This morning our FasTrack Operating track decided to stop working. We only have one car that uses the track (the barrel unloader). I cleaned the track as well as the contact shoes on the car which did nothing. If I press gently on the side of the car it will work again which tells me the shoes are no longer connecting properly with the control rails. Just not sure how to go about fixing this. The uncoupling part of the track still works just fine. Any ideas?
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This may or may not help you but make sure you clean the inside edges of the rails as well. I had a fastrack crossing that stopped working, clean the top of the rails, no difference the I cleaned the inside edges of the rails and the problem was solved.
It seems betwwen the taper of the wheel tread and the rounded fastrack rail, the optimum electrical contact was being made on the inside curved edge of the rail.
Operation of a dump track is more involved but maybe the cars wheels still need a good ground.
Found the problem: one of the wires leading from the inside of the car to the wheels came off.
This leads me to my pet peeve: why is Lionel stuff such utter **** when it comes to quality??? I've only had my trains since December and so far I've encountered the following:
1) The wire breaking on this barrel car.
2) A wire disconnecting on a remote switch after just two weeks.
3) The rubber band which rotates the saw blade in the window of the Weyerhauser saw mill accessory snapping after 2 days.
4) The helicopter launch car which failed to launch the helicopter (more like it just toppled off the car).
I've purchased fewer than 20 Lionel items (not counting pieces of FastTrack) so this sort of failure rate is simple astounding, especially given that these are such simple mechanisms once you open them up. The only real consolation is that once you do figure out what failed the fixes are quite simple if you have the right tools (and fortunately I'm a former race mechanic so I do!)
Does Lionel have even a basic comprehension of the concept of QA? And spare me the "it's because it's made in China" crap. Anyone spouting that jingoistic nonsense is either an idiot or a racist. I don't see iPhones failing at nearly this rate and there are a LOT more parts and connections inside those than there are in anything Lionel makes. Ditto for lots of other consumer devices almost all of which are far more complicated than most of the Lionel cars/accessories I've now had to repair.
For the money Lionel charges their quality is simply dismal. Going forward I think I'll stick with MTH.
Grrrrr......
Found the problem: one of the wires leading from the inside of the car to the wheels came off.
Does Lionel have even a basic comprehension of the concept of QA? And spare me the "it's because it's made in China" crap. Anyone spouting that jingoistic nonsense is either an idiot or a racist.
For the money Lionel charges their quality is simply dismal. Going forward I think I'll stick with MTH.
Glad you found the problem,and while Lionel may or may not have basic comprehension of quality,the 15 year old chinese girl that assembled it probably isn't worried about it since it will be a few months and several thousand miles away before anyone knows the work was poorly done. With a warehouse full of "assemblers" its kind of hard to pin it on one person.
No racism here, just the facts.
Apple likely has better qualified chinese girls, the market is signifigantly larger and with that the payoff much greater. Apple sells 150 million i phones in a year, poor quality would be catastrophic. Lionel sells maybe a few thousand locos if that.
Everyone wants/needs a cellphone, only folks like us that like trains, buy them.
I'm not saying its right, just that, "thats the way it is". Good luck going forward with MTH they seem to be trouble free.
Quality control has nothing to do with nationality or even cost - some of the worse bikes I ever had to deal with were handmade by European "craftsmen" - those bikes were complete crap compared to the average production frame costing 1/5 the price coming from Taiwan! There's simply no excuse for what I've seen from Lionel.
It has been mentioned by those that know more than me that it is harder to get a good chinese manufacturer for a relatively low volume item, the narrow market doesn't allow for the extra cost of a "premium manufacturer" if one would agree to a contract. Lionel may feel its easier to rectify issues here in the States, thus the best customer service/repair dept in the hobby, but maybe too little too late.
Having said that, MTH is supposed to have their "own" Chinese manufacturing company as opposed to Lionel who subcontracts the work to whoever.
Even with their "own factory" and supposed testing of every product they sell, MTH still has numerous complaints regarding failures as well.
Lastly the brass manufacturers, may make a couple hundred pieces, are able to oversee the entire operation, they are not spared from problems either.
Its the nature of the beast/hobby.
Having said all that, my best, most reliable trains have "made in korea" stamped on the bottom. No matter the nationality, some folks are better at things than others, everyone has their "niche". Here in American we don't make anything anymore so its really not fair to judge I suppose.
I believe I read somewhere that Apple has 300,000 employees assembling just the phone or pad alone ( I forget which) They probably use up a good portion of the nations better manufacturing talent. Add in the other big electronics players and whats left in the way of quality manufacturing?
If you owned a reputible manufacturing company, who would you want to contract with to prosper and profit? The latest and greatest in handheld electronics that everyone wants, or a few toy trains for a dying hobby for a precious few people still interested in trains.
Lionel probably has to settle with whoever is left.
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