PRR Broadway Ltd. Station Sound Car

LIONEL posted:

Rec. my car & can't believe what I saw as all the wires are showing on one side. Has a wire nut in front of one window, a wire wrap in front of another, the board in front of another & speaker in front of another. Anyone else that bought this car, is yours that way also? High end car & all this showing is not acceptable. I bought the C & O station sound car which is very similar with windows on both sides of the car were the electronics are & it is not like that at all. It has a partition or whatever it is covering both sides. Wander if this was a oversight on Lionel's part? Unless there is a fix, I'll be returning mine.

 

Ouch... my Amtrak StationSounds diner had no such problems (thankfully).  But I've read a few other comments about wires being pinched inside the passenger cars.  Seems like your car was assembled by one of the factory flunkies.  

In a way this is starting to sound like what I've encountered in the school photography end of our business.  Big companies contract with schools to manage school photos each year.  So naturally, I'll see classified ads in the local newspapers where these companies then need to scramble for photographers in order to fulfill the contracts.  Sadly, it becomes a huge roll of the dice as to who's behind the camera.  Sometimes they get somebody with experience whose looking for some quick cash.  Other times, they get somebody who just bought a camera at Best Buy last weekend.  

I'm beginning to wonder if that's what's going on behind the scenes at some of these toy train factories nowadays.  Overseas companies get the contracts, then they need to hire workers to make it all happen.  And their ads probably read something like this:  "Build toy trains for the world famous Lionel brand.  No experience necessary.  We'll train (no pun intended) on the job." 

Unfortunately, from what we're seeing with some of these products, it almost sounds like if you can pass the mirror test, you're hired to assemble trains.   

David

Dave,

That could be the case, you never know. I'm just hoping someone else chimes in if they have that problem & what they are doing about it. Would like to see if there is a remedy before I send it back. There is absolutely nothing inside the car, no chairs, no tables, nothing. See attached pics.

My Conrail Police car doesn't have that. I wonder if a partition is missing or someone left off the frosted windows?

Looks like the shell was installed backwards. 

That could be a possibility, but why isn't there any chairs & tables? My C & O Station Sound Car is very similar to the PRR one with windows on both sides & it has several tables & chairs on the opposite side as the board is & both sides of the board are covered up with partitions.

Can you see in that end with the windows covered ? Maybe the seating is there and shell is just on backwards.

Doug

Looking at the interior photos in this other thread. Surefire and Doug may be onto something. Lionel 21" passenger car

I guess it's worth a shot if I can get the shell off with all that double face tape. Finally managed to get one car apart where one of the trucks was leaning towards the center of the car. It was a real SOB to get apart. Trying to dilute the sticking tape. Will post what i find. Maybe John that did all the fantastic detailing of the UP cars can post how he got the cars apart. Just wandering if he had a another way different than Dave B. from WA did.

After thinking about it, don't think that would work as the light connector would be on opposite sides.

As I wrote in another thread the Broadway Limited sound car is the kitchen car not the dining car. The only way I was able to hide the sound equipment was to put an opaque picture on  the inside of the car ( against the windows facing out) so as to block anyone seeing the inside of the car at the “ sound equipment end”. This only had to be done on one side of the car. The other side is OK The other end of the car has a large empty space that I plan to fill with a “ model kitchen including one or two standing figures” . You will be able to see it through the windows on one side of the car. 

Thanks. Sure seems strange they would do it that way. If that is the case, Lionel should have filled the kitchen or sold something to do that. Would love to see how you model that as I would like to do something similar. Please send pic of the window covering you did now & model kitchen when completed. 

Is there any chance they put the body shell on backwards.  The right side of your picture shows red walls, probably for masking the electronics.  Imagine what the car would look like if you turned the shell around.  Would it be better? 

It could be some factory worker having a bad day and wanting to pass it along.  Welcome to my club.

The light bars unscrew from the roof and may be able to be turned around.

Body is on backwards.It needs to be reversed so four shaded windows hide the electronics.

Don, My Bway Limited kitchen sound car has no frosted windows. All the windows on both sides of the car are clear.I wonder is this the same for everyone?

Shell is on backwards. Was told this by Lionel. Needs to be reversed to hide the electronics. 

I also have no frosted windows. Turning the shell around does not fix the problem. The electronics still show. Don, does your car actually have frosted windows?

LIONEL posted:

Shell is on backwards. Was told this by Lionel. Needs to be reversed to hide the electronics. 

LIONEL posted:

I also have no frosted windows. Turning the shell around does not fix the problem. The electronics still show. Don, does your car actually have frosted windows?

Dave Olsen from Lionel chimed in on the American Freedom Train thread where the sound-car in that train has similar electronics exposed in clear view inside the windows.  And Dave indicated it's a factory error.  Rotating the shell provides no solution.  The remedy is to remove the shell and cover the inside of the windows near the electronics with tape or a thin plastic sheet. 

I also have the Amtrak and Penn Central StationSounds cars, and these cars are constructed properly.  One side has a plastic wall of sorts (as part of the interior details) blocking the electronics from view.  And the other side has some type of opaque tape or thin plastic sheet right up against the windows -- effectively hiding the electronics and wires from view.  The latter is absent from the AFT and Broadway Ltd sound cars apparently.   

So it's a "user fix" -- providing you can get the shell off the frame without ruining it (due to the sloppy use of double-sided tape for the windows, which should have stopped well above the edge of the car floor/frame if the factory flunkies knew any better).  Another example of poor supervision on Lionel's part.  These factories are proving time and time again that they can't be trusted to "do the right thing" when it comes to building these trains.  If they built the Amtrak and Penn Central sound cars properly to hide the interior electronics, why didn't they realize what needed to be done for the AFT and Broadway Ltd sound cars too? 

David