MTH Aquarium Car not working - Update

Vince,

These aquarium cars are problematic.  They've come up many, many times in the past here on the Forum.

"Search" is your friend, especially in this case because the search criteria are very specific.  Go to the Forum Search page and type in "MTH Aquarium" as seen here:

In return you'll get a number of good responses posted previously, many reporting the same problem you do, and with suggestions for fixes.

Let us know how it turns out.  We're hoping for a good ending.

Mike

@Mellow Hudson Mike posted:

Vince,

These aquarium cars are problematic.  They've come up many, many times in the past here on the Forum.

"Search" is your friend, especially in this case because the search criteria are very specific.  Go to the Forum Search page and type in "MTH Aquarium" as seen here:

Hi Mike,

Before posting I did use the Search using "MTH aquarium car" as the search criteria.  All the posts I found  relating to problems were for the older aquarium cars that used a cord to move the roller.  My problem cars are newer (I guess) and use a set of gears to move the roller.

The Search function can be very useful, but sometimes is very frustrating if you don't use the exact wording.

Today I cleaned out the grease in one of the aquarium cars using a Q-tip and alcohol.  I aligned the gears and put the cover over the gearbox.  The  car ran fine.   I applied some new grease and ran it for awhile to make sure the grease covered all the gears.  When closing up the car, I discovered that one the wires that feeds the lights in the roof of car had come loose.  I fired up the soldering iron and fixed that.  I opened up the other aquarium car.  Not the excessive grease as in the first car, but it was hard and dried out.  Did the same cleanup (and was careful about the wire going to the lights ).  So, now I have 2 fully operational aquarium cars.  I have 18 more to check and possibly have to fix.  

I built a 6 shelf display cabinet a couple of months ago that has O gauge track on the shelves.  I am going to hook up a transformer to 2 of the shelves (2 for now, maybe more later). I will put the aquarium cars on those shelves and periodically run them for awhile to keep the grease "fresh."

I just checked my inventory list....I have 23 Lionel Aquarium cars.  There are a few I have run in the past couple of years, but I figure I should test them all.

@VinceL posted:

Hi Mike,

I used the Search for "MTH aquarium car" as the search criteria.   All posts I found  relating to problems were for the older aquarium cars that used a cord to move the roller.  My problem cars are newer (I guess) and use a set of gears to move the roller.  The Search function can be very useful, but sometimes is very frustrating if you don't use the exact wording.

Hey guys, if you are using MTH's own product search page, MTH does not use the word "aquarium" in reference to any of these cars.  It calls them "operating action cars."      Just an FYI. 

Also, the main issue I've had with these MTH cars is that the belt often sticks to the rollers if car is out of use for any significant time (3+ months).  Sometimes I can coax the belt into moving by poking a finger into the porthole on either/both ends of the car.  If nothing, I'll carefully remove the shell & distribute a small amount of talc on the inside of the belt to prevent sticking.

I have opened up and adjusted/repaired 6 MTH aquarium cars....broken film, film stuck to window, old dry grease, etc.  I am now working on the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer car (too much old dry grease in gear box).

I have soldered wires to the track on 2 of the shelves in my recently built display case, and I have connected one of the shelves to an old transformer.  Here are 6 aquarium cars in action:

Nice!    If they are working properly, MTH Aq cars are better built than Lionel's current one.  The use of two LEDs in each is a big plus for one!

@RadioRon posted:

Nice!    If they are working properly, MTH Aq cars are better built than Lionel's current one.  The use of two LEDs in each is a big plus for one!

The 2 LED's in the MTH cars are definitely better than the single incandescent bulb in the Lionel cars.  I haven't bought a recent Lionel aquarium car; maybe the newer ones use LED's?

I now have 11 aquarium cars on my powered shelf.  Our club is going to be doing a 2 day show in October, and I was asked to bring Halloween trains.  I have one MTH Halloween aquarium car and 3 Lionel Halloween aquarium cars.   I got all of them out of their boxes today.  The MTH Halloween car and 2 of the Lionel Halloween cars worked fine right out of the box.  The 3rd Lionel car had the film stuck to the rollers and the plastic background.  I rotated the film to get the sharp bend away from the rollers and pried the film away from the background.  After some initial starts and stops, it ran for about 15 minutes with no problems.  I just make sure not to stop it at the position where it was stuck.

@VinceL posted:

The 2 LED's in the MTH cars are definitely better than the single incandescent bulb in the Lionel cars.  I haven't bought a recent Lionel aquarium car; maybe the newer ones use LED's.

Not fully sure, but I think Lionel is still using a feeble, single incandescent bulb in its aquarium cars.  I have quite a few going back 25 years and the new ones are of no interest (and priced out of my league) anyway.