Greetings.
I have a Lionel Boston and Maine Lashup with two single-motored GP9's and a dummy GP9 (factory # 6-11843). I purchased it used about 4 months ago and so far, have had to have both single-motored units repairs 3 times each. The problem: stripped gears. First I had the plastic gears (let's not even go there) replaced with metal gears. But even then, they strip out. I have never had such unreliable engines.
I am using a standard, tried and true old school Lionel ZW transformer to power the units. I almost always run the 3 engine lashup together as a single train unit. First I had the engines pulling passenger consists. All kinds of crazy thing were happening...couplers opening up on their own with no known explanation. When I blew the horn in quick blasts, it sent the two motored units into mystery mode, where the horn would not activate and one of the units had the bell go off on low volume. I believe the biggest issue, was the for some reason, the units starting driving in opposite directions during normal running, causing sudden super fast gear strop out. The gears stripped out twice pulling passenger consists. The three observation I made are that I seemed to have less problems when I did not blow the horn in quick blasts and allowed all the sound to stop before blowing again. The second was, perhaps due to the high load on the track with all the lighted passenger cars, the two motored units slowed considerably when blowing the horn and that effect was worse of the far side of the track. Lastly, the side on the ZW transformer where the lashup was hooked to heated up much faster than other passenger sets, but the maximum heat generated by the transformer was roughly the same as the other ZWs that I operate on other trains.
So I placed the lashup set on a freight consist to try it. I noted I was able to run the engines on about 17 or 18 volts on the ZW instead of 19 or 20 with the passenger cars. The transformer took longer to heat up without the passenger cars, but it still heats up faster than all the other trains I have. A few days ago, I blew the horn in quick succession thinking everything was running fine and then the motors were seized and not even making sound...once again (third time total).
I really like this colorful lashup...but I cannot have these reliability issues going forward. I could sell it, but I would rather permanently fix it, if possible. So can I ask for your help?
1) Will just blowing the horn after the prior blast has stopped making sound the solution that has worked for you?
2) Will putting both motors in a single GP9 and have two dummies instead of one work/help stop the problem? I understand that the tree engines communicate with one another, so I don't want to mess that up. If I take the motor out of the one power unit, that would leave it as a dummy with railsounds and just a Plain Jane dummy with direction lighting. Is this even possible with this factory lashup?
3) Is this a hopeless cause as the engines can only run properly with newer transformers and I should sell or simply display the lashup?
I know nearly all the trains now come with all sorts of gizmos that are beyond the standard old transformers, but I don't need or want those gizmos. This lashup is late 90's vintage from Lionel...after railsounds really got established in the industry. I wish the new items were more like the old ones,,,simple and reliable. I am perhaps younger than many others in the hobby, but I have a full blown appreciation of the simple and reliable aspects of the older locomotives. I don't even have a bell button installed for this lashup! I do like this lashup, a monthly trip to the repair guy is excessive and adding up last. I have included a picture in this post. Lionel made a few of these lashups for other railroad lines.
Thank you in advance for any and all help you can give me. The unit is too old for Lionel tech support and the owners manual doesn't state any of the issues I have been having either.
