Oil Drum Loader moves too fast

I have one of these, I bought it as ‘new old stock’. As it sat unused for years before I acquired it, the drive belt inside the gearbox was a little stiff and because of the memory of the rubber, it would slip on the pulley wheels. I’m guessing your drive belt might have some memory baked into it.  I removed the belt (picture a flat rubber band), flipped it so the outer side of the band became the inner side of the band. Works great now. 

You have to remove the house to get to the gearbox. The gearbox was a little tricky to open, but if I remember correctly, it just had some tabs to release to open it up. 

I run mine on a  1033 transformer -set at 10 volts.  I think I have the barrel loader on it too.  Long story but I have three voltage levels for accessories: low= 10 volts, regular= 14 volts for most items, high = 19 volts for the rocket launcher and the oil field (a few of those pesky bubble tubes are a pain!).

I have mine on a separate, cheap, old, small transformer.  I found that over the years the speed will change and having it on its own transformer makes it very easy to adjust the speed.  I've done that with a few accessories. 

One of my all-time favorite accessories. I had the original Gilbert one when it came out and in the early 2000's, a Lionel repro. Loads of fun!

Some day, buy a original. You will be glad you did. 

Mine works perfectly, so I would say yours has some issue.  I have mine at 11 volts and it is smooth and steady and no oil drums ever fall.  Are you saying they fall off the feed ramp?  Also do you have the truck on the correct pin on the bar?

I picked one of the Lionel remake version a couple of years ago NIB and it did the same thing,  the motor ran but nothing happened. 

I had to strip it down and found the belt had set itself to the shape it went around the motor pulley. I put the belt in some warm to hot water and managed to bring the belt back to its original oval shape and it ran fine again.

if it is used on a frequent basis then the belt won’t get an opportunity to set it self to the curvature of the pulley again.

Thanks Arnold.  Like you just mentioned, the animated newstand is another one that I have on it's own transformer.  And just to clarify:  I'm using very old, very tiny Marx type transformers.  

I also have the 264 forklift platform.  I always loved it, bought one many years ago, just don't have anywhere to put it!

For anyone that's interested:  It took some adjustments to get the barrels to load and unload properly.  I detailed those in another post on OGR somewhere.  

I wired my Lionel Oil Drum Loader to 14v, the traditional voltage I provide to most accessories on my layout.  The moving forklift would consistently not "catch" oil barrels rolling down the ramp; the barrels would fall off forklift and onto the platform. I fussed with the tipping mechanism and adjusted the "prongs" on the forklift - to no avail.  I didn't think of changing the voltage; with 20/20 hindsight, that might have been an easy fix.  Instead, I set it aside and bought and installed the original AF version, which worked perfectly and consistently from the get-go with 14v.

Based on this thread, I'll bring my "retired" Lionel Oil Drum Loader to the work bench and apply various lower voltages to it from my 1033 transformer. Also inspect its belt. If it can perform reliably, I'll either keep it as a back-up to the AF model or offer it to another hobbyist via eBay.

Mike Mottler    LCCA 12394

Do a search for previous discussions on the problems with loading barrels onto the forklift. You will need to do some work on the tipple mechanism, not difficult but fiddly.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, BALDOC is wondering what happened to his thread.

I am still here, John, and I really appreciate all the replies.  I have the truck on the right pin, and have lowered the voltage to 10 volts. The belt looks OK.  Things work a little better now, but I will continue to fuss and fiddle with it.  That's part of the fun with these accessories.