Those expensive repairs!!!

Bob

what a novel and inexpensive idea!!!

(light bulb goes off!!)

Thought I was gonna have another expensive repair.

same friend brought me his

Lionel #3000 4-8-2 Mohawk (hugh locomotive).

wouldn't do anything.

got whistle sounds and that was it. took shell off tender......nothing.

took boiler shell off steamer.........nothing.

poked around and put the power to her again and she jurked.

This loco has the old mechanical postwar lionel e-unit.

My friend had gotten a little liberal with the smoke fluid and

it had leaked all over and in the e-unit.

A little tuner cleaner sprayed into e-unit, cleaned her up

and all is well..............

I bought a hodgepodge lot of NOS 4-4-2 parts off Ebay for $22.

With that parts lot I was able to replace the faulty smoke unit on my Chessie Flyer, and replace the bent pilot truck on my Union Pacific.

so I cleaned out the e-unit in

the #3000 and she runs great.

but in putting her back together,

found that the resistor is burned out

in the smoke unit.

what resistor does this loco take.???

Ive been on the Lionel web site with

mixed results as to what resistor to use.

The #3000 schematic does NOT show

the smoke unit part# or guts #s.

similar units use the 8 ohm resistor.

but ive also been advised that the 22

or 27 ohm resistors should be used.

which is it???

going to JR Junction on Saturday to pick up

the Mallet. Both circuit boards in the tender were

burned out. total cost of repair $280 + Uncle Sam's

cut(TAX).

 MTH

Ditto.  I remember some one paying over $300 to have a PW engine lubricated and brushes changed.  I guess the cost of living in some states is higher.  I was doing that for $30?  G

If you like your friend, you can send your damaged circuit board engines to me for repair.  If I can do the component repair, which I have on a number of Lionel circuit boards to include R2LC, RS 4.0 RS 2.5, and the Power Supply boards, let alone all the conventional electronic reverse boards;  you and you friend may have a lot of left over cash for beer and lunch.  G

The $280 includes labor.

I think he told me one board was $60-$80and

the other board was $80-100.

plus the labor charge, and I don't know what he charges for labor.

I work on postwar stuff and charge $25 for and clean, oil and lube job.

15-20min tops.

If I have to replace any parts, I charge $25 plus the price of the parts.

Depending on the engine I am estimating about $100 for that repair.  Seems like the labor was about $100 or more to replace $180 max in parts.  Interesting.  G

I have a question related to this thread.  In order to help prevent board

burn-outs and such problems related to electronics, would it be wiser to

power the track with any of the new transformers, rather than the postwar

models?  I understand they are more sensitive to spikes, etc. than the old

powerhouses.  It would seem to be safer if postwar transformers were

restricted to powering trackside lights, accessories, etc. 

     Hoppy

In order to help prevent board burn-outs and such problems related to electronics, would it be wiser to power the track with any of the new transformers, rather than the postwar models?

In general, yes.  You can add modern protection to the older power supplies.  If it was a "quality" supply than adding fast acting breakers and TVS support may make sense.  

If you want to really protect your modern equipment don't mix PW open frame equipment with the modern stuff.  Protection at the power supply will only protect you from problems originating at the power supply.  The open frame equipment has energy stored in the field coils.  If there is an interrupt that energy could be dumped back into the track and it might go through anything else on the rails before it hits the TVS at the transformer.

Conversely, a poorly made modern switching supply could try to overdrive a sudden load (aka a transient) and actually generate a spike.  You really need fast acting breakers and TVS support no matter what you are using.  Either you add it on or it's build in.

The TVS should be built into the sensitive electronics in the engines/cars.  I have no idea why it isn't.

Chuck,

I agree 100% with what you say.  I am surprised there isn't more discussion of TVSs on this thread.  I would like to know if any of the guys that have damaged locos had TVSs installed.  

I don't think fast acting breakers are going to help much.  They are probably too slow to catch the transients that are burning out the cards.