Lionel's New Berkshires Hitless 0 for 3

My Dad received his 765 last Wed. The box had a rattle inside but after inspection of the engine, it was all in one piece. Must have been the parts bag rattling around because all the bearings were intact.

Person who never posts, but is always reading the forums here. Received PE Berkshire last week, had a chance to finally open and inspect this weekend, found front pilot bearing cracked. E-mailed Lionel CS last night, received response and notification at 8:13 AM that Lionel was sending replacement parts.

 

 

LOL.. Actually, all it took was to tip them side to side to hear things rattling inside.

Besides what I did was nothing compared to the outer shipping containers that arrived with deeply smashed corners and slit sides so severe, the inner package was damaged.  Its no wonder why some arrived damaged.

I have existed for lots of years and have done very well in life..

BTW jimmyred, thank you for being amazed..

Joe 

My update is:

 

Received my Gold PE last week, but got home last night to open it. Upon opening, all of the "bearings" were in place and intact, but one (on the pilot) slipped out. I took the "easy" route, what with the piece appearing intact and functional upon me replacing it, of putting a dot of CA glue on the other side and sliding it back in place. I haven't run it, so I have no way on knowing whether the other pieces will eventually fail, but tugging slightly on the other axles did not dislodge any pieces.

 

Bruce

What would Joshua Lionel Cowen say?

I hope this bearing thing works out OK for everyone but I would question the long term durability of the original and the replacement bearings. Will they last ??

Only time will tell if it works.  On the other hand, I have not heard of anyone who has one that was not broken out of the box that has had it develop problems, so the fundamental design may be okay.  Mine has about 20+ hours of running now and is great.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed  . . . 

Lee, my bearing fix was very straightforward.  However, my berk also has a burned out headlight, very poor whistle steam operation and jerky operation in reverse.  She may just ship out to Lionel tomorrow for a refit.  

Decided to try my luck with a Gold PE Berk with a bunch of coaches.  My O-gauge purchases are getting to be slim and far between, but there was something about the Gold Polar Express that will fit the theme of my newly planned multi-gauge layout.

 

Drum roll, please..... the locomotive arrived today... And guess what, the pilot wheel/axle bearings were NOT broken.  That's the good news.  The bad news is the front pilot wheel/axle assembly along with BOTH bearings slipped right out Of its assembly when I unwrapped the locomotive!    I was able to see how the bearings should be seated, and I guess the solution in this scenario is simply to carefully super-glue the bearings back in place.

 

An hour earlier, I had just called Lionel customer support to request a new pair of bearings for the black Polar Express loco which arrived a couple of days ago with one of its pilot bearings broken -- most likely during transit or when the loco was packaged.  Lionel CS was very helpful, and will have the new part shipped soon.

 

Now as an aside... last night (before the Gold Berk arrived), I actually had the wild thought that perhaps it would be cool to double-head the black PE with it's sister PM #1227, since I already have quite a few coaches and PE boxcars.    Should look impressive, right?

 

And then I got to thinking, "Did the overseas factory team assembling these jewels use 5 dabs of glue that morning...  Or did they use 6?  Whatta you think?  Do I feel lucky???"  

 

I was half-inclined to pass on #1227 at this point, but then got to thinking... "I gots to know!"  

 

Stay tuned...

 

David 

The 765 Berkshire has arrived at my horseshoe curve!  Guys, mine came in excellent condition, although one of the front bearings was a little loose, and I snapped it into place.  Also, there is lot of talk about things rattling in the box, I believe it is the extra boiler front with the Mars light. The area where it is at in the box is significantly larger than the piece. The engine ran flawlessly for over an hour. I'll be posting a video on YouTube soon. It's amazing! 

One thing I can say unconditionally, the front bearings on my Gold PE Berk -- while not broken -- will most certainly NOT just snap back into place.    When I tried slipping them back into position, they fell right back out.  The fit is simply too loose, so they'll need to be glued in order to stay secure.

 

As far as the excessive rattling noise, i think it's primarily the wheel wrench that's not secured well enough in the styrofoam insert.  Again, it's just another example of packaging shortcuts that -- in this case -- makes one wonder how ANYBODY packing something this expensive could overlook something so simple that just cheapens the whole experience.    I just don't understand.

 

David

 

 

Odd about the bearings not snapping in. They, once inserted, look in all the way but are not. It takes a fair amount of force with a proper sized flat blade screwdriver to push it past the point of resistance, snapping it in.

I sure wish Lionel would have done this in 2010.

 

what a nice thing to have!!!

 

 

can anyone make out all the names??

What would Joshua Lionel Cowen say?

 

I do not know.  I do believe that he would have driven from his Manhattan office to the New Jersey factory to say it. 

 

Mike Reagan has a little farther to travel to get problems solved.  But I don't think we will see this problem again.

 

 

Probably the same thing he told the bright light that tried to save money on the 700E by sweeping up metal scrap from the boiler casting for re-use. I have read this was what caused some of the boilers to be frailer than they should have been.

 

Having read this thread for its entirety, it's pretty clear that there was a goof up here but also pretty clear that it is a minor issue.  Not absolving them but I would fix the locomotive myself and move on.  More than that strikes me as piling on.  Moreover, the publicity hit on the biggest O gauge forum should provide Lionel with the appropriate incentives to fix this kind of thing going forward.  We'll see.   

Well at least we're almost down to complaining about the wrench in it's own plastic bag, in it's own compartment in the Styrofoam moving around.  But I guess someone had to sooner than later.

The should use baby seal coats/skins to wrap them so they don't rattle.  ;-)

 

Guys, this thread has become a truly wrenching tale . . . 

 

BTW - does anyone else have a box of about fifty of those things?  I wish I could find some use for one.  All you need is one - actually, if you have a good tool set you don't even need that.

