Lionel 37952 culvert unloader?

Mine just arrived today from Charles Ro. What a nice smooth operating accessory. Lionel really did a nice job on the modern version of this. I highly recommend it.

Expecting mine from Ro on Friday.

Dave

I ordered the Bethlehem version. I went and picked mine up last Friday. However it turned out to be defective, the lights worked incorrectly amd the sign that attached the building had fallen off. I was disappointed cause like mentioned it seemed to otherwise be great.

Add mine to the defective list.

 

I ordered both, the loader was fine.

The unloader had a broken transformer terminal when I opened the box.

I can work around that. Then after 3 cycles the mechenism locked up.

 

Called Charles Ro. and they said send it back.

I did and a week later I had my new one.

 

 WAY TO GO CHARLIE !!!

 

Now the second one... Well if the magnet stops at the bottom, It won't

restart. You can hear the gears grinding. I've pulled it apart several times

and it works for a while then the same thing.

I may play with it again today and then determine if I should send it back.....

My Bethhem was defective also........took it back to the dealer.

Was it the same problem as mine ?

I also looked at the Lionel parts.

Gear box not available... Great...

I just picked mine up yesterday and it seems to not be working right.  According to the instructions, the house light comes on 3 seconds after the car is in the correct place by breaking the optical beam.  The warning lights are suppose to flash 6 times.  But on mine as soon as I turn on power the House lights up, even with no car.  Then when the car is in place, the warning light flash but never stop.  Also the light in the room made a difference.  I was under normal lighting, but I had to put my finger over the sensor for it to operate.  Its like the optical sensor, or pcb board has a problem.  If anyone has this can you describe how it should operate  start to finish?

Thanks

 

Sean

I had the same problem with my lights on my Bethlehem loader.  I almost didn't even notice cause I was so excited to finally have it.  I took mine back to my lhs they swapped me for another one, same problem encountered on that one as well as the warning lights not working correctly.  Both units had the sign laying on the base plate instead of being positioned on the house like it belongs. 

Though I'm not ready to place them yet, I decided to test out my Betlehem Loader and Unloader. They arrived a few day from Legacy Station. I'm using mine with Lionel FasTrack. Mine operate perfect(now)...loads of fun. The loader worked out of the box. The unloader kept placing the culvert sideways. I put two pieces of electrical tape over the magnet and then one out of every three would be place correctly. Then I noticed one the two swinging pieces would cause the culvert to flip sideways. I swung them back and forth, for a while, to loosen them up. It work...all fourteen culverts get placed perfectly now. My lights operate as others have mention. I'm glad though. I would want the house light on all the time anyway and the warning lights going when a gondola is waiting to be loaded. If the lights are meant to work like the direction says, then they must have been wired wrong.

I just got a reply back from Lionel.  They have an issue and are working on a fix.  Seems ambient light messes up the sensor and causes it to start and stop.  Here's their reply.

 

 

Sean,

The house light is on all the time, and I think the other light is to blink all the time as well, I believe the instructions are wrong. The sporadically operation is most likely ambient light in the area of the sensor. We have got a few calls on this and just got one in that is having this issue, we are working on a fix, testing a few ideas now, should have something soon. Sorry we don't have the fix right yet, I have to ask that you check back in a few days, first of next week.

Thank you,
Lionel

FWIW I the loader/unloader combo that I got in 2002. The lights have never worked correctly. Does not affect operation. I had to reposition the micro switch on the loader, but other than that, they have worked fine.

 I had the same problem. Though mine was hitting one gate and not the other.

 I bent the riser ever so slightly forward and everything was fine. guess it got bounced

 around a  little during shipment.

 I'm sending my second one back. Bad gearbox. Guess it's another reason to buy local.

 I've got $30 in shipping these back. I hope CR s getting something for thier efferts.