675 Arcing

[IDM1991]

No tinsel on our tree, and nothing else taht I can think of to interfere with the track.  Must be a loose wire.

At least the 8800 runs well!

Thanks again.

Ian McKechnie

[emdmike]

I would turn the engine upside down and look to see if any xmas oritiment hooks or tinsel have gotten wrapped around the gears or axle, if tinsel gets wrapped up and touches the center rail or center rail roller pickups it will spark like crazy.  As for not moving, make sure the E unit control lever on the top is in the correct position, that lever "locks out" the E unit(reverse unit).  If its correct, the E unit might have gotten stuck and isnt changing position to allow the engine to run. Finaly, a wire might have come loose or broken.  Both the E unit and a broken wire will require the engine to be torn down to repair.  You can have your person do this or anyone that repairs them.  I worked for a local Lionel shop for over 15 years fixing his customers trains along with my own Lionel.  P.S.  the 675 is one of my favorite postwar steamers.  Mike

[IDM1991]

Our 675 steam locomotive has been running rather well around the Christmas tree for the past few weeks.  It had a hiatus last Christmas while waiting for its brushes to be replaced.  Our repairman noted at the time that a loose wire/piece of winding (from the commutator?) had caused a lot of arcing and had thus worn down the brushes over time, or something to that effect.

When I went to power up the 675 last night (having not run it for about two or three days), it just sat there with its light on and buzzed.  No amount of reverse-unit engagement could make it move an inch.  When I tried to coax it forward by hand, I noticed a dramatic show of sparking and arcing coming from behind the middle driver on the engineer's side of the locomotive.

Might this be another case of a loose winding and/or wire interferring with electrical conductivity, and will the entire commutator need to be replaced if this is indeed the case?

For safety's sake, I have shelved the 675 for now, and will likely get our repairman to look at it in the spring (I'm not mechanically competent enough to dismantle a steam locomotive, particularly a Lionel 675 with its maze of connecting anjd eccentric rods).  Our 2343, 622, and 8800 (with the 675's whistling tender coupled on the back) will join my father's original Marx loco in under-the-tree operations for the remainder of the holiday season.