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Hi, I’m new here. I recently retired and my wife and I moved across the country to be close to our now 4 year old grandson. I got my boyhood trains out of the attic after 50 years and my grandson loves them. I have a Lionel Scout and B and M diesel. They run really good. But I also have a #65 Hand Car. Out of the attic it ran OK for a while. One day it was running and I turned my back to it, I turned around and it had stopped and was smoking!  I haven’t done any train repairs before. I took the yellow cover off and there’s really nothing obvious to see. The rear wheels are locked up. Any ideas on what I can do to repair it or should I bring it in somewhere for repairs?   Thanks. Mat

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The rear wheels will always be locked as this is a worm drive motor. The rectifier has most certainly overheated & bit the dust - this is an unusual Lionel unit(for pre-1973) as it is a DC motor, but with on-board rectification.  I doubt the 65-30 rectifier is available anymore, but if the motor is still OK a small silicon diode can be secreted in the chassis bypassing the original rectifier. The 65 is rather small, so an experienced shop may be needed to effect a repair.

Beware of the original rubber men on the 65. The rubber Lionel used is not compatible with the plastic so over many years, the plastic will melt wherever they have been in contact. If yours hasn’t melted yet, I would remove the figures and store them, then get modern reproduction figures for operational purposes.

I have seen several 65’s whose plastic yellow body has been destroyed by the figures.

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