When i had trouble with my CW80 one of the thumb nuts stripped. I called lionel tech. they told me to send handle and cut cord off send it in plus give u an ra number plus need to send sales slip.

Nada, I went through three and finally a refund. Check the voltage right out of the box, if you can get over 14 volts your lucky. Tech. told me he could go through the entire stock and might not find one with 18 volt output.

Amazing! Lionel is sending a new transformer when they receive the power cord and handle from the old one. They know there is a problem.

Thanks

Frank

Always best to go to the source.

These units are not expensive enough to warrant the labour costs to repair them, so replacement is a sensible standard procedure. At least you don't have to pay to ship the entire (heavy) unit back to Lionel?

I had a CW-80 in a set that was DOA. Lionel shipped out a replacement as soon as they received the cord and handle back. You shouldn't have to wait too long. 

It will ship from Lionel-Ohio in Canfield, near Youngstown, that is about 1 hour away!

Frank

If you can't fabricate a screwdriver here is another solution.

Silverhill ASD3T Triangle Head Screwdriver on amazon $5.02

Id had an extra star drive screw driver.. just grounded it to a tri agle,, no biggie anyway..,saved me money and shipping..thanks for the info.. only one at the time was on ebay and it was from china..

I tore one of my CW-80s down to just the transformer "brick."

I use it with my TMCC trains and can easily run 4 trains off that one brick.

You can run your trains on 20 watts each?  Must be pretty small.

I dont have a good ammeter, so I estimate that with 4 trains I'm pulling about 8 amps from the brick. Voltage dropped from 18 to 15.

That brick is capable of more than 80 watts.

I sure wouldn't be trying to pull 120 watts from that brick, better you than me.

It was a safe test, I assure you.

Fused at 10 amps, the transformer never even got warm.

I also found the CW-80's tranformer to be capable of 8 amps continuous when run in the open.  I did not test it inside the plastic case.  It does not have as much iron and copper as a 180W brick!

Maybe I should smash the case of my CW-80 and run it as a 120?

Absolutely!

Smashing is way more fun than fumbling around with those stupid screws.