Lionel Supplements 1-9 and 10 - 47

Ericc,

The Lionel Service Station supplements are admittedly a bit confusing. Here's the short version of the story.

The Lionel Service Manual last had a major revision in 1977. For about 10 years thereafter, Supplements 1-9 were issued to Service Stations.

Sometime in the late 1980's (1987-ish), Lionel turned over rights of the manual to Greenberg Publishing Company. Greenberg issued an updated version of the manual, starting about that time, which incorporated Supplements 1-9. That's the 500-page file that's currently available on Lionel's site.

Between then and about 2004, Supplements 10-47 were issued individually. Lionel then abandoned the manual and supplements, instead choosing to post exploded parts diagrams online of individual items.

I hope this helps.
TRW

Ok; That helps

thank you

PaperTRW posted:

Ericc,

The Lionel Service Station supplements are admittedly a bit confusing. Here's the short version of the story.

The Lionel Service Manual last had a major revision in 1977. For about 10 years thereafter, Supplements 1-9 were issued to Service Stations.

Sometime in the late 1980's (1987-ish), Lionel turned over rights of the manual to Greenberg Publishing Company. Greenberg issued an updated version of the manual, starting about that time, which incorporated Supplements 1-9. That's the 500-page file that's currently available on Lionel's site.

Between then and about 2004, Supplements 10-47 were issued individually. Lionel then abandoned the manual and supplements, instead choosing to post exploded parts diagrams online of individual items.

I hope this helps.
TRW

 

@PaperTRW

Todd, I wonder if any technical information from about 2005 on, such as schematics, service instructions/tips/hints/measurements, etc. are all held at Lionel? I would think that some of them are now Chinese property - in fact, I wonder if Lionel has access to ALL schematics? I wonder how much of that proprietary information is made available to service centers via Non-Disclosure Agreements?

Oh well, I guess in a world of throw-away electronics, a block/connection diagram is more important than an actual schematic. 

Let's see, where did I leave my tube caddy?

George

George,

I'm not sure that information exists post-2004, at least not in a format that's easily understandable.

Typically, the "electronics guys" would have a generic system diagram, and then they'd wire a sample piece to be sent back to the offshore factories to wire things "just like this." This included instructions for wire routing, which could be critical on some pieces. Whether those factories generated schematics for every piece, I don't know.

Any service-related wiring diagrams usually originated post-manufacture with Lionel's Service Department. But I can say for sure that there aren't any NDA-protected releases of non-public info to dealers and service stations!

TRW

PaperTRW posted:

Whether those factories generated schematics for every piece, I don't know.

Which is why I have a Polar Express PCB on its way from Lionel  Heck, it wouldn't matter much even if I had a schematic - the "big black blob" chips used on some of their boards (like my PE bd) are proprietary and are impossible to come by  With a little luck and some physical observations, you can repair a few.

Thanks for the reply, you helped to confirm what I suspected

George

PaperTRW posted:

Between then and about 2004, Supplements 10-47 were issued individually. Lionel then abandoned the manual and supplements, instead choosing to post exploded parts diagrams online of individual items.

I hope this helps.
TRW

Any exploded views of the 18" aluminum passenger cars?