My railsounds board melted....literally (Update-3/5/12)

Hey all:

Just got off the phone with Lionel's customer service. I am shipping back the locomotive and receiving a full refund.

I had already sent the locomotive in 3 times prior to this issue and I really needed to stop the bleeding.

Thanks to everyone that helped.

-Mike

Hopefully, you didn't have to pay shipping each time!

Oh no I had to John.

All 3 shipping costs totaled to almost 70 dollars!

I should of pulled the plug on this thing back in December. (The 2nd time I sent it in for repair).

Oh well lessons learned.

I learned one thing from this engine:

1. Don't buy anything on the internet no matter how credible the source is. Go to the hobby shop and test the engine before buying it!

If I had done that I would of picked up on the fact that no smoke was coming out of the main stack smoke unit and thus would not of bought it.

Now the real question is:

Should I risk buying Lionel anymore? Did I just receive a dud and no one else did?

I just bought Legacy so not buying Lionel would be a waste of money I guess.

-Mike

It's almost like you bought the locomotive twice!   I'd be pretty unhappy as well!

FWIW, I pulled my new Legacy PARR U28C out of the box and so far it is 100%.  I noticed a little click at places on the track, but it's the Fastrack joints that obviously are out of whack, I did a little surgery and it fixed that.

That's just to point out all the Lionel stuff doesn't have to go back.

Yeah John I basically did buy the locomotive twice! Oh well. Now I have to figure out which locomotive I have to purchase next.

Yeah I don't think all Lionel locomotives are bad I just think I got a dud. I will make sure I will buy all engines at my LHS so I can test run it there. Thanks though John for everything! I appreciate it.

-Mike

I think you just got a dud.  Hopefully you'll get it working.

And, buying from your LHS keeps them in business

I haven't bought any locomotives from the internet in a long time.  The last was a Postwar 2055, but I've been lucky and they all work.  I wouldn't hide from Lionel because of that engine.  I can understand your frustration too.  As much as I love my Lionel stuff, I wouldn't send an engine in more than twice (Especially at my cost, since it's obviously because of something they did in the factory).  My Mikado JR burned up two smoke units (it's original one and one replacement), and I'll admit that it was probably my fault, but after the first replacement I just gave up.  $25 at a time adds up for replacement costs.

Yeah I agree.

Hiding from Lionel seems to be very unrealistic but then again why can't they just back up the price they charge with quality.

I mean am I the only one who thinks having to send in a locomotive that costs 600 dollars or more is ridiculous? I mean I shouldn't even have to send it in once let alone 3 times!

-Mike

Did lionel say anything about the board?  Without knowing what the components that got damaged do, it would be hard to pin point a problem.  A few amps of current with the small SMD devices can cause that kind of damage.

Even HO decoders at 1 amp can burn like that with a direct short.  G

There certainly seems to be a fair amount of Lemons based on the postings.  Good to hear they are refunding on this one.   G