Lionel 394 beacon

I hate to rain on your parade.....you'll need to toss it and buy a 494 or one of the new RailKing or Lionel pieces.

Pappy is right.  There was a reason this specific accessory had a short production life.

 

Unfortunately the 394 has never really worked all that well even when it was originally released.  It relies on the heat of the lamp to rise and turn the impeller blades on the beacon, and the heat generated itself is usually not adequate even if you give it a decent amount of voltage.  The housing is also very flimsy, it's easy to distort the contours of the fans and it is very sensitive to any other airflow that may be present in the room which would either make it wobble, disrupt it from spinning, make it spin the other way, or knock it off balance, which can cause it to fall askew on the light bulb and, if unchecked, the heat from the bulb can quickly warp and melt the plastic colored lenses.

 

My advice:  Place it on the shelf as a static display or sell it, and get yourself either an original 494 (which uses a vibrator motor and was a design improvement by Lionel) or get one of the reissues or reproduction ones by Lionel or MTH as Pappy suggested.  You'll save yourself a lot of aggravation in the long run.

That’s an interesting issue I was just thinking about taking my silver Beacon apart and reassembling it.

The rod running up the center acts as contact point for the bulb. According to Greenburgs Lionel Trains 1945 – 1969,  page 461 referring to the No. 394 an extra fibre insulating washer may at times be needed as a spacer to raise the contact point up to the bulb.

 

The reproduction Beacon tops are made of a heavier material than the originals so don’t expect much in the way of rotation, even the originals were pretty squirlly in performance. It’s still a pretty cool light in my opinion.

I understand your frustration, that is why I fixed mine with an aquarium air pump and small clear tubing. It now rotates perfectly. I can send you my articel if i can find it.

Tinplateguy

All my friends who have owned one never got one to stay in the correct position - the slightest air movement always upset the balance.

They can be made to work, but you really have to fool with them. I have a beacon top that I replaced the broken pin with a #8  1/4" sheet metal screw and just kept changing the fin positions until I got a nice, slow turn (without the vibrotor buzz). Keep trying.

The very newest repo's (like what Train Tender sells) seem to work better than the older repo's. The trick is the 14 volt bulb needs to be at 16volts to generate enough heat. A little bright. Also the beacons work better at sea level than higher elevations (like Denver), because there is 'more' air to heat.

 A ceiling fan on low will do perfect,  I havent turned the fan off, in months,

and the 394 just keeps on turning away on or off!

 

Thank you everyone for your help,i got it to work (maximum voltage) and wide open fins on the rotary lens.

You might want to be watchful, I think those bulbs are not rated for more than 14 volts so anything higher you could potentially find yourself having to change out bulbs more frequently as they could burn it out sooner than if they were kept at or lower to what they're rated for.  Also you want to be mindful of the lenses, they can warp and melt over time if there's too much concentrated heat.

Question about the Lionel and MTH reproductions of the 494- do they still operate via the vibrating motor, or do they have regular/can motors?

It really is a shame this system never worked very well. I have several of the later issue beacons and love the traditional looks of then but hate the constant noise of the vibrating motor. I have a few small decorative Christmas-theme lamps that work on the same principle, spinning a miniature lampshade. They work very reliably. The difference from Lionel's beacon is that these use a spring-like wire that wraps around a standard nightlight bulb, with a pointed projection at the top. The lampshade has a metal recess that sits on top of it. No hard to find bulbs to replace! I wonder is this might have been an alternative way to re-engineer the 394 to work better.

I had (have) one of these from their first release back in the early 50's.  It was fussy, but it would work.  Unfortunately for me, a dumb clumsy kid at the time (not much has changed, in fact!), the rotating beacon head was fragile and eventually became folded, spindled, and mutilated.  I hung on to the sad remnant and let it sit as a static thing beside my Plasticville airport.

 

Years later I found a "genuine replacement" part for the beacon head at a dealer.  Careful inspection, though, showed that the fins were formed differently from the original.  the original fins on the top were simply canted up a few degrees.  The "genuine replacement", however, had fins formed like doglegs, with no-or-little angularity to them.  It didn't work at all...at any voltage.  I set it aside for a few more years.  Then, one day I came across this item packed away, found the 394 and the tops, reconsidered their history, and decided to tweak the fins on the new one.  Well, it helped...some...at a very high voltage.  But, since I was still working with the ORIGINAL dimple bulb, I decided not to press my luck.  (I've since obtained a couple bulbs for reserve).

 

Yadda-yadda-yadda, I know.  All of which leads to general agreement with the above comments....it's more fuss than its worth.  Like the 356 Cattle Corral and Car, some Lionel accessories probably should have been painted  blue acknowledging the color of the language operators would succumb to in order to get any satisfaction from their investment!

 

Happy Spring!!

 

KD

 

BTW, FWIW...  Here's what I did with a derelict 394 found at the bottom of a box of 'junk' parts I acquired somewhere in time back when.  The cabin has LED's...one in the interior and a red flasher at the roof peak (added after the photo was taken).  I'm still looking for "Ranger Gord" (Red Green's buddy) for tower duty...

 

 

I have one that works like a charm, and the other needs some prodding.  Once you get it going, and if trains are rumbling on the layout it will continue to rotate.

 

I had a poorly operating Radar antenna with the vibrator motor.  I took a 1/8" rivet and pulled out the stud.  Drilled the magnet carefully to accept the rivet. The Radar pin fit nicely inside the rivet, the head of the rivet acts as a bearing, and the radar turns flawlessly and quietly.  G

That's a really nice adaptation. I bought a 394 tower without the rotating beacon for $5 and made it into a water tower.

I have one of each. The newer version is ok if set low, far enough away not to be annoying and mounted on foam. My other one is red. Not sure if a reissue or not but it works well at the front edge of layout keeping people from bumping into the corner. Sometimes it rotates and other times it doesn't. Still looks nice. Everyone either blows on it or gives it a little spin on the way by. And as others have said, it usually moves if trains are running and frankly I prefer the look of it not moving. I have a spare and since I did melt the green side of one, I might change it to all red on the red tower. To me that is more prototypical for a plane warning beacon anyway. At least the ones in the hills around Boston. FMH