Lionel project

[railfanespee4449]

I am buying an old lionel train off of Ebay. As I'm still in middle school and I do projects for a Extended Learning program, I will refurbish it and make a short film on how I did it. My price range is low- Any tips so I don't get cheated?

[Roger Bielen]

Check on the current pricing for comparible engines in Greenberg's Pocket Price Guide, magazine ads, or on past ebay sales, set yourself an upper limit and don't get caught up in the bidding frenzy. Be sure to check the rating of the seller. Good luck.

[Dave Farquhar]

The very cheapest Lionel locomotives, which are known as "Scout" locomotives, are really hard to get apart, and hard to get parts for. So get a higher-end locomotive (like a 2026 or a 2037) if you're wanting to document how you refurbished it. I think prewar locomotives are a little bit easier to work on, since their motors were larger, but they're more expensive.

Another suggestion: I know Lionel has the name, but you might want to check on pricing for Marx locomotives. Marxes are often less expensive and look a lot like a Lionel. The motor is simpler too, so they're easy to fix. (If I can do it, so can anyone else.)

I hope this helps.

[ben10ben]

Definitely stay away from the scout locos. In order to really take one apart, you need a wheel puller($20), and then an arbor press and set of wheel cups($300) to put them back together. Very few professional service stations even bothered with working on Scout motors back when they were new, as they are extremely difficult to acess even with the proper tools.

What's your price range? I would suggest that you buy a diesel rather than a steamer, or at the very least a high end steamer like a 671, 681, 2020, 682, 726, or 736. Most of the lower end steam engines require pulling the wheels to really be able to acess the more, and again that's $300+ worth of tools. The diesels and higher end steam engines have motors that can be separated from the trucks very easily(one or two screws) and can be rebuilt much easier.

Also, be sure you don't buy something with a whole lot of rust on it. You'll end up spending more money replacing parts that can't be salvaged than you would have spent by buying a better quality piece.

[Anonymous]

Hey Bennie, quit badmouthing the Scout locos. You should know better than that. It doesn't take $300 to put them back together. They are great engines and easier to work on than what "Mister Know It All" says. The Scouts don't get enough appreciation!

I do agree with Dave, go with Marx if you want a simple engine to work on. They seem to run quite well even after 50 plus years of use.

[ben10ben]

Gees, Hans Zimmer/Frankie CSX/Sandy Jorgenson/Joe Polska/M.DONALDSON, if I say that something's easy to do, you come along and say that it's hard, and if I say that something's hard to do, you come along and say that it's easy. It seems to me that you you are just trying to contradict everything I say, and really know nothing at all about any topic that I comment on.

And, I will say this again. Scout motors were replaced more often than serviced even back 50 years ago when they were they were in current production, and the service men repaired trains for a living. You are best avoiding them.

[Anonymous]

Who are the repairmen that are charging $300 to service a SCOUT loco? That's an outrageous statement Bennie!

[Anonymous]

Railfan--
I'd concur on the no go for Scouts as a rebuild.

Just to backup with some documentation there is a repair service listed here that goes thru the required tools that will put you in the $300.00 dollar range.

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http://www.toytrainrevue.com/service.htm

I also found an auction site here that sold off a set of used whel cups alone for $230.00. Look for item #361

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http://www.maurerail.com/asp/auctionlist.asp?iano=260

They were built as just inexpensive starter engines.

Jim

[ben10ben]

As Buckthorne said, I never said that a repair man would charge you $300 to service the engine. If you took a scout engine to a service station today, they would probably say "sorry, we can't work on that". You would need $300+ worth of tools to work on one.

The arbor press is expensive, and the wheel cups cost a small fortune.

[Anonymous]

I have been doing model train repairs for local hobby shops for about 10 years, with the bulk of my repairs being postwar American Flyer, Marx, and Lionel. I have accumulated lots of tools, and I tend to agree that the scout engines are a little more challenging to repair.

In reponse to the original posing, I would reccommend to RAILFANESPEE4449 that a good technique is to ask the seller what condition the engine is in. If an engine is running and in reasonably good shape, complete disassembly is not always required...Just plan on spending a lot of time and q-tips, pipe-cleaners and rags, cleaning the engine.

As for a specific engine, I personally like the Postwar lionel #675 engine. They can be purchased for not a ton of money ( a recent check of E-bay completed auctions has them listed from about $48.00 for one in good condition, up to around $80.00.) Also, there always seem to be a lot of parts listed on E-bay for the #675 engines, and again these parts seem to sell for a reasonable price. The #675s were heavy, good runners, fairly easy to work on and maintain, and I think they have a nice brawny look to them. They work well on 0-31 radius, and we have had good luck with them on 0-27. Best of luck on your project!!

[ben10ben]

I agree about the 675. One of those was my first postwar steam engine, and I love it.

They are a bit on the tricky side to take apart and put back together(lining up to rods correctly), but once you get that down, they are easy to service. The mechanism is also very freely rolling, so you can check for any mechanical binding in the side rods as you re-install.