Light on 60 Trolley

"Any thoughts on why the light would be noticeably dimmer? "

Do I understand that you have bought a bunch of identical bulbs and any two produce different light outputs depending upon which trolley they are in?

Have you checked the voltage going to the lamps in each trolley, on the same track, under the same conditions?

Have you done that with no bulbs in the trolleys?

Have you placed the reversing mechanism in neutral on both and observed the lamps?

Have you by-passed the wiring from the roller (or the motor terminal...can't remember exactly how the trolleys are wired at the moment) with a short piece of wire with alligator clips?

Are the two trolleys' motors wired exactly the same way?

Is one bulb a 53 (14 volt) and some others 1445 (18 volt) ?

Switch the bulbs from one trolly to the other. If the junker is then dimmer than your original, it is bulb differences. Perhaps China manufacturing quality differences or 12, 14 (or 18) volt bulbs mixed up in the batch.

If the junker is still brighter try Arthur's suggestions. I guess it could also be a cold solder connection somewhere on the original trolly too

arthur.p.bloom, Many good suggestions, thanks.  I'll try them later today.  I do have 2 answers; 1) I bought a pack of 50 bulbs before I resurrected my Lionel stuff, figuring I would eventually need them.  They look identical.  2) They are wired identically.  In fact the coils were rewound at the same time by themotordoctor.com, so they look the same.  The armature wasn't rewired, but I thoroughly cleaned both.  I also resoldered the connection from the pickup to the armature an well as from the brushplate assembly to the coil.  I also cleaned all those contacts.  So, as motors go, the only appreciable difference could be the armature, but they look very similar.

chuck.sartor, I used new bulbs from a pack of 50 I bought a couple months ago.  I'll look at the rating on the bulb, but I'm guessing they're the same.  Thanks.

Lionelski, I have switched the bulbs, and the brightness difference is in the trolley not the bulb.  Thanks.

And we have a winner, Arthur P. Bloom!  I looked at the wiring connections very carefully, and the wire for the dim bulb was connected to the same post on the brushplate assembly as the field winding.  The manual says it should be connected to the post that the contact roller is connected to.  The trolley with the bright bulb was connected as per the manual.  I moved the wire for the dim bulb to the proper post and voila!

Wonderful news.  When there are so many variables, we must start at the beginning and work our way forward.

(What do I win...a ride on the trolley?)