As some of you may have read (06 Feb 2015), three days after I received the loco back from Lionel for repairs I noticed that my VL Big Boy was missing its bell. I had looked everywhere, including the box, but did not find the bell. The day before that, a reporter had come to visit and had taken many photos. I asked him if in looking at his photos he could tell whether the bell was on the loco. He replied that there was no bell.
I called Lionel and explained the situation, and they promptly sent me another bell and cradle, which I received today. It appears that the cradle is secured from the inside with a screw, and since I do not want to get inside the loco (for now, anyway), I removed (unscrewed) the new bell from its cradle, and proceeded to install it on my loco.
However, instead of screwing on, the bell just sort of slipped onto the threaded portion of the clapper. This made me think that the clapper threads were stripped or damaged. I easily removed the new bell (slipped it off), added a drop of Testors cement (orange tube), waited a few seconds, and screwed the new bell on the old cradle. It seemed to screw on OK this time, and once dry, it now appears to be secure.
Since the threaded portion of the clapper (the one on the loco) appears to have been the problem, I wondered if the bell could have slipped off while it was running on the layout, or perhaps when I was taking the loco out of the box when returned from Lionel, so I went on another search.
Sure enough, I had opened the outer box and removed the inner, shiny black box using one of the viewing stands in the train room as a work surface, and there was the bell, next to one of the uprights that make up the safety railing. I screwed the ‘old’ bell onto the new cradle, and it screws on fine and tight, so there is no question that the problem was the original threaded clapper. I feel bad about not finding the bell sooner, so I will call Lionel tomorrow and offer to return the new cradle with the old bell.
New cradle and bell
New bell screwed on the clapper
Big Boy without the bell
... and with a new bell!
Moral of the Tale (to VL Big Boy owners)
Make sure that the bell is secure!
Alex
, in case anyone else's Big Boy may need to have the bell 'secured'.