 

So how many buyers for the next big Lionel product will be lost because of all this?

IMHO, I say "NONE"....because we have all come to expect and moreover accept such things with Lionel.

True? False?

If they are slipping out then they are broken, the one of mine that was not broken did not slip out

When I first tried to slip the bearing back in, it was loose still. Then I gave it a little bit more force and you could hear it snap it.   A small flat head screwdriver worked good, as suggested earlier in this post.

My Berk arrived with the wrench not in a bag and caught between the two sides of the styrofoam packaging close to the engine compartment. Also, a good amount of loose coal that fell off the tender rolling around inside in all compartments.

As I said, they did a poor packaging job.   For me, this is the second Lionel engine in a row with a loose pilot wheel bearing..Easily fixed yes..but still a problem Lionel needs to correct.

That aside, my engine looks and runs great with perfect sounds but..it's a shame a dummy front coupler wasn't included for doubleheading with other engines.

Joe

 

 

And...if the surface of the bearing insert is flush with the truck bearing slot surface, then it is not snapped in. Pushing it firmly in will result in it being about 1/32 to 1/16 below the surface.

I have around 5 of them...5mm I think. I noticed that Lionel charges $9 for them in parts.

JC 642

 

Joe.

    

 The dummy coupler is listed on the contents page.  Contact Lionel Customer Service via their Talk to us link and request a replacement.  

 

Chris 

 

 Part listed on their website for the 765.  I did not check for the other Berkshire roads.

 

6308075245

DUMMY COUPLER / O GAUGE / STEAM LOCO

 

 

 

   

 

I can understand no dummy coupler for the black and gold PE models of the Berk due to the new, pronounced cowcatcher.  Neither my black or gold PE Berk came with one -- which I didn't expect they would.  But I'd certainly expect a dummy coupler to be included with all the other Berks having the small/regular cowcatcher.  

 

I was considering #1227 just for that very reason, namely to double-head with the black #1225 PE Berk.  

 

David

My bearings slipped out just as I opened the bag and fell out on my lap.

The bearing looked to be in one piece but I was able to snap the entire assembly in and add a couple of drops of CA to secure it in... I'm still trying to figure out this sound snafu though...Just dims its own sound during its shut down sequence....

 

Can someone point me in the direction of the customer service email?

I didn't receive traction tires and a front dummy coupler as well.

Well, my #765 arrived today via UPS from CTTrains, who even gave me a complimentary word calendar, which was awfully nice of them.

 

As for my engine, I also heard the rattling Nick had, but I found it to just be the spare boiler front. I found the engine wrapped tightly in its gauze and plastic wrap. I carefully unwrapped it all, and happily found it 100% intact! I agree with Nick, well worth every cent in its sheer awesomeness! Either I got lucky, or more likely I'm just another really happy customer.

I guess I never expected that I'd need to become an expert on pilot truck assemblies and wheel bearings, but I think we're all up to the task.  

 

When I called Lionel CS about this issue, the first question they asked was, "Is the bearing broke, or was it loose and just fell out?".  The reason being... If it's just loose, they didn't want to ship a replacement.  Rather they wanted me to glue the bearing back in place.  They emphasized the need for glue.

 

Just relaying what I was asked and told.  

 

For my black PE Berk, they're sending the replacement.  For the gold Berk, they suggested re-gluing the original bearings back in place, since I didn't think the bearings appeared broken.

 

If we hadn't spent big $$$ on these gems, this would almost be comical.  

 

David

Thomas, after spending $1k per engine, we'd all like to be "happy customers".  Considering what we're hearing, consider yourself lucky.  

 

Only in this corner of the world does it seem that toy train enthusiasts tolerate this level of quality nonsense yet remain loyal buyers.  I'm just as guilty at times, as I'm still considering a purchase of #1227.     We simply send the wrong message all too often, and the boys and girls in NC smile all the way to the bank.

 

Perhaps the next step in manufacturing cost-cutting will be that these gems will ship to us as kits, and we'll all need to assemble them ourselves.    That'll save a few bucks labor in the eyes of the corporate bean-counters.

 

David

The problem is its not like you and I and the rest of us can march these back to a Lionel store and throw them through their front window.

We have to put up with it, or risk items being damaged in shipment. Thus manufactures can hide behind this.

Knowing that, most of us will report the problem but fix it ourselves...

Just the order of things...

 

 

 

 

Somebody at Lionel, a supervisor most likely, said "tell them to glue it in if the actual bearing is not broken". So it kind of depends on whether the supervisor is as particular as the customer. If the supervisor is kind of slack when it comes to technical perfection, then a customer might find this advice aggravating.

In my case the glue thing became an issue and the customer service person insisted that I glue the (new) bearings in even if she sent me new bearings.

In fact, new bearings do not need glue. They work quite well when installed properly as they were designed. I am happy now as are the other 95% of the Berkshire owners who are operating their engine without glue.

talktous@lionel.com

This thread = ponderous.

I'm pretty sure nobody is happy about this least of all the folks of Lionel.

 

Jeff who owns and runs CTT trains is a very nice guy.  Very kind of him to include the extra item in you shipment.  I would recommend his store to anyone looking to buy trains.  He also ships fast, and his website is impeccable with shipping dates, and what he currently has in stock.  Very informative!   Enjoy your new Berk Thomas!

Guys, any business that wants to stay in business cares about its customers' satisfaction because without it they will not stay in business. Yes, its all about money - but don't beat them up because that is the only reason they care.  Without that motive few people would care about your happiness.  

 

The only important question is if they are "caring enough" - whether they respond well when there are problems and try to avoid them in the first place.  Based on my experience and what I hear here, the answer is yes, they do.  Also that fact that they have stayed in business quite a long time suggests they do a good enough job to at least sustain their business.