How long does it take for lionel to fix an engine?

[Anonymous]

I was extremelly disappointed when my new dash 9 bit the big one. It worked fine for a week. Then I started it up, Railsounds were on, turned the red knob on the cab-1, and poof. It blew my lock -on. I took the body off and tried it again and sparks came out of what I think is a heat sync. The dealer basically said I have to send it back. That is really nice to know that I spent $400+ dollars and simply can't exchange it for one that works. So, I'm sure someone out there has some insight in to this area. Thanks

[Anonymous]

I have had the same thing happen with a $1200 MTH shay steam locomotive, with all the electronics inside of these things there are all sorts of things that can and do go wrong. Remember these are mass produced items, by folks in another country. All Lionel has to do is install a new railsounds/comand control circuit board and it will be ready to go. Check to see if there are any Service Stations for Lionel in your area, they can get the boards and have the training or should have the training to replace the board under warrenty. If you already sent it to Lionel, expect a month or two till for a repair time as they are shut down till after Jan 1st. It usualy takes 7-10 business days for me to get parts from Lionel when I fix things that are out of warrenty. If it was out of warrenty I could fix it for you in a much shorter time. Once its out of warrenty, use Train America Studios in Canfield OH, they are experts on the sounds/comand boards. Good Luck Mike

[Anonymous]

Thanks, It is still under warranty so I will try to return it to a service station.

[Anonymous]

That is your best bet, send it to the service station and let them handle the problem, I know it sucks being without the locomotive. I cannot risk running my new MTH SD-9 as the Nicad battery in it is bad and running it without the battery can scramble the circuitry to where I have to send it back for reprogramming, but a new battery will be installed tomorrow after a trip to either walmart or radio shack for a new battery.

[daan]

May be a stupid remark, but Nicad's are not suited for partly charging and discharging. If you have to buy new batteries, choose the nimh ones. They are more expensive, but unsensitive for partially loading and unloading and have much more energy storage.
Nicad's have a memory, if they are not charged fully, or unloaded fully, they "remember" the last amount of energy stored in them as their new capicity. If that happens time after time, the energy storage is reduced to almost zero. Nimh batteries (Nickel Metalhydride)
batteries don't have that memory and will be able to keep energy storage at maximum even if it isn't discharged or charged properly.

[Anonymous]

Daan is very correct! If you want to use the Nikle Cadmium, drain it COMPLETLY before charging!