on his last statement.  Nobody gets rich fixing trains.  I do it so I am able to fix my own and those of friends.  My top gripe is when someone pulls out a very old PS-1 or PS-2 after it sat for years and tries to fire it up with the original battery. I agree with you Marty especially about the white battery in ps1 ,can't understand why someone will buy a used ps1 and try it immediately and cause issues that would have been prevented had they listened to all your words of wisdom when you state Don't power them up with a white battery, instead they try to tell you they checked the battery and it's ok!!

I'm also confused as I was repairing train's when I was a teenager and troubling shooting electronics circuits down to component level worked in my dad's repair shop on the side, TV, RADIO , Record players , car radio's done under Warranty GM, ford etc. anyone remember the ds501 output transistor always failing . People always want something for nothing , it's like the one guy said her won't get rich working on electronics' but it's the fun of the challenge which parts are bad , and the thrill when you get the circuit's working again . Trains are a lot of fun to repair when and if you can get the parts you need.

Alan

Lionel trains that you have to disassemble completely to get at the faulty component. Especially when the wire bundles are wrapped the way they are.  G

Which is why I got out of custom work for people-you hand them the bill and they want to negotiate...

Some of you guys are money well spent in my book-it's fixed the first time, reliable and well worth the price versus my time to do other things.  Like spend time with family..

As a habit, I normally don't repair other peoples, mostly for the reasons most of you have listed.  I'll break down about every 5 years or so and do a repair.  It usually takes that long to forget about all the issues I've had with customers.  The last one had used steel wool, the engine had magna-traction, you all know the rest of the story. The engine also needed a trailing truck.  When I presented the bill to the person, who is a notorious cheapskate (I should have known better), I ended up makeing about $10.00 on a 4 hour project.  Most of the time was spent pulling the steel wool strands out of the engine.  The other thing is, I also have to be in the mood to work on trains.  I've got a few of my own items that need work.  I know if I'm not in the mood to work on trains and I do it anyway, the repair usually doesn't go well.

Pinched wires in new locos are a pet peeve, I truly dislike disassembling a brand new loco to fix something that shouldn't need fixing. As far as getting compensated for repairs, when I spend a couple hours diagnosing a problem, and the owner says "Forget it", they don't often offer to pay for diagnostic time. One of the hobby shops in my area charges $35 up front non refundable, and I am doing that with people that I don't know when they call on the phone. Most of my regulars are shop owners, they know that electronics are pricey and shipping is catching up. 

I'm not a repair tech. Awhile back I had a problem with an Atlas diesel loco losing power over a switch. I found a broken wire to one of the pickup rollers. Simple fix I thought. Re-solder the connection. Not! 

Getting to the the connection was a pain. Had to disassemble way too much just to get to it. And now the darn thing screeches because a wire isn't back in just the right spot. 

So I can appreciate what techs go thru, and am grateful for their efforts, their knowledge and their talent.

1) Lack of parts or having to hunt 3 different places (or more) for parts. Then you roll the shipping into the bill and the customer whines about it. 

2) Old MTH that you revive and just because the customer does not read the instructions (in some cases I have re-printed them for them) they bring it back and say it was defective.

3) People thinking that parts are cheap.

4) people that bring in a 50 year old german HO train that the company went under 20 years ago and in pieces in a grocery bag and wonder why you cant or wont fix it for them and why the parts are not available.

5) Customers who want you to come to their house to fix something on their layout and then on the spot need you to repair other trains too.

6) cheapskates

All the above are why I quit repairing trains and only do it for myself and maybe a few friends at my train club

All great points guys.  Many people who do serious repair work network with each other for parts.  Other than cosmetic parts, someone will have what you may need.  When I order parts, I always buy an extra or more.  When I go to York, I spend a few bucks at the MTH parts booth.  Jeff and Ryan try to bring just about everything you may need.  

Ride the rails makes a good point.  Nothing is more upsetting than have someone with a badly abused locomotive more worried about the price than the final fix.  I find that all you guys/gals on the OGR Forum are very well tuned in and understand what goes on in the repair world.

My repairs are limited to light ones to my own and my antique dealer friend. "Heavy repairs" go to a guy I know who does it as a sideline. I try to be as straight forward with him as possible. Another attraction of the older PW Lionels are their ruggedness and simplicity.  I would hate to try to earn a living doing all train repairs. Way too many problems for me, starting with people. Of the engines that I have acquired and handles, I would say, at least, 75% of the problems are dirt, grease, hair, and lack of lubrication.  After that I look for broken connections or wires then bad parts. It seems to me that the E unit is the source of a lot of running problems.

