Lionel 18001 Rock Island steamer of the late 1980's

If you love it, buy and run it. Life is short. There were allot of threads on the fixes for this engine so if and when you come to that bridge, there is plenty of help in that area. Just make sure you get it for a good price

As far as I know, all of the Rock Island locos had this problem, so expect to have yours reworked.

If it is over 250 that is too much.  It might cost another hundred or two to to fix it.  I have the Lackawanna and I like it a lot.

POTRZBE posted:

If it is over 250 that is too much.  It might cost another hundred or two to to fix it.  I have the Lackawanna and I like it a lot.

Cost me less than $10 in parts and an evening of work.

Here is the thread I created.  Once I had the correct parts figured out it went smooth.

It's a very nice engine and worth the money to get it running correctly IMO. 

Dave

Agree, bought a new Lackawanna, for cheap,  AFTER seeing the OGR articles about the bearings years ago.  Took it directly to my shop who fixed it for $21 parts & labor ( in 2001), still runs decent, obviously does not have 2018 bells & whistles, but I just like it. 

There must be a market for a scale Rock island and Soo line northerners. 

I haven't done anything to mine and it runs OK, noisy but runs OK. It's a good looking engine.

Jim Barrett did a good write up a few years back on repairing this locomotive

I like all the answers, can anyone post a picture or 3 of it.  I'm not familiar with it at all.

Thanks : )

Here you go Mr. Motts,

trestleking posted:

Agree, bought a new Lackawanna, for cheap,  AFTER seeing the OGR articles about the bearings years ago.  Took it directly to my shop who fixed it for $21 parts & labor ( in 2001), still runs decent, obviously does not have 2018 bells & whistles, but I just like it. 

Gotta agree.  This was my first steam locomotive I personally ever purchased.  Now it runs like butta.

Like the saying goes, "there's an exception to every rule". I haven't applied any of the fixes for the noted issue with this model engine on my Rock Island version, but mine runs just fine, Apparently someone woke up or made a mistake on the assembly line at some point.....

I think this engine would be an excellent candidate for Lioncheif. 

It's a traditional size engine with a slightly oversize boiler that gives it a Big Massive look that steam engines are suppose to have yet it doesn't look out of proportion.

Thats why this engine is popular.

I bought the lackawanna for $150 recently and it ran fine. I did bushibgs just to be sure and had to replace a broken smoke cam. The motor field rivets were a little loose and i did drive them a little tighter but i think it still is a little loose as the motor is sort of noisy but it runs perfrctly smooth with a little momentum roll aftter you cut power. Im glad i got it.

I have run this around the Christmas tree for 10 years with no problems whatsoever - wonderful engine.

David

MartyE posted:

trestleking posted:

Agree, bought a new Lackawanna, for cheap,  AFTER seeing the OGR articles about the bearings years ago.  Took it directly to my shop who fixed it for $21 parts & labor ( in 2001), still runs decent, obviously does not have 2018 bells & whistles, but I just like it. 

Gotta agree.  This was my first steam locomotive I personally ever purchased.  Now it runs like butta.

My Lackawanna runs great too. I guess I got lucky!