Since I have now officially retired I have more time to work on my layout. Today I installed the above mentioned gantry cranes for the first time.
Both items are brand new and purchased the year they were offered. Yes, I know they've been sitting around for awhile but was still surprised at what I found.
After installing and wiring both cranes in there designated places it came time to test everything, This is where the problems start 
.
The situation is the same for both items. You can hear the motors working, but nothing and I mean nothing moves. Since the cranes were attempting to respond to the controller commands I know the wiring was correct, so off to the trusty OGR forum we go to do some research. Here's where I found out there's no mechanical gear to gear connection between the motors and the drive gears, instead there is a belt that connects the motors to the transmission which in turn causes the turret to move and the bucket or magnet to go up and down. OK, fine now off to Lionel Service in search of the parts needed.
Not so fast, nothing is that simple. Both modals can be found on there website, however, the parts not so much!! In fact the vast majority of parts are unavailable for purchase. So now what? The one good thing is Lionel lists the original parts numbers so you at least have a place to start.
Now I have not had to research parts other than looking on the service website and ordering direct from Lionel, so searching for the part number such as 600-6505-042 on the web will return nothing. So back to the forum I go for more research, where after reviewing a number of threads I found an aftermarket part number 
, This part can be used to replace the belt on the more modern version, but the older version is different. Entering the new number, I find myself on the TRANZ website. Just for fun I enter the original part number I got from Lionel and nothing. But hold on, I start playing around with the numbers and found if I only enter the four middle digits I get a list of all the parts TRANZ has in stock . OK, so now I order the belts for both my cranes.
But wait, it's not over yet. Now I go back to the motor assembly to see if I need to add lube and so on. Imagine my surprise when I could not turn the gear assembly by hand, The thing was stuck solid, Now I remove the worm and ring gear from it's enclosure just to find that whatever excuses the factory used as grease had become rock hard and sticky, I mean you need a hammer and chisel to get this stuff off. (OK, I exaggerate a little, but not by much) I needed to use a small sharp screwdriver to pick this stuff out of all four gear housing (the stuff was both hard and sticky) I used spray contact cleaner to finish the cleaning process. I used Super Lube, which is synthetic (PTFE) grease. Now all four motors turn even with the old belts.
I intend to install the new belts when they arrive and put everything back together.
So if you have a gantry crane you may want to check and replace the grease also when ordering parts, at least, from TRANZ you only need the to use part of the Lionel number.
Fortunately it was quite easy to remove with mild solvents, and left no damage to the basic parts...gears, shafts, bearings,....and belts, in my case. Hardest part was doing the first gantry, getting into the gear case, manipulating the snap latches, etc.. The second one was much easier.
