vision Line Hudson and VL Big Boy PROBLEMS

Just for the sake of discussion. What type of transformer are you using?

You could also get in touch with Mike Reagan with regards as to what might have happened. 

He could do the repairs as well. These were"his babies" made during his time at Lionel.   mreagan@twtrainworx.com

I have only one vision line engine in my collection and that is the centipede. I purchase the engine new and out of the box it had its share of problems. I thought about sending it back for repair but I was concerned about the rough handling with shipping........So I decided to make the best of it and accept the fact that nothing is perfect.

I would not be thrilled either that Lionel won’t work on them and those shipping charges are high.  But how do they take the repair out of reach given that the Hudson cost probably at least a grand and the big boy close to twice that?  

I too would like up Mike Reagan.  He is likely closer and more competent as well.

Shipping charges on the heavy steamers is really getting to the prohibitive stage. As the original poster stated he was looking at $360 just in shipping charges for his two non-operating VL steamers.

   Bill T. 

You could probably have Mike Reagan repair both the next time he is in Dallas at that Trainworx location and avoid shipping altogether since Rockwall isn't too far away. I'm not sure how often he is there but seems as though he is there occasionally. 

Have you priced shipping via Fedex ground? For packages like this I have found them to be much less expensive than either UPS or USPS. Never had a problem with them either.

Pete

I would never recommend FedEx have had to many issues to many times you know how baseball is well 3 strikes and your out. FEDEX !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! worst shipper ever!

usps  is always my first choice, ups has broken many a engine ups is up there with fedex!!!!!!!!!!!! negative!! 

Well Alan it looks like our experiences couldn't be more different. I get packages via Fedex ground on a weekly basis. It really comes down to the individual handling the package. No company can claim 100% competency.

Pete

The business I work in we sell different classes of certain products. With the more expensive lines of product the warranty is extended, for example from 1 year to say 3 to 5 years depending on the item. I would think Lionel VL being such a class of product if the warranty isn't further out it certainly should be.

Did they both stop working at the same time?  That would be weird if they did.

Just sharing my experience.    I have several VisionLine engines and the Hudson being one of them.     My Hudson failed early on and would not reverse, at that time Lionel did the repairs (at my cost).     Most recently the Hudson contracted additional issues and required the expertise of Mike Reagan.     Are you ready for this?  The RCMC Board, the Motor and the Worm Drive ALL had to be replaced.        If I ran this engine for hundreds of hours, I could accept this, however my Hudson maybe has 15 hours of run time (and I think I am guessing on the high side).      In any event,  I thank the Lionel Gods that Mike is available and always ready to help out.     I run the crap out of my Legacy Engines and generally have no issues other than the occasional Smoke fan burning out.       We just have to accept, like the POSTWAR Trains of Lionel, these are toys, with more complicated and finicky technology.     "Owning a Lionel Vision Line Engine means you become close friends with your Shipper (FEDEX, UPS, USPS) and better friends with Mike Reagan".   LOL  

My Vision Line Big Boy suffered the same symptoms:  'Both engines fire up when the power is added.'  and 'The VL Big Boy will not operate in conventional, only make an engine noise will not move'. 

Sent it to Mike Reagan and he fixed it: rebuilt all 3 smoke units (I destroy smoke units as is known on the forum); and Mike replaced the RCMC board.  I think I ruined the RCMC board by drowning the blow down smoke unit; that smoke unit is located near the RCMC.  He did excellent work.  Have Mike take at look at adding a capacitor to the motor to smooth out the crawl speed between speed step 17 and 38.

I shipped the BB in its original boxing including the brown cardboard shipper via UPS; no damage to the shipper or Big Boy.

RickO posted:

Just for the sake of discussion. What type of transformer are you using?

You could also get in touch with Mike Reagan with regards as to what might have happened. 

He could do the repairs as well. These were"his babies" made during his time at Lionel.   mreagan@twtrainworx.com

Lionel Power House 180 Brick.  One transform per loop.

Brent

It really is a joke with how much these modern vision line products cost. For all the reasons above is the reason I am not going to purchase a ton of modern Lionel. Whats the point of paying the high prices for the electronic garbage if it only works half the time. 

RickM46 posted:

My Vision Line Big Boy suffered the same symptoms:  'Both engines fire up when the power is added.'  and 'The VL Big Boy will not operate in conventional, only make an engine noise will not move'. 

Sent it to Mike Reagan and he fixed it: rebuilt all 3 smoke units (I destroy smoke units as is known on the forum); and Mike replaced the RCMC board.  I think I ruined the RCMC board by drowning the blow down smoke unit; that smoke unit is located near the RCMC.  He did excellent work.  Have Mike take at look at adding a capacitor to the motor to smooth out the crawl speed between speed step 17 and 38.

I shipped the BB in its original boxing including the brown cardboard shipper via UPS; no damage to the shipper or Big Boy.

Mine had the same fault.  It had sat on a shelf for a year and did this when I put it on the track.  Was working fine before.  There was no smoke fluid on the board, and I was told they do just fail.  I find it hard to believe, but I did the labor myself and Lionel sent me a new board after I sent them the old one for testing (I did have to pay for the new board.).  And then it ran jerky and they sent me the cap for the motor and it worked great.  I still need to finish putting it back together, I haven't decided to try my hand at servicing the smoke units or not.

Sinclair, mine also did the same as yours after sitting in the box for 4 years - sent it to Mike for repairs; you helped me out along with others on the forum for soldering the cap for the motor; also with help from the forum, I rebuilt the dual stack smoke units - new PCB, new fans, new batting, new reservoir; the only difficult thing for me was doing the soldering of the wires between the fans and the PCB - my hands are not steady.

Wow, sorry for all your troubles.  Normally when a loco comes up in conventional mode it's not getting the command signal.  Could it be that somehow the antennas shorted to the body when you packed them up?

A little off-topic, but  I think I read about the capacitor thing here on the Forum before.  Did Lionel ever start installing them at the factory, or was this issue addressed in a board redesign?  What was the first loco to have the motor capacitor as standard equipment??