Lionel 1946 2020 (smoke bulb) motor won't turn over

Before you begin, has the motor been serviced? Clean everything with Naphtha, especially the copper commutator segments on the armature, and replace worn brushes.

Disconnect all wiring from the 'E' unit and wire the motor as per the attached drawing.

Apply power and the motor should run in one direction.

Reverse the wiring to the brushes, apply power, and the motor should run in the opposite direction.

If the motor does not run, there may be a problem with the armature.

Larry

Would take shell off 3 screws only 2 in back 1 front screw .

Sounds like yours needs a good cleaning of e -unit and motor tune up if there was that large of a build up of smoke pellet residue around the smoke bulb holder area.

Have 4 smoke bulb turbine engines including some 726 Berks also from 1946 and problems with motor doing nothing turned out to be e-unit needing attention and one that had a loose field wire connection at the brush cap as it  looked soldered ok until i gave that wire a tug and it easily pulled out of the hole in lug.

In short would give power and observe your e-unit pawl pulling back the drum if dirty enough the drum will not come back as far as it should on your horizontal unit also check for loose wires visually and with your fingers.

Good luck those 1946 turbines are some fine running engines made for 1 year only.

Thank you all for your help and advice.  I pulled the brush holders and low and behold, the brushes were so gummed up that the springs couldn't move the brushes onto the commutator.  I cleaned everything with degreaser, sprayed the e-unit with contact cleaner and "polished" the drum with an ink eraser and it is running fine now.  Just have to do a little washing on the shell and it should go back together and run great.  Next will be the tender, which looks like it needs a bath and the whistle cleaned and lubed.

I might just keep it as an example of a very early smoke bulb engine to go along with the later model 682 in my collection.  It's strange how collections show up for purchase.  I haven't seen a 2020 or 681 in quite awhile and then three 2020's show up within a month.  The other 2 are 1947 models and in matching 1443WS sets.  The 2020 smoke bulb engine showed up with some other items but nothing seems to be an actual set.  Engines with the latest collection included a 1666 and a 2035.

One of the cabooses is a 6457 with a painted brown stack, which was early 1949 only.  This is the first one of those that I've seen in over 30 years of collecting.