Parts availability

Speculation- because Lionel wants to sell you a new one, and the parts business was not something they want to sustain/support, just like many of the other parts - key electronics they removed from inventory. This has been discussed a lot.

Just a suggestion, you might try S&W parts in Niskayuna New York.  Bill has a lot of parts and he is a forum advertiser. You might send him an email since he just had a knee replaced. Just a shot in the dark.

Description of the part? Part number? Which loco?

No guarantees, but providing that information may be helpful here. Someone may have the part or can point you in the right direction.

Describe what it is you're looking for, maybe someone on the forum has it, or can better direct you. S&W is a great place, and there are many other parts guys out there. If one place doesn't have it, another might.

The car is 6-26787 Jumping hobo car. I need the activation feature or trackside feature.

If you do a search on OGR for Lionel 26787, a For Sale post from 22 lists one.  Don't know if it's still available.

Hennings and Trainz have been able to provide weird parts, check with them.  Jeff at traintender has a lot of parts, but mostly postwar.  He does have some modern era stuff, so you could check with him.

I have checked with all the suppliers listed. They either don’t have the part or I haven’t heard back from them yet. Thanks for the update.

There is one thing that is confusing about this site is that it is difficult to find an item you are looking for without getting information about something you are not looking for!

@Nick DiSandro posted:

There is one thing that is confusing about this site is that it is difficult to find an item you are looking for without getting information about something you are not looking for!

Nick,

There's a little secret when using lionelsupport.com.

After you type in the number, or key words from the description, of what you're looking in the search box DO NOT hit 'Enter'.  Stop and let the search engine come back with it's references instead.  A little patience is helpful here.  I find that these are much closer to what I'm looking for, and the amount of extraneous baloney far less, than if I hit 'Enter" (which usually produces a large, jumbled mess in return).

@Vernon Barry posted:

Speculation- because Lionel wants to sell you a new one, and the parts business was not something they want to sustain/support, just like many of the other parts - key electronics they removed from inventory. This has been discussed a lot.

Vernon,

I don't think it's as nefarious as it may seem.  From Day 1, 15 months ago or so?, they have been behind on entering everything into their new database.

Since I'm in there fairly often I've noticed that more and more things are finally showing up, even 15 months after launch.

This seriously stretches the concept of patience to a limit, but it is happening.

Q: Does the tortoise eventually beat the hare?

Mike

@Mellow Hudson Mike posted:

Vernon,

I don't think it's as nefarious as it may seem.  From Day 1, 15 months ago or so?, they have been behind on entering everything into their new database.

Actually, Vernon is spot on. Lionel removed virtually ALL the TMCC electronic parts with very few exceptions, and all the early Legacy (modular boards) as well. It's hard to draw any other conclusion than they simply wanted to force purchases of new stuff. If they sold out of the parts naturally, it would be one thing, but simply declaring a whole swath of parts obsolete and yanking them is quite another.

These parts were already in inventory, so the comment about them being late entering them into the database doesn't wash, they were already there!

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Actually, Vernon is spot on. Lionel removed virtually ALL the TMCC electronic parts with very few exceptions, and all the early Legacy (modular boards) as well. It's hard to draw any other conclusion than they simply wanted to force purchases of new stuff. If they sold out of the parts naturally, it would be one thing, but simply declaring a whole swath of parts obsolete and yanking them is quite another.

These parts were already in inventory, so the comment about them being late entering them into the database doesn't wash, they were already there!

John,

I agree with you and Vernon on the electronics portion, but in this thread Nick is looking for a mechanical part.  It doesn't appear that they've removed any mechanical parts, except perhaps as they sell out.  Instead they appear to be transferring them, from the old database (no longer on line) to the new one (lionelsupport.com since Feb 2022), but they're appearing online only very slowly in too many cases.

Mike

I did what was suggested on lionelsupport.com and all it brought up was an operating manual. It did not offer any parts at all. I have also contacted every supplier that was posted and no one has the part or even bothers to answer. All I can do is keep looking and I am sure it will turn up somewhere. The only thing I learned is that it is a 4 dollar part. The shipping is probably $8 or more due to the current shipping options. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. If anyone finds one let me know.

@Nick DiSandro posted:

I did what was suggested on lionelsupport.com and all it brought up was an operating manual. It did not offer any parts at all.

Nick,

You're quite right.  No parts listed on lionelsupport.com, just the manual.  I believe that this is a picture of your part, but no part number is listed for it.  This certainly doesn't help you to find one.

Mike

I looked at the manual a few times but found nothing that would help like a part number. I see that Lionel made a few cars that have the same activation feature but none of them are available.

I found one part for a jumping hobo car. It is the spring that the hobo is attached to but nothing else.

Look around on places like eBay.

Well at least that solves the parts numbers but when I entered the numbers on the site none are available. At least the parts I need are not available. Thanks.

I'm arriving late to this party...Uberstationmeister did a great job in finding the needed part numbers, but as mentioned, they're difficult if not impossible to find. I did exactly this same exercise around Christmas, three years ago. At that time, you could still find some parts, but buying them added up to way more than the price of the used car I bought. So I waited and watched "da bay". A couple of months ago I bought the NYC version of this car, complete with the trip mechanism and the cop that sits there watching it - brand new, for $15 + shpg. Now I have two cars that can both use the same trip. Not a bad tradeoff for just a little extra $$$. Just keep watching the used markets, you'll come up with one eventually.

George

I guess I will wait and do the same thing. I thought about doing that but haven’t found one for a reasonable price. Time will tell. The problem is that in this economy the cost for shipping is extremely high.

@Nick DiSandro posted:

I guess I will wait and do the same thing. I thought about doing that but haven’t found one for a reasonable price. Time will tell. The problem is that in this economy the cost for shipping is extremely high.

You're so right. So what you have to do is to retrain your mind to ignore the cost of shipping unless it's over a certain dollar amount. Shipping brain washing, I call it. Most everything I see is $12-$15 for shpg to my area, but you have to watch the sneaky rascals that offer the goods cheap and then try to kill you on shipping!

Sit back and wait for it to be listed! More time than money!

If this is the piece you're looking for, drop me a line. For tubular track.

I need it for Fastrack.