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Prewar Lionel wiring?

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  • Member since
    June 2005
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Prewar Lionel wiring?
Posted by Darth Santa Fe on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 2:06 PM

I'm working on restoring a prewar Lionel 254 electric (as some of you may already know), and most of the wiring is gone or the insulation has hardened and fallen off. My 254 is one of the ones with a round manual reverse lever (no E-unit). Can anyone give me a wiring diagram, or an explanation on how to rewire it? I can't tell where everything is supposed to be connected.

Thanks for any help!

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  • Member since
    December 2005
  • From: Hopewell, NY
  • 3,233 posts
Posted by ADCX Rob on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 6:43 PM

Here you go:  Olsen's

 

 

Rob

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Posted by Darth Santa Fe on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 7:23 PM

Perfect! That's exactly what I was looking for! Thanks!

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  • Member since
    July 2009
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Posted by servoguy on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 12:55 AM

If the wires have not been removed, the easy to fix the insulation is to unsolder one end of each wire one wire at a time.  Get some shrink tubing and put it on the wire after removing all of the old insulation and then solder the wire back in place.  This is much simpler than replacing the wires, in particular the wire that connects to the center rail pickups.  

Bruce Baker

  • Member since
    June 2005
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Posted by Darth Santa Fe on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 2:10 PM

I tried out the wiring, and everything worked just as it should! The only problem now is a bad pole on the armature, so I'm going to have the Motor Doctor fix that.

So far, I've replaced all but the center rail wire. I'll probably try your shrink tube method first, since that one will be difficult to get to. I used 22 gauge stranded copper for the rest, and it's working well.

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