Lionel Rio Grande #8903 Question

[Anonymous]

Sad thing is I looked at Lionel's site before posting and couldn't find anything. Of course today, I went back and noticed the manuals, and by process of elimination figured out the correct manual. Only to look in here and see that somebody (Chris F) was nice enough to point me to the correct one. I was able to also locate the exploded view (after reading the replies). Oddly enough, mine came with a coal tender and slighly different consist than you list. Basically it had all the rolling stock you list with the addition of a flat car.

ben10ben,
With the exception of the body itself, the antique set is much more fragile. Yes, replacement parts are readily available, but the thing is that this newer set was heavily played with, where the antique (American Flyer 312 SIB for those who are interested), other than being in storage for 30 years was well cared for. Thinking back, I'm lucky I didn't damange anything, start a fire or hurt anyone, considering the fact that we used to do real trees, and I had a tendency to cra***he train into matchbox cars, or pretty much anything else I could find. Considering the abuse, it's held up amazingly well. Besides, it's a good excuse to break this one out of storage. It's probaby been about 10 years since it's been run. Don't shed any tears for the Flyer set, It'll probably come out in January or February, once I have the platform back from under the tree. Once again, thanks everyone for the replies and the information.

[ben10ben]

Regarding your antique set, if you were to pull it out and run it, you would most likely find that it is in fact just as durable, if not even more durable than the more modern set. An examination of it would reveal that pretty much everything except for the carbodies is metal, compared to mostly plastic on your more modern set. On the off chance that something should break, parts are much, much more readily available than they are for more recent vintage items, particularly the low end ones.

[Chris F]

The 8903 Rio Grande 2-4-2 Columbia was part of the (P/N) 1963 Black River Freight set cataloged in 1979. In addition to the loco, the set included -

1130 Oil tender
9136 Republic Steel gondola
9016 B&O Chessie hopper
9077 Rio Grande caboose

The loco has a headlight but no smoke. It has a DC-only motor that will be burned out if operated on AC. The oil tender had the mechanical Sound of Steam.

A copy of the manual can be found on Lionel's website (you will need Acrobat Reader) -

http://www.lionel.com/products/productnavigator/InstructionManuals/70-1960-250.pdf

A parts list for the loco can be found in Supplement 3, pp. 41-42, also avalable on Lionel's website in the Customer Service section.

[Anonymous]

You should try to find a lubrication chart for this engine - but the general rule of thumb is "light machine oil on most moving parts - light grease on gears."

$15 will get you a nice lube kit at most hobby stores. I've used "3 in 1 Electric Motor Oil" and plain wheel bearing grease from the auto store without ill effects.

Whatever lubricants you use, use them very, very sparingly! If you don't have a needle point oiler or a syringe you can dip a toothpick and just touch the area where things that move are in contact. Where axles pass through the frame is one important place. If your engine has an open frame AC motor, the armature bearings would be another. Just a little tiny bit of grease from the end of a toothpick will be sufficient on the gears. Move everything by hand (spin the wheels) to distribute the lube.

Clean off any excess oil or grease. You're good to go!

Have fun with your 19-month-old!

[Anonymous]

Thank you both for the replies

RAILFANESPEE4449,
Yes, indeed it does chug thanks to the roller in the tender. Took me a few minutes to realize that you were replying to my post as I hadn't recalled mentioning anything about sounds.

Tim,
The lubrication information is much appreciated, and you mention the one other major question that I forgot to ask. The original transformer died a few years after it was bought and Mom ended up getting a MRC Tech II as a replacement for me. I had assumed that since the direction switch changes direction as would normally happen with a dc motor and there is no e-unit, that it was a DC motor, but knowing that for sure is a good thing. While I don't intend to let the little guy handle the set, I can't rule out him getting at it at some point during the holiday season. I'll miss the smoke & whistle this year, but at least I'll know that he's less likely to either break or eat parts of the train.

[Algonquin]

The 8903 Rio Grande was a very low end product from Lionel in the 80s. The engine has a maintenance free DC can motor that requires no lubrication. You should apply a drop of oil to each of the four main drive wheel bearings and a light amount of grease on the gear teeth between the set of drivers. This engine had no smoke or sound system, just a simple headlight. The plastic construction of this engie is fairly tough and can be handled with small hands without damage.

Enjoy it!

Regards,

Tim Pignatari

[railfanespee4449]

That noise might be the "sound of steam" has headlight, and is a 2-4-2 columbia type

[Anonymous]

I decided to pull out my trainset from when I was a kid (early 80's) for under the tree this year rather than the antique set (1946 or 47). It's a Lionel Rio Grande set with steam engine #8903. I don't trust my 19 month old around the antique set. I'm a bit less concerned about this set as I distincly remember doing things with it that were in hindsite probably pretty dangerous, and definately more destructive than my little one is likely to be. Despite all of that, it doesn't look too bad.
So far I've checked the transformer, cleaned most of the track that I'll be needing, checked the cars, and made sure that the locomotive still runs (gave it just a little juice for a short period of time). Basically I'm looking for the following information.

1) is there anything special I need to know about lubrication. (ie areas I need to be sure to hit, areas to avoid) I can make pretty good guesses, but would prefer to know for sure.

2) I'm assuming that this was a pretty low end set (I was probably 8 or 9 at the time) and doesn't smoke (by design I mean) as I couldn't find anything in it that looks to me like a smoke unit, but was hoping that someone could confirm this for me.

3) Anything else that anyone can tell me about this set other than price. (I'm not looking to sell, and quite honestly it's not really in saleable shape)