Big Boy Parts Diagram

I'm pretty sure no such thing exists, at least outside of Lionel.  It would be an explosive release, I'd love to have one!

I suggest you take a picture and indicate on it what the issue is.  Is this near the motor under the flywheel?

lionel should have it on their site in about a month or so from the release date

Anthony.... that would in fact be the gear cover I would say close to a machine screw used for eye glasses.

you can try an ace hardware store for giggles but then I have found things I never thought I would at Ace hardware sure cannot hurt to try. whatever you do don't sneeze when screw is in your hand as it will become a ghost of parts unknown.

this engine is so new I doubt a parts diagram will be online until they get a chance to do one after the holidays.

hope these few ideas help but if the one screw is snug I doubt will be an issue running it as is until you can get another screw.

last item be sure to check those drive gears under both covers mine were dry but have a nice application of red-n-tacky grease now.

 Lionel orders extra locomotives to "part out" and the parts listing should go up in the next few weeks after it is created, as Joker mentioned.

  Its probably a fairly common screw used on many of their locos, or they can pull one off of a "parts loco". Either way they should be able to mail one out to you at no charge.

Send Lionel a descriptive email at the "Service/Repair Question" link:

http://www.lionel.com/ContactUs/

While there is considerable difference in the Housings and Gears between the Older Legacy BB's and the New Vision BB's The Screws holding the cover in place are the same.  I can't trace the Part # down on Lionel's site. They look Very familiar to the Screws holding the PCB's on the Smoke Units. Be careful if you try using another type of screw in place on your New VL BB when installing another screw in so as not to mess up the threads in the housing please. By the way stick some grease in there ("Red n Tacky") because the new VL BB's look a little dry to me.

 Housing Shot:

Gear Shot on the New Vision Legacy Big Boy

Gear shot on the older Legacy Big Boys

in order to put the red n tacky in do you need to clean out all of the old grease

To be honest w/ ya, there was so little lube in mine you didn't really have to worry about getting out factory grease. The shot of my New VL BB on it's back was already lubed w/ Red n Tacky by me. The old BB was greased by Lionel. But the difference in the size of the gear is a bunch.

Thanks to all for replying to this post. And yes Jim it is the gear cover missing a screw.  Will remove the cover and check for grease. 

Again  many thanks and enjoy your New Year (and the Big Boy)

Anyone else think the blow down sucks .. It doesn't produce enough smoke .. I am about to rip it apart and fix it.. My s3 sucked to and I fixed it 

JOJO, I like your idea, concerning the blow down, but, I have not got my VL BB yet. Also, earlier in this post is a picture of the VL BB Drive gear, and the Legacy BB Drive gear, what's the better drive gear? Is larger better, or smaller? 

Back to the blow down, is this adjustable?  Have fun with your Big Boys, and Happy Railroading.

So what exactly did you do to "FIX" it? My S3 has plenty of smoke coming from the steam chest.

Ok I'll bite. What did you do to solve it on the S3??

My s3 smoke element was loose and the hose was pinched .. it also was to low in the bowl ..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...lx2Fu54E_x16aGngL9og

yours blow down like this?

JOJO, THATS a great video. So no new parts,just adjusted the tube and tightened the smoke element?  Wow. The engine runs really good....Thank You.

Yea just some tweeking .. 

Awesome vid Joe! Keep us posted on the VL BB... better yet video the sucker please. Good Luck!

If you look at my video of my santa fe 2-10-10-2 that I shouldn't of sold I want it to work like that ones does 

Sorry to hear of your loss. I love that loco. 

Better yet, a how to write up so the rest of us can follow and do it too.

I have seen the batting packed too tightly in some Lionel smoke units such as it restricted the air flow from the fan.  Fluffier batting usually means more smoke.

fred 

In my VL BB, if I take the top cover off the sand dome, I get plenty of smoke out of the blow-down smoke unit, so I don't think smoke volume is the issue.  However, when I have the cover in place, I see the smoke, but I believe it actually comes out at too high a velocity and disperses over too wide an area before you really get the effect.  I think if the velocity was lower, it might actually look a lot better.

I think that the smoke outlets on that one are smaller than on the BB but I have not had a chance to compare. This might tie in with GRJ's comment above about the velocity/pressure behind the smoke stream. My ATSF worked correctly right out of the box as regards this feature. Unfortunately it didn't as respects sound and movement . . . 

I think John is looking in the right direction as it comes out too fast.  But then last night I turn the main stacks off (My son said the smoke was bothering him.) leaving the whistle and blow down on.  Now I could see smoke from the back of the locomotive when I used the blow down.  So I'm wondering if it's also a voltage thing.  When the mains are on, then there isn't enough voltage for the blown down to get hot enough to make lots of smoke.

I think its a air flow element issiue .. I guess i will see if i am right after i take it apart.. Marty my main stacks and whistle are fine.. and my track power is 18.4.. I had a santa fe 2-10-10-2 and it has just as much stuff the boyboy had and it would smoke you out of the room.

I have a full 18V to the track, actually my track voltage car says 17.7.  I get great smoke from the main stacks and the whistle.  If I remove the sand dome cover, I get plenty of smoke from the blowdown unit.  However, when I send it out the small tubes under the ashpan, I see it shoots it out at pretty high velocity and disperses it so you don't get the full effect.

I'm going to try to cover half or a bit more of the smoke input for that smoke unit and see if slowing down the airflow will result in a denser amount of smoke close to the cab like it should look.

Well i took it apart and I have to say while it was easy to remove the shell that's about the only easy thing .Theres 4 really long screws holding the board on and there very fragile . It was a simple fix .Raised the element about 1/8 of a inch.I changed the batting  . Gunrunner good news though .There not the same smoke unit motors as in the other engines .There like the old lionel  ones and mth there longer . Maybe they will last longer . On a side note i don't think this is a job for someone thats not skilled.

I like that.  To me that's the way it should look.

how did you raise the element

It looks great!  

       


It's soldered in. Just unsoldered it raised it up.

much better than stock!

do you mean the resister?

don't understand the element

I know it's a resister but I consider it a heating element .. 

By "raising it up"; do you mean that the resistor is now closer to the circuit board and no longer goes as deep into the bowl of wicking???

Second question - as GRJ indicates, it may be a smoke "velocity" issue.  What about using larger diameter tubing for the blow-down discharge???

Thanks in advance for the clearification!

Best,

Dave

Thanks Joe,

I'm guessing the unit has those factory stock square batting patches in there instead of the 8" long fiber batting available. When I've substituted this in on other models, it's always helped.

After shoveling snow today, I'll have to give it a try.

Thanks for posting.