DOA Lionel Berk

Sinclair,

Did you contact Lionel? Go on their website, contact us and send the repair dept. an email. Be specific about what is wrong. Their service is outstanding so give them a day or so to get back to you. Also give them the name of the store you purchased it from.

Good luck

JohnB

better to just email them at talktous at lionel.com  (replace at with@ no spaces)

goes direct to canfield ohio.

Guess I did forget to say, but it is brand new, still sealed from the factory fresh, like all my Lionel RTR sets have been.  At least I found out now that it's DOA instead of waiting for his birthday.  Pretty bad when it's happened so much that I expect it anymore.  The seller is willing to exchange it, but that'll cost me shipping.  I called my local Lionel service center, and they told me to send it back to the seller, they aren't doing warranty repairs right now.  I'm starting to really dislike that LHS.  If you don't buy from them, they won't touch it or help you it seems anymore.  Looks like I'll just go for the exchange with the seller.

Without wishing to appear rude, if you have a Lionel dealer nearby, why don't you buy your sets from them? Then you could have checked that everything was OK before you left the store?

Did you open her up and check for loose boards?

Jon 

I realize this doesn't address the current problem/disappointment, but did all four sets come from the same merchant?  If so, it's time to find another supplier. The problem rate with Lionel sets is probably about 2-5% based upon personal experience and that of friends and acquaintances.  Your experience is far from typical, so something is odd here.  If you're going to go mail order, I'd suggest using Charles Ro, who stand behind their sales and is one of the oldest, largest and most reliable dealers. A retailer who exchanges a defective product by making the purchaser pay shipping is not fully standing behind the product.  I would find another supplier.

Lionel sets a very reliable, sorry you have had problems. Contact the dealer, you didn't say who. A Lionel dealer should work with you to get the engine running. If they don't find a new place to buy from. If you have a local store, that is where you should have bought it. You can walk right back in with it.

Every set was bought from a different dealer.  Of the two LHS, one is hard core MTH, and might order you a Lionel set only if you throw lots of money at them.  The other is small, has mostly HO, and didn't have this set in stock.  I haven't opened the locomotive yet as I wasn't sure it'd void the warranty.  I'm pretty sure it must be a broken/loose wire since it acts just like I haven't turned track power on.  The seller did say that they'll exchange it, but I was hoping to get it fixed locally 1st as that wouldn't cost me shipping.

Send it back to the dealer, and buy with peace of mind from one of the OGR Advertisers. At the very least, if there is a problem, you can get help directly here on the forum. 

Well, the engineer in me found it too hard to believe that it was a complex issue that I couldn't solve.  The seller said that it was no issue for me to open the locomotive to look before sending it back for repair/replacement, so I did.  I traced the wires, dug out my MM and went poking away.  What bothered me was that the light wasn't wired to the PCBA at all, it was direct connect to the frame and pickup rollers, but it wasn't lighting with track power.  I eventually pulled out my light probe and finally narrowed it down to no power being picked up from the center rail inside the frame.  Power was getting from the rail to the bottom of the roller plate, but not up into the locomotive.  So I went to unscrew the pickup roller plate, and it wasn't even screwed on all the way.  They had put a screw in and started it, but not actually tightened it.  Once I made sure it was nice and tight, down the track the locomotive took off.  It's a really nice runner. 

But then I notice that the smoke wasn't puffing out.  The plastic piece that gets pushed up into the bottom of the smoke unit was stuck.  I wiggled it and it popped down and then got a couple more puffs, then it was stuck again.  I took that apart, and the spring just seems really weak.  I did notice that neither the plunger or the body are round, but elliptical, so I twisted the plunger until it's movement was the freest and put it all back together.  If it get's stick again, I'll have to do some sanding and add some oil to keep it from sticking again.

But it's good to go, ready for my son's birthday.  Now the question is if I should wrap each item up separately, or just wrap the whole set box up...

Hi, Pleased to hear that you found the problem and was able to fix it at home.

If it was me I would just wrap the whole box and give it to him as it shipped.

The whole box IS the gift.. Just look at his eyes when he sees that huge box.

My 2 cents..