Okay, here is the rest of the story as the late Paul H. used to say. First, let me thank all those who tried to help. All your suggestions were taken into account. This morning I decided to disassemble the entire locomotive. Like I said earlier, there appeared to be a dead short when I connected my AC power source to the trucks when the loco was on the bench. I sorted out all the wiring, inspected both boards, and dropped the trucks. I disconnected the unpowered truck wiring and the motor ran on AC power and cycled like it was supposed to. It worked for about 5 seconds and then the dead short showed up again. I figured if it could run and work for a few seconds then it was not a blown board or it would never have worked. I then took apart the motor truck to look for a short and check all the wiring. I found nothing. After another 45 minutes of checking all the wiring I noticed that the bronze strip that holds the pickups was very close to the bronze strip that rubbed the wheels. I had not given the design much thought until I inspected it closely and realized that if the truck was twisted just a little the two strips would touch. I had trouble believing that this was designed like this, but apparently it is. I then put a piece of masking tape under the center pickup bronze strip to insulate it and everything works perfectly. No more intermittent running or shorting out, etc. The switcher now behaves perfectly. I usually don't work on later Lionel so I had never seen this design before but it must cause a lot of problems. Thanks again.
'If you use a DC Power-Pack the horn will blow continuously."
I run my layout on DC current through a rectifier conversion box off a typical Lionel 1033. There are drawbacks and liabilities, but there are also bonuses.
Just so folks know, if the locomotive is a non-command basic DC can motored loco with a circuit board reverse unit, the horn WILL NOT blow continuously. You can control the horn or whistle by simply switching the "direction switch" which reverses the polarity of the DC current to the track, thus blowing the horn without changing the direction of the loco.
If the loco does not have the circuit board reverse unit, yes the horn would blow constantly. Or if the loco is a postwar or MPC unit with a mechanical e-unit.
brianel, Agent 027
"Praise the Lord. I may not have everything I desire, but the Lord has come through for what I need."
Just in case you need the part #, the horn circuit board is: 600-8152-050. The e-unit board, in case you ever need an extra, is: 600-0103-001. I checked Lionel's part's, and they have the horn in stock for $26. You should check it out: http://www.lionel.com/CustomerService/ReplacementParts/index.cfm?doAction=partFilter&setID=&productID=&q=8152050
Okay heres a suggestion goto www.ttender.com look up number and give Jeff a call he will tell you how to decide which board it is and how to fix it and sell it to you at a fair price and you can have your engine running again probably for less than $35.00 Jeff is a real asset to the O gauge community
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
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Well this forum saved me from going to the trouble of buying a replacement transformer set for a defective locomotive. Now I have to figure out the best way to proceed to get this switcher back on the track. Sometimes I long for the simpler time of AC motors and mechanical E units. Thanks to everyone who responded.
Probably only one bad board. The signal that the transformer sends to blow the horn is some DC superimposed on the normal AC. So your horn board may be okay. The other board, which is responsible for converting AC to DC and for swapping its polarity to reverse the motor, is probably the culprit.
Bob Nelson
If you use a DC Power-Pack the horn will blow continuously. Any Lionel/American Flyer/MTH/K-Line/Marx/Right-of-Way AC transformer will work.
Jon
Well that's bad news. When I bench test the loco with AC all I get is a bright blue spark upon contact. No cycling, no motor activity at all. When I connect DC the motor runs, and when I reverse the leads the horn blows. This does not look good? Sounds like at least one bad board (there are two)?????
That locomotive has a DC can motor but also an electronic e-unit, so it is designed to run on AC. You can use a variety of transformers; but I would look for a 1033 or 1044, which are robust postwar transformers and easy to find at reasonable prices.
Its a number 8946 Coast Guard Diesel Switcher circa 1996.
Tell us the locomotive number and maybe we can decide whether it should get AC or DC.
a lot of the Dc motors have electronics boards attached to them so it will run off O gauge ac power which most O gauge trains run off of. there were a few that lionle made that were dc not sure if that is one or not most to my knowage where 0-4-0 switchers steam type I believe thou your talking about a diesel switcher and not sure as lionel did some dc and some ac and heres the best part they did some that could run of of either. Sorry I'm not a lot of help but this is info you should know. having whistle button makes me think its an ac engine.
I am trying to repair and complete a Lionel Coast Guard set from the middle 1990s for a friend to give to his grandson. It is a DC motored switcher that uses a transformer and controller with whistle button, etc. The power pack is missing and I don't know what to replace it with. Should I try to find an original DC power pack setup and controller or is there something better now? Thanks.
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