Legacy Not Charging?

Call Lionel, get an RA and they'll fix it for the price of shipping to them.

OR

Do what many of us do, tape over the contacts, turn off the charger, and use Alkaline Batteries.  The charger has always been the weakest feature of the Legacy system.

MartyE - so it IS the charger?  Is the "fix" legit and therefore worth the inconvenience to ship it to Lionel - or will it just fail again?  I've only had Legacy for a little over a year.  Thanks. 

I guess I should ask if the charger switch is in the "On" position and the correct batteries are in the remote?  Lionel is very specific about the batteries to use.

If that is the case, folks have sent them back and have had successful repairs.  I personally never sent mine back because the charger isn't important to me but it should work so if you can do without for a couple of weeks it may be worth it to you.  The good news is, Lionel still repairs these under warranty despite how long you've owned it as long as the repair isn't because of malice.

I haven't touched anything on the base, so I'm guessing it is "on" since it worked till recently. But how would I know - where is the "on" button?  Sorry, I don't see it and the manual is buried under a bunch of stuff right now.  The batteries are the ones that came in the unit.  Again, I haven't owned this very long. Thanks again.  

The charging switch is on the bottom of the base, make sure it's on.

Those batteries are old & might be bad

Ken M

Even with bad batteries, the charging lights should do something.  The fact that they're totally off suggests the charging switch is off.  Even with no batteries in the CAB2, the lights react, they both blink at the same time.

I've had the charging fixed on the bases I have and they work well now. I use Imedion by Powerex or Duracell Duralock NiMh 2400 mAh which are both better than the original batteries. In particular, the Imedion hold their charge for months without self discharging. The Duracell do pretty well in that regard. The original batteries were quick to self discharge when not using the remote.

Glad you found a good battery. Most operator's I know just use regular replaceable ones. Keeping them out of the charger of course.

Jim 1939 posted:

Glad you found a good battery. Most operator's I know just use regular replaceable ones. Keeping them out of the charger of course.

Agreed.  I wish Lionel would publish a list of "Approved" batteries.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Even with bad batteries, the charging lights should do something.  The fact that they're totally off suggests the charging switch is off.  Even with no batteries in the CAB2, the lights react, they both blink at the same time.

GRJ - flipped it over and it was off. How it turned off I'll never know as it sits in the same spot undisturbed. It's on and charging just fine now.

Thanks everyone one for the help!

Peter 

I love the easy ones.

Glad it was simple.  Typically when some one says charger it's easy to to jump to the conclusion that it's a bad charger.  You would assume that "nothing" changed but that's why I went back and asked about the charger being on.  Sometimes you move the unit and not realize that you've bumped the switch.  And just to let you know, it doesn't show it's location in the manual but does state that it is on the under side of the base.

Have fun!

When I go to the train meeting, I usually bring a set of charged batteries and a plug in the wall charger because the Legacy base has such a poor reputation. Some of the guys have charge broken bases but they aren't quick to send them in for repair. I've encouraged them, but usually an excuse is finding the receipt or invoice. Is that a requirement...that you have to have an invoice? I forget.

cjack posted:

 I've encouraged them, but usually an excuse is finding the receipt or invoice. Is that a requirement...that you have to have an invoice? I forget.

I can't say 100% for sure but since Lionel is still doing warranty repairs on these after almost 10 years of being released, I doubt it.

They wanted a receipt for my Legacy 990 about a year ago when it went in for repairs (different problem). When giving me an RA number, they specifically told me to include the sales receipt with my RA paperwork. I didn't have one, but my LHS was able to reprint a copy for me from their sales records so it was sent in with the RA paperwork. Mine really was under warranty as it was only about 6 months old at the time. 

Not sure what would have happened without the sales receipt? Another good reason for support your LHS, as they can support you as well.

That's interesting.  If they are going to continue to warranty them indefinitely, then what's the point of a receipt?

I was wondering about that myself while getting my RA, but didn't ask them anything about not having a receipt. Just figured I would keep looking or figure something out which I did, thanks to my LHS. That's a good question though? Maybe someone that wasn't able to find theirs will comment. 

FWIW, it's worth they also asked me when I purchased it and how old it was and it also took right at a month to get it back. This seemed odd from everything I had previously heard about the Lionel service.  I sent it back in late March and it came back in late April last year, I think it was one month to the day from when I sent it in. Been working great since though.

This is the only thing train related I have ever had to send in for repair, so I have no other personal experiences to compare to.