Lionel 260E

This is a common "pendulum" reverse unit, the ones that Lionel replaced with the barrel unit known as an e unit.

I would have liked to provided you with a link, but the Olsen Toy Train Parts website always seems to act up for me. In Olsen Toy Train Parts library, you will most likely find information on the reverse unit under standard gauge. It's the same piece your 260E has virtually the same unit.

Going from memory:

My advice is to use pictures or put tape tags on the wires so you know their location. You can get to the contacts by prying the back apart a little bit, and clean and adjust them a bit if need be, and it should work fairly reliably. They aren't 100% perfect, but they can be made to work well.

Replace all wiring that can be easily replaced. The tough ones are the coil wires (heavy black, heavy white), and the roller pickup wire. Those may require shrink tube, or cutting and splicing, but it can be done.

Once done, just reassemble and try it. The flapper on top of the reverse unit frame should be touching the contact strip. When power is applied, the magnetic force pulls it to the field.

Just work slow, take notes or pictures before you take things apart and you'll get it.

Thanks for the info jsrfo and I will research the Standard gauge on Olsen web. Most of the wires are broken off and don't know where they were connected to so it is going to be a hit and miss. Roller pick up wire is done as well as the brushes but the rest is the problem. Would I be better off trying to fit the barrel type E unit instead of trying to figure out the wiring?

Ed

Personally, I'd leave it original. I doubt the boiler is slotted for the e unit lever, anyway.

It's not that hard. I don't know why but Olsen's site always gives me fits. I think the drawing has the terminals identified. Basically, two brush wires, pickup wire, and field wire if I'm not mistaken. There are not a lot of combinations, and the diagram shows you.

Later, I'll see if I can pull mine out and somehow get it scanned.

Its my understanding that the switch in the cab is the cut off for the chugger unit. There should only be two wires going to it. One to the switch in the steam chest, and one to the chugger unit.

The pendulum reverse unit when looking straight at the end with the nuts on it is wired as follows. The lug on the left is for the headlight lead. The left upper nut gets the lead from the pick up rollers. The upper right nut gets one lead from the field where the other field lead is grounded. There are three nuts on the lower right. One brush goes to the left most one and the other brush goes to the middle one. That's it!

Gandy

There is no chugger in this engine so I am not sure what this switch does.

I also have a broken wire on some sort of spring contact on top of the motor not sure what this does nor where the wire came from (see pix). Any ideas.

Thanks,

Ed

I have two different green frame 260E's.

One has both a chugger and the reverse unit and the switch is a four position switch so you can turn the reverse on and of and the chugger on and off, depending on what you wanted. You could just have the chugger and no reverse, etc.

This engine has a slot that is about 180 degrees in the cab.

The other one does not have the chugger. The switch just cuts out the reverse switch. The slot in the cab is about 120 degrees, or about 1/3 of a full circle.

So it can be either way. I suspect yours has the smaller slot.

jsrfo, it's not just you.  I love Olsen train parts and order from them, but I cannot get their website to behave rationally with any browser I have. 

Thanks to everyone for all the information for the 260E and with your help I finally got it to run. The switch is the reverse lock out and everything is working great. Again thanks........Ed