ive lways had a facination for model trains, my son of 10yrs of age has the true passion of trains of all sorts, we recently aquired a train set out of his great grandfathers garage. i was amazed to be in the company of a train set so old, as i was holding the e-unit of a lionel 2023 i wondered if i could get it running.it was in bad shape as far as appearence goes my son and i have worked on it together cleaning, soldering broken wires back, we are at a point we want to try it out but are missing quit a bit of track including track piece for wire up.the track is rusted and is tough to clean with out being to abrasive to it. is there any way to test e-unit on the track to keep us motivated on pressing on with this. the wires i mentioned before that needed soldered where powered by the 90 watt transformer as follows blue, green, wres tied together going to frames ground. power from the transformer, to yellow wire on brushes, and negative side of transformer to side of motor, this was all done after moter, brushes, and worm gear was cleaned i had to kind of help motor get started but it took of like a champ,as i was able to reverse wires for reverse operation, please help as im at a standstill trying to see it move on the track. any information would be great, my son thinks i can fix most anything.i dont want to let him down.
Track: Let's start with the track. Most forum participants suggest using scotch brite pads to shine up the track. This works well. Track doesn't need to be mirror-like to operate, but if it is so much the better. I actually take a more aggressive approach and spend a lot of time with sand paper, using 100, 200 and 400 grit. It is only the top of the track that needs to be really polished well, and the track pins. These need to be clean and non-rusted.
Connections: Connecting the wire to the track is normally done using Lionel or competitor "lock-ons." These allow assembly and disassembly of track. Quite a few Lionel layout builders will solder the wire directly to the rails. Most often I have seen this done discretely on the side, alrthouh it can be done on the bottom. This creates a permanent and solid electrical connection, essentially turning that piece of track into a large lock-on. Since you are already soldering borken connections back on your locomotive, you should be able to solder wires to the track. Another connection method I sometimes use is to insert the wires into the tight groove of a center and outer rail. This works well if done in a careful manner.
You can always get a lock-on from a train shop if you happen to have one near your home. These can be bought on-line as well.
Wire connections: On most lionel transformers, the center rail wire connects to the U post. The outer rail wire connects to the A, B, or other lettered post. Some of the other lettered posts are fixed voltage or lower voltage and you will need to know what your transformer provides. You can't go wrong connecting to the A or B, and U posts if your 90 watt transformer is a model 1033.
E-unit testing: The approach you describe apparently worked, though most Lionel operators would test by using an alligator clipped wire to the roller or sliding contact and touching the other wire to the side of a locomotive wheel. If the motor does run in forward and reverse as you describe above, the locomotive should operate, especially if it did this after your thorough cleaning, oiling, and wiring work.
Good Luck!
Prairietype
Just to be sure that you wired the motor right, here is the circuit: The center rail pickup is wired (maybe red) to the e-unit. The e-unit connects it to one of the motor brushes (blue or yellow). The other brush connects back to the e-unit (yellow or blue, respectively), which connects it to the motor field winding (green). The other end of the field winding is connected to the motor and ocomotive frame and therefore to the outside rails.
To run the motor without the e-unit, connect the pickup to one of the motor brushes. Connect the other motor brush to the motor field winding. Then connect the transformer voltage to the pickup and the locomotive frame. Note that the brushes and the field are wired in series, not in parallel. You might get the motor to run with them wired in parallel, but you will have little torque, the speed will be hard to control, and you may burn out one or the other of the armature or field.
Bob Nelson
Just a bit of advice on track: If it's really, really bad don't try and save it. Aside from dirt and rust the insulating papers (for lack of a better term) could be shot as well. Get some new track for that old veteran.
If there's no hobby shop in your area you can always mail-order it from any one of the advertisers in Classic Toy Trains.
I use rusty track almost exclusively these days, mostly because I can't afford to keep buying new for the size of the projects I keep coming up with. Most often I clean the rails with a nylon scotchbrite pad (or some generic non-3M brand clone). The benefit to using them is you don't get metal fibers caught in the ties like you would with steel wool which of course can cause electrical issues. For tougher rust spots (or to get that polished look) I use a wire wheel brush in my dremel tool at a low rpm. I also like to put the track pins in the chuck of my dremel (in place of a bit) and I spin them against a scotchbrite pad one end at a time. It works extremely well. Missing center rail insulators can be plucked from track that's too far gone to save. Or, you can easily make your own from any cardstock. I always have 65lb and 110lb on hand for other projects but you can get it from business cards, greeting cards or memo cards if you don't care about the color.
As far as "what's too far gone" is concerned, look for anything that compromises the rail either electrically or structurally. If it's rusted through or has bad pitting from electrical arcs, it's not worth saving (except possibly for parts). Lionel blued both rail and ties at various times throughout their history. Similarly they also used blued or painted ties with plated rail. The plated rails I've run accross usually had less rust on them, but using a scotchbrite to clean them can also remove the plating.
Have fun! That's the most important thing!
Becky
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
Hi appreciate the enformation, can I have some more, Im still trying to get all the lingo down, but E-unit stands for electromatic device or what,can you please tell me what every componet is and descibe what it is, as well as the function.Hope its not asking to much.Jason.
The e-unit is the reversing unit. When Lionel first began putting them into locomotives, they put an "E" suffix on the model numbers of the locomotives that had them. Eventually (almost) all locomotives were equipped with the gadgets, and Lionel dropped the suffix. But it lives on in the name of the unit that gave the locomotive its electrically-reversing capability. (By the way, rival American Flyer did not use the term "e-unit"; so it is a good idea to say "reversing unit" when speaking to modelers of that persuasion.)
Your locomotive has (or should have) the most common type of e-unit, which has three different states: forward, backward, and neutral. Each time you power up the locomotive, the e-unit steps to the next state, in the sequence F, N, R, N, F, N... What it is doing is completely disconnecting the motor armature every other state (N). In the F and R states, it is wiring the armature in series with the field, in the two possible ways that that can be done, to make the motor run forward and backward.
The e-unit itself has a solenoid coil, powered from the track voltage, which makes it step each time the track voltage appears. One end of that coil is connected to the center-rail pickup by a red wire. The other end goes through a crude switch, then to the frame of the e-unit, which is connected to the locomotive frame, which is connected to the wheels, which are connected to the outside rails. You can disable the reversing function by shutting off the switch. The locomotive will then continue in whichever state it was in when you shut off the switch, until you turn the switch back on again.
In the F or R state, the e-unit connects the red wire to one side of the armature, that is, the yellow or blue wire, to one of the brushes. It connects the other side of the armature, that is, the blue or yellow wire, to the green wire that goes to the field.
These colors are only typical. Older locomotives may have, for example, two yellow wires instead of a yellow and blue wire. Or any or all of the wires may be black.
Ms. Becky, my compliments on your industry! When I got back into this about 10 years ago the only track I had on hand was 40 year old (at the time) 027 stuff left over when I was a kid, and it was in bad, bad shape, rusty, dented, you name it. It was just too far gone.
As my layout is just a 4X8 in the "Chugger Barn" buying new track wasn't too much of a stretch, also I had the track that came with some MTH sets. The layout's as big as it's going to get, so I don't have to concern myself with any more track purchases. Not unless I hit one of the lotteries and move into a house with a HUGE basement.
Thanks!
I've spent a lot of time designing those "lottery layouts" myself!
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