My Legacy remote won't recharge

Known issue. You need to send it in.

I never even bothered with the base charger on mine. I shut off the charger the minute I took it out of the box. I either recharge the batteries in another charger or use disposables. IMO,seems like a bad idea leaving the base on all the time anyway.

The issue is, the heat generated when recharging the batteries is compounded with the normal heat the base produces on its own, "overheating" the system causing the charger to shut down.

This is why most folks have no issues recharging the handheld in the 993 expansion base because the only heat it creates comes strictly from the charger. It has none of the other legacy components in it.

I'm with RICK O on this.  I had sent my Legacy back to LIONEL when they first came out, got it back, still no charging.  Took out rechargeable batteries and put in alkaline batteries.  No problems other then replacing batteries every so often.

I had the same problem, tried Duracell batteries, ended up using regular batteries.  Sent my unit in last week, will let you know if the issue is corrected

Gentlemen,

    IMO you guys are making a big mistake not having your Legacy 990 units fixed, Lionel should make these units work properly, not have problems right out of the box, and need to swap different batteries to operate properly.   I have a problem now with mine also, it charges just fine, however if I power it down, the Cab2 goes into a white light screen situation, and stays that way, so I have been placing the Cab2 on the charger without powering it down, it charges just fine but in order for me to restart the Cab2 I must pop a battery and reinsert it.   I thought Lionel had worked the major problems out of these Legacy 990's, now I am not so sure.  Got to tell ya I just had our own OGR, Willy Gee (Bill Ingraham) upgrade my DCS hand held remotes to fully rechargeables, they both work perfectly, maybe Lionel should employ Bill to engineer their legacy rechargeable Cab2's, they might finally eliminate their base recharging problems.  I plan on sending my Legacy 990 unit back, after I take my Christmas layout down.  I do not like paying serious money for a defective unit NIB, no matter what company is making it.  I had this happen with MTH also, with a NIB TIU, quality control over seas still has big problems, there is still nothing like the real American made products, and American technology with American workmanship. 

PCRR/Dave 

Never used the base for charging, not sure it works or not. I have used alkaline batteries from the beginning. Never a problem. 

same here.

I think Lionel intends to pass the remote charging job to Apple. LCS, eh?

I agree. I sent in my units and both were repaired by Lionel and so far work well some time ago. I respectfully believe that if a builder makes a product feature and advertises it to work with a warranty then it should work. If it does not then the manufacturer should be held accountable to make it right.

Same here....I only get the red blinking lights.  I use rechargeable batteries and charge them with their own charger when they get low.

Rick

I had the same problem just sent mine into Lionel last week still under warranty. call 586-949-4100 est #2 to get a RA number e-mailed to you.   

I have yet to hear of a Legacy System out of warranty. 

I agree. I have a first issue Legacy set that Lionel just repaired under warranty, no cost to me. Had a board in the base zorch, and there was no command signal output to the rails. Also, my expansion charger quit charging. Both issues were repaired and returned in under a week with the latest software version installed to boot! Now the need to get a black module set exists..... Hats off to the service dept. 

MartyE,

   No doubt about it Lionel is making this problem right by repairing the problems under what seems to be a never ending warranty, this keeps the purchaser happy some what, however it's not the correct engineering fix, the fix is to produce the Legacy 990

correctly the 1st time.  A lot better QC needs to be done, maybe Lionel should actually test every Legacy unit from now on, instead of having the purchaser do it for them.

PCRR/Dave

I'm pretty sure Lionel doesn't want anything to have to come back for repair.  Testing every unit at the volume they have with the staff they have is probably cost prohibitive.  Just like anything else they make a product and have a working system.  As time goes by they probably see a trend and address issues as they come up.

Would 100% NON failure rate be nice.  Yep.  Realistic?  No.  While it is not fun sending something back for repair, it's a fact of life.  Maybe I should ask Mike Reagan for a job and all I do is open Legacy 990 systems and test them.  It would sure beat making TV trucks right now.

Ok, now I'm going to sit back and enjoy some popcorn and a drink while watching WWIII unfold over warranty stuff...lol...

I'm sure that Lionel is concerned about QC, and I too applaud them for their service department.

But...I don't think I have gotten anything new from Lionel last year...several engines and a 990 set that have not had an issue. I just received an SD70 this year that I first thought everything looked good when I took it out of the box. But alas, the engineer figure was lying on the floor of the cab and the IR transmitter does not transmit. Not a good start to the year.

So far they have fixed everything under warranty, but it is a nuisance and an expense to have to return things. Even the last 4 freight cars had issues, those little pieces that hold the springs in were off of 3 trucks. Sadly one is still MIA.

cjack that is not a good start.  We should hold Lionel or any other manufacturer to the fire when products are not correct but should also take advantage of their service to get the issues corrected.

Lionel just sent me an RA as we speak. So...that's good service. I guess if we had 100% QC, the product would cost more than the extra frustration and cost of sending it back. How's that for rationalizing ?

Well I just tried that argument on the Ham Radio guys and one of them who worked in the automotive industry said it's wrong. High quality actually cost less to a company. I guess I'll go along with that, makes sense.

I'm sure Lionel is working on it. Their attention and success of their service department certainly speaks to the company's intentions and abilities.

If it makes you feel any better, I had one of the early BMW V8s.  Went back to BMW for two new engines (third time was a charm) before the issue was solved.  Like Lionel, however, BMW stuck to it until the problem was fixed.  I don't want to know how much they swallowed on those repairs.  Three new blocks, plus install.  So I think you are likely correct, making it right the first time is cheaper.  Although to be fair to BMW, that issue was not really its fault -- it was a U.S. fuel issue.  HTH.

