Lionel B&O EM-1

I have a legacy EM-1 and have no problems with it other than the whistle smoke stopped working, all I did was take it out and clean it. It has been fine since then.

The old tmcc one had those issiues .. The legacy one did not..

The TMCC EM1 6-28051 had an issue with the driveshaft splitting/ breaking, no issues with the gearbox.

Mike Reagan chimed in regrading this loco awhile back, maybe a search would bring it up. I believe he said they could do the driveshaft "fix" at Lionel service, if you sent them the shaft/ loco.

You could also contact Lionel direct via email at the "service/repair question" link here: http://www.lionel.com/ContactUs/ and verify this is still the case.

For some reason, the drive shaft connector (which held the "dog bone" on the drive) on the 6-28051 TMCC EM-1's wasn't pinned to the drive shaft -- it was only a friction fit. Eventually, the connector won't hold, and the motor will simply spin the shaft inside the connector.

The good news is that nothing is usually broken per se. You just need to find a way to fasten the shaft inside the connector. At one point, there were correctly-made replacement parts available, but I'm sure if that's still the case almost 15 years later.

I hope this helps-

TRW

I made this repair to my loco. At the time Lionel did offer a replacement shaft and dogbone set. It was a straightforward repair to remove the old shaft and replace it with the new one. I would think you could fix this by installing a pin or using ACC to fix the connector to the shaft. However if Mr Reagan at Lionel is offerring to repair the shafts , that would be the way to go .

You need to really put a load on it to break it. For me it was 32 Atlas O Diecast hoppers. As pointed out already, it was an easy fix. 

Mine broke about 3 years ago. I was always careful with it, knowing there was an issue and not pulling more than 8-12 cars, but it still failed.

At the time, I sent it to Dean Brasseur to have it repaired.