fixed it myself

Good job. Keep some bandaids and chewing gum on hand. They might come in handy in the future.

It'll only get better...

Hey I also use superglue for boxcars that have trouble with couplers that pop open.

I posted a message about modifying the Lionel postwar couplers (die cast) so they don't pop open.  They still work after the modification.  I am inclined to modify things so they still work.

http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=29954

Fixing Lionel magnetic couplers so they stay closed

I've done quite a bit of repairs since I got back into trains, A lot of soldering and fixing smoke units, using super glue, tape and silicone. Some cars I don't mess with because of they way they are put together or if I'm not sure what I'm doing. When that happens my good friend who is a Lionel tech helps me out. A lot of times he'll show me how to fix things unless it gets too complicated and requires what he learned in Lionel tech school. He knows a lot. I told him don't show me too much it takes away from what you do, he said don't sweat it train people have to stick together and you should know how to do things like fixing little problems that come up. So I say good job seaboardm2.

Its a great feeling when one can fix something.

I recall many years back buying a lionel 2055 with tender, everything ran great for a week then the tender stopped making it's whistling noise.

Brought it back to the hobby shop and the owner had the repair guy look at it on site in back room and invited me to observe.

From that point on after seeing him solder i learned how to solder as well and fix my own pre and postwar trains such as tune ups,e units etc.

Martin