Restoration of Lionel Trains

[JinenV]

Hello All

I am new to this forum and hope I can find some help here. I am looking for a instructional DVD that can help me restore Prewar and Post war Lionel trains.Please let me know.

Looking forward to being an active member of this forum.

[TRAINCAT]

There is a CD available about repairing lionel trains but I think it covers only post war trains. There are some repair manuals out there like Greenberg manuals. Not much for pre war though. If by restoration you mean restoring paint too you won't find that, its a learned art.
Roger

[LIRR1926]

I've got the DVD "Maintenance & Repair Guide for Lionel Electric Trains" by TM books and video and found it helpful. It covers a variety of mainenance/repair issues including E-units, cleaning and lubing motors, rewiring and etc. For what is covered its very clear and helpful.

Scotie

[rtraincollector]

If you goto ebay and see these that are something like "1902 to 1986 repair manual" run don't walk away from them as in for repair there no help now to see what was offered back then yes but to guide you thru repairs they are not very helpful from what I have seen.  usually sell flor less than $10 plus shipping

[servoguy]

If you buy a manual, and it advises using anything but motor oil (5W-20 or 10W-30) don't use the products they recommend.  Motor oil is the best thing to use as it never gets dried out, gummy or hard.  Don't use grease, 3 in 1 oil, Lionel Lube, WD-40, light machine oil, etc., or you will become an expert on cleaning out dried gunk.  I have 50+ years of experience using motor oil.

[JinenV]

The DVD "Maintenance & Repair Guide for Lionel Electric Trains" by TM books was available on Ebay, I just bought it. Hopefully I will get it early next week. I did a google search and found another website that sells a DVD, I emailed the seller several times, as instructed in the website, but didn't get a reply. The name of the website is lionelworkshop.yolasite.com.

[JinenV]

@ servoguy I heard from another enthusiast about motor oil as well.

[Firelock76]

Motor oil!  What a great suggestion!  A quart would be a lifetime supply in my case.  Just so happens I've got a bottle 0f 5w-20 on the back shelf.  Guess what's migrating to the Chugger Barn?