I put my Lionel/American Flyer Big Boy on the track and tried to power it up with the Trainmaster. It ran for about 3 inches and stalled and then I noted smoke from under the tender. I turned it off immediately and found that the bolt/stud that was holding the electrocoupler had melted and a spring with an attached wire and the hardware that held the bolt/stud was between the ties while the coupler was loose.
Anybody got a clue what happened?
It is now in the hands of the Local Lionel Authorized Service Station, and hopefully will be covered by warranty.
I am beginning to think that I will be very wary of buying any further high end "Flyonel" and stick to the tried and true Gilbert tech that I can repair myself with a minimum of tools and supplies.
Little Tommy
Little Tommy,
Welcome to the world of Lionel! Lionel has the name and not the real quality in S gauge. Also I have gotten away from Lionel switches in O gauge tubular track, nothing but trouble since the new design in 1995.
With the economy the way it is many companies have laid-off their quality control people, or it was made in China!
I too have found that the older AF engines just need some tune-up work and will great.
If you want quality try www.americanmodels.com they deal with S gauge only.
Lee F.
Thanks to all who have looked at my posting. What is really sad is that, at the time I am writing this, 145 Toy Train enthusiasts have looked at my problem, but no one seems to even have an idea what might have happened. I thought at least someone might have a guess.
It was frightening to have a part of the tender essentially vaporize in less than 10 seconds with only about 14 volts applied to the track (I run my trains with command control at less than full voltage to try to prevent premature light bulb burnout). I've never seen that much damage from an electrical problem on a circuit breaker protected track.
LittleTommy Thanks to all who have looked at my posting. What is really sad is that, at the time I am writing this, 145 Toy Train enthusiasts have looked at my problem, but no one seems to even have an idea what might have happened. I thought at least someone might have a guess. It was frightening to have a part of the tender essentially vaporize in less than 10 seconds with only about 14 volts applied to the track (I run my trains with command control at less than full voltage to try to prevent premature light bulb burnout). I've never seen that much damage from an electrical problem on a circuit breaker protected track. Little Tommy
Sad is a little strong. I have read your post a couple of times and opinions/guesses are like rectums in that everyone has one. My best educated guess is the couple spring/wire/etc. allowed a direct 14 volts to contact directly with the computer board bypassing the diodes and allowing 14 volts AC to connect to a 5 volt DC PC board will fry it pretty darn quick. The couple springs are known to fall out and I had this happen on my Hogwarts engine. The tender coupler centering spring fell out on a switch a glowed red hot with almost no voltage applied. I hope you problem is resolved quickly. I would recommend checking the rear coupler assembly before running the engine every time from now on.
Jeff Meyer
Founding member of the All Aboard Fastrackers! See us at: www.allaboardfastrackers.com
I'd check your information, Tim. I know, that in the beginning, American Models products were made in the USA.
When I last talked to Don at S Helper and Ron at American Models, their products were being made in China. I believe they are actually made at the same factory as Lionel.
Thank you, Jeff for your information. It was exactly what I was looking for. I just didn't have a clue as to what to think. My knowledge of electronics is stuck at the High School Physics of 1967 era.
You can be sure I will be super careful when I get the tender back, whenever that may be.
The best advice is to check & re-check stuff before applying power to it, especially new stuff!! With post war stuff if you made a litttle mistake just shut off power and try again, not so with electronic stuff as it fries quickly!
I had a Lionel lighted caboose short out the center rail pick-up while running a train with MTH's command control. Probally would have happened with TMCC as well, because they both put out near full voltage from the transformer to the track but control engine speed and a couple of other abilities.
Just in case anyone is interested, the problem was due to a loose coupler that caused a short. The service station repaired it under warrenty but after I got the tender back, I found that, as usual, Carl Tuveson, had found the problem and posted a solution on his website. Check out his fix at his website at http://www.tuveson.com/ then click on the Big Boy section and then move to the section on loose coupler repair.
Do you think maybe if you hear of more lionel problems more often than american flyer .... the reason may be they outnumber vintage AF by about 1,000,000 to 1 ?
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