I repair mainly high end brass G Gauge electric locomotives. Since most are used outside they come in full of sand & dirt with notes like doesn't work. Open them up and clean them and spot damages like burn/ arc marks on drivers, wiring melted, pc traces melted, tender tethers melted & all electronics fried etc. After a phone conversation with the owner it's usually the same excuse over & over....that is loco must have derailed and 24V DC went thru it at 15 amps before the power supply breaker tripped. For years on various large scale forums I've harped about using inline fuses between power supply and rails fused just above whatever load is currently be used...but they don't listen.

For a pet peeve, how about people asking for free repair advice like I do on the forum?  LOL 

I can honestly say that about 95% of my customers do not quivel about the price and almost all of those customers are actually surprised that it isn't more money but then there are those special few that just leave a bad taste in my mouth

I have sent 3 engines for repair, 2 were Lionel (VL Hudson and Bogboy) Lionel fixed both, one they charged 115.00 for some issues that were my fault but the electronic fix was free.

1 Engine sent was one I paid way too much for (I wanted the engine) , it was sent to a forum member who did a GREAT job ao this 1986 L&N Berkshire and is a favorite and since being fixed , no problems at all.

A good repairman is needed in the Dallas area. You folks that have a repaiman are lucky.

Brent

This has been a very interesting thread so far and I appreciate everyone's perspectives.

Like many, I repair my own trains (brushes, commutators, e-Units, lubes, replacing rotted wiring, etc.), but there are some jobs that are either too tricky for me to contemplate (e.g., restringing a postwar accessory with a vibrator motor) or where there are safety issues involved (e.g., repairing the internals of a ZW transformer).

I have a number of accessories that are going to need to be tuned up soon and reading everyone's perspectives will help me to keep my outlook balanced.

From a consumer's side, my only real need would be to get an estimate that's going to be reasonably well adhered to.  I understand that repairing an Atlas loco might be a march into the great unknown and that some amount of diagnostic time is needed.  However, there should be no surprises for doing something like restringing a PW 334 Dispatch Board or a 345 Culvert Loader.  It's ok to tell me up front that you charge "$50 an hour including coffee breaks", but please also tell me how long it will take -- +/- 1 hour -- to get my 345 operational.

Steven J. Serenska

P.S. $50 an hour projects to > $100K per year in an annual salary.  Nice work if you can get it....

Scary reading....some problems like PS-1 batteries are due to poor design, but not all

I read above.   "Dixie Cup" designs...use once and throw away....?  I put Marx motors

in some of my scratchbuilts, but others take different wheels, etc...Big surprise, maybe

because no repairmen will touch them, is that modern electronics was not the biggest

(reported) problem...

There isnt a whole lot I wont touch but the battery operated G scale junk is totally off limits and always a loser. As for the electonical dodads, I have no problem working on them. The learning curve is steep with some of that stuff but once you get a few under your belt you tend to pick it up. The biggest issues I have are time to money ratio on troubleshooting and fixing. Sometimes, especially on electronics, the repair takes much more time than I can reasonably charge for so I have to step back and asses what the repair is worth but its not uncommon to have them into the $200 range with time and parts

Here's an example of my issue.  This loader actually ran (slowly) before I took it apart. A tricky part was freeing the brass blocks from the base mounts.  They were frozen in there.  Otherwise servicing was easy.  Cleaning a b**ch.  The original owner used pieces of real coal.

I noticed some mentioned quartering as an issue.  With my press and all the wheel cups I'd rather quarter than install early milk car doors and springs.

"early milk car doors and springs"

Yep.... and normally I enjoy, and am very good with little stuff. A good sigh released above the bench can send those PITA springs flying.

I love working on the trains, mostly postwar/mpc and I am only 45. I have recently decided to learn about my Legacy trains. I bought a book on modern toy train repair, read it etc..Then my smoke unit in my Legacy PRR E-7 Dummy stopped working, so I dove in. 12 screws to take off the shell, I took it off and said "holy s***", I thought it was the powered unit with all the wires in the non-powered unit..But I fixed it!!!

Loads of regularly encountered issues keep the repair side of the hobby interesting.  I'm not sure I'd enjoy myself half as much if there wasn't something to tinker with.  I even replaced every electrolytic capacitor on a TMCC board in hopes it would fix a 20 year old engine.  Turned out to be a continuity issue, but it's ready for another 20 years on fresh caps

Toughest of all issues was handing over a loco to somebody else for repair.  Up here the choices are limited.  Lousy communication and an indefinite wait doesn't instill much confidence with me.   Never again!

Bruce

I don't repair much, and only rarly for family and friends, trains or not. not sure if i count here.

My favorite repairing things, glad i found the forum, saves me from having to figure it all out on my own and making it worse. That and finding out how to avoid having things break in the first place. Good maintenance is so much more affordable and easier.

Mostly i run into design flaws, i have to find a work around for, unfortunately, not running the smoke unit to avoid flooding it is not a real work around (it stops blowing smoke what else am i to do? not refill it?), re-bending electrical pickups is. I mostly just run into dust issues, thankfully.