Repair manuals?

[yallaen]

Since I'm looking at getting a lot of Ebay stuff, I'd like something to reference to repair trackage, controllers, engines, etc. Is there a repair book for Lionel equipment that is like the "all-knowing" source of knowledge?

[Anonymous]

GreenBerg's Repair and Operating manual for Lionel Trains 1945-1969 is a (literally condensed) the original service tech's manual. This should get you through any Post War stuff you can find. There is a similar "tome" for Pre-War/Standard gauge. Hardest thing to find may be the LTI stuff. The tech manuals for these are on line but have been reduced to exploded diagram/part lists and sometimes schemaics. These are available for free download from Lionel's web site.

[Anonymous]

You can usually find much of the post-war repair manuals online in the "Library" at

http://www.olsenstoytrainparts.com/

although the Library section of the site seems to be "down" this morning. It's also a great place to buy parts.

[Bob Keller]

There is a hard-to-find, out-of-print, 4-volume reprint of Lionel's service postwar manual. As for the Greenberg reprints of the prewar stuff - they are pretty incomplete. They tend to cover the more famous items.

[ben10ben]

I have the K-line version of the repair manual, which cost me $13 at Davis Trains in Cincinatti a couple of years ago. It's a good reference for most of the more common items, and at a hard to beat price for a nice hardbound book($20 retail).

As Bob said, though, most manuals are far from complete. Just for example, last night a forum member sent me a message asking if I could scan him the wiring diagram for the bell ringing tenders. I looked throught the book several times, but couldn't find it.

[Anonymous]

The Greenberg Repair an Operating Manual is not a complete reference guide but when teamed up with Greenberg's Guide to Lionel Prewar Parts & Instruction Sheets (almost 400 pages), you will be able to find most of the information needed to order parts and repair SG trains. I've seen the K-Line version of the Lionel Service Manual and it is printed in lager format and it is hardbound but it doesn't seem to have the same depth of information the smaller format Greenberg publication has.

There are also some fine Kalmbach publications on repair/restoration of toy trains, both modern and post war. You may want to see what's available at the local public library and then try checking out book dealers specializing in trains/model railroading or a larger train show that has a book dealer. Sometimes you can find some of the out of print publications at a reasonable price this way.