Lionel Tmcc 280 consolidation

I get nothing for that number, are you sure that's the correct product number?  The ones I find are from 2008 and have modular TMCC electronics.  However, I don't find any Lionel product with that item number.

Get in touch with BOXCAR BILL at http://www.mttponline.com/ , he will know.  I get all my ERR stuff from BILL and is great to talk with.

laz57

Yes, the 2-8-0's all came with modular electronics. The Crise M kit will fit nicely.

Mike

thanks mike. and yes I will contact box car bill when I get the funds to buy the parts!

Be aware that there were several factory errors during the build of this engine. The Chinese engineers apparently never saw a toy train before designing this one.

1. The tender pickups are too stiff and the wires to them are too short and stiff. Lionel made a wedge shaped washer to put under the pickups to slant them for better physical operation. You can splice a piece of super flex wire to the pickups to prevent the original wire breaking prematurely.

2. The smoke unit needs to have the stack bored out, the wicking replaced, and the resistor sleeve removed.

3. The pilot wheels are gauged too narrow. That allows one wheel to fall into a switch and them the whole truck climbs the opposite rail and derails. You can pop the swages, remove the axle, and spread the pilot wheels out on the axle until the wheels are gauged correctly. They are pressed on mighty tightly, but if you have a vice that is small enough, you can put the axle in vertically and loosely. Then you can use a drift punch to push the axle further into the wheel. Once gauged correctly, they track fine. Lionel made a spring available that was supposed to increase pressure front truck on the track, but there was no good place to mount it and it did not work anyway because weight/pressure was not the problem.

Once you get these three things fixed, it's a nice locomotive, except for one chuff per revolution.