I remember that. I've been riding BMW motorcycles since 1971. I don't know what broke the engines, but BMW never makes a mistake on their own . But as you point out, they are there for the customer. I've been through 7 gas level strips. Our gas right? But they just extended the warranty on them to 14 years. 

MartyE,

    Jim Batt is just having some fun, don't take him seriously, and hay use the Carmel Pop Corn will ya Jim.   Marty when I was a boy our American expectations on production was that 99% of everything an American consumer purchased worked properly, right out of the box, and the Lionel Company had a 99.9% consumer rating. 

My fathers Lionel 263E 1900 Work Train still works perfectly even today, switches and all.   American made products worked that way in that era, we believed this stuff coming in from over seas, that did not work correctly was junk, some place along the line our children got use to purchasing cheap throw away items, and having their purchases returned or reworked, unfortunately it became the accepted way of doing business, and I blame this on the US consumer, that is why I said that I believe the men make a big mistake not getting their Legacy units fixed to work correctly.  If in fact it started costing Lionel, or any other Company, more money to rework and repair, than it does to pay for proper engineering and exacting QC, our purchases would work correctly NIB 99% of the time once more.  It's not just Lionel or MTH that does business in this manner, this is a cost driven society, our fathers however demanded much higher quality when they spent their hard earned money.  The younger generations believing that it is unrealistic to have correct engineering & QC in the business world, is exactly why businesses gets away with operating in this manner today. Now it is acceptable business for a company to deliver a product that a company knows might not work correctly, to help keep the production cost down. The consumer has accepted it as a normal way of doing business, the consumer in most cases has become the company quality control, for rework & repair.   Your own words tell the story, unrealistic to think a product should work correctly almost 100% of the time NIB.  In my Father and Grandfathers era however, it was not only realistic, it was demanded, or the business were legally closed down, for knowingly supplying a faulty product, which in that era was deemed a fraudulent business practice. 

PCRR/Dave 

Correct, Dave. Just having fun. Over the years I've witnessed so many discussions start out great but then deteriorate into shouting matches.  Just getting back into the hobby after a number or years, I have found a couple of those very types in the archives here. The seeds were sown in this conversation just because someone has a problem. Just was waiting for someone to start the "That  should never happen and that's why I buy brand x" Now that said, this place is tame and nowhere near compared to my past participation on AOL. I haven't found any of Rich's "This stops now" comments, so I guess everyone is mellower with age. lol. back on topic:
I've have nothing but positives to say so far about my Legacy experiences and interaction with Lionel Customer Service.  Also, the parts stream seems to be more efficient since I last ordered. Used their online ordering, and the parts were in my mailbox in 3 days. That was a record for me. Still puzzled why the component that failed in my base did, but hey if it has wheels and wires, its going to give you trouble some day.
  

Jim,

   The OGR is now the best run forum on the Net, and hay that is not how the trouble saying goes, and you know it, we will let it pass however.  Hope all is great in your neck of the woods.

Keep em runen.

PCRR/Dave

Chris,

   Bummer, how do you tell those 2 little guys you are holding in your Avatar, that their new train stuff has to go back to be fixed, when they just opened it, and it's brand spanking new.  In the old days Lionel was famous for not letting this kind of thing happen, especially at Christmas time.  I will send mine back also after the Christmas layout comes down, sometime in late February.   

PCRR/Dave

Check the batteries, mine went junk shortly after i got it, on all 5 remotes. I have Energizer NiMH recharbles now

Matt M,

   I will give it a try and see what happens, although the Cab2 comes back on line, fully charged if you pop a battery and re-insert it!  Something tells me it's more than the batteries in both mine & Chris's case.

PCRR/Dave

Deleted

Prove that, show me the numbers on paper, just not pulled out of the air

Read the histories and talk to the old timers, Lionel stuff broke then.

Hi guys

I live in the UK and cannot praise LIONEL after sales service highly enough.

Re the problems with the legacy #990 I have version 1.52 not had any major issues with batteries except that they do run hot, so I remove the batteries and put them in a seperate charger and turn the charge switch to OFF no probs.

I've had inconsistent performance with rechargeable batteries in my Legacy remote, also.  Sometimes coming right off the base charge indicator will show as little as one bar.  I bought a "smart" charger from Fry's electronics store (Pacific NW chain, don't know if elsewhere but does sell online.)  I have 2 sets of rechargeables and keep one set in remote, charging there, and second in the "smart charger" where they can stay indefinitely without overcharging damage to batteries.  No more "dead battery" moments with this fix.

The charger is a "TeNergy" brand "Intelligent T4" model.  I'm using Sony NiMH AA batteries.  I've use this combination for six months or more now, and the batteries are doing fine.

Caution: at least in my area, finding a genuine for-sure "smart" charger for AA batteries took a good while.  Don't buy a different model unless the labeling is dead clear that you can leave batteries charging indefinitely; lots of them are vague!

Since I sent both my 990 and 993 Units back to Lionel for the "Charger Update", they BOTH work fine, i.e. they charge my Rechargeable Batteries Fine!!

Fredstrains 

I am having the same issue with the two blinking red lights on 994 expansion charger.  When I called Lionel, they said to return the Cab2 along with the charger.  Did the rest of you have to send in your Cab 2 along with the charger.  I hate to loose the use of my cab-2 for 3 weeks.

Bob