Thanks Wayne- I'm slowly working on a video showing how I repaired my 0598 GP-7, so you can look forwards to a lot of narration in that This ain't my first repair for sure... I'll get the kinks worked out! Or learn to live with 'em. I think maybe the field magnet in the motor is just too weak, that can cause overheating. I'll probaby replace it outright with some Neodymium magnets and see how that does. It's what I've done with most of my Lionel HO motors... it makes a big difference. Also you have to replace the magnet anyway if you take apart the motor. The Alnico magnets loose most of their strength when you pull the armature out, or remove the magnet. There's some science behind it, which I don’t fully understand. But I think it's unique to Alnico type magnets.-Ellie
"Unless bought from a known and trusted dealer who can vouch otherwise, assume every train for sale requires servicing before use"
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Good job Ellie! Yeah, there's bound to be some issues when an engine's being woken up from a long sleep but it looks like youve got a good handle on things!
PS: You've got a fine speaking voice! I'm looking forward to your next narration!
Thought I'd follow-up- I serviced the locomotive today. The motor still gets rather hot, after not much run time- which I don't particularly love. But other than that it runs far better than I was expecting. And... we've got smoke!I think I'd like to tinker a bit more, but overall I'm quite happy. She's a fantastic puller too- absolutely no issues moving a 10 car train of mostly earlier cars with metal sprung trucks and steel wheels. What a blast!-Ellie
A day late and a couple $ short, but here's something: The 'new' 0636 arrived. It's very similar to the 0635 that preceeded it. Lionel changed the gearing a bit, but otherwise it looks the same. I haven't yet figured out if the smoke unit is still good, because it takes way more juice than it should to run, and the motor gets hot way too fast. I'm going to have to service it before I feel comfortable running it proper.-Ellie
Ellie - Agree. Illinois Central cars fit the bill as well.
penny - Again, agree...
Northwoods - I am green with envy. Can't you tell?
Ives is pretty accommodating for supplying trains for the holiday. Here are a few photos from the archives.
Happy Halloween
Enjoying the World's Greatest Hobby
Northwoods Flyer
The Northwoods Flyer Collection
of
American Flyer Trains
"The Toy For the Boy"
Fife, you're making me really kickg myself for forgetting to snap a picture of the Halloween consist I worked out for the trolley museum! Alternating black & orange cars, with the 2056 doing the honors of pulling the consist. My Allis-Chalmers car also seemed like a great canidate for the train, but I can see now I didn't take it quite far enough. It's been a hectic year and my family didn't manage to get the Halloween decorations down from the attic, so the train makes do without. That's my excuse If you have any of the Lionel New Haven boxcars, those are an absolute 'must' for the Halloween trains. They're already black and orange, nothing more to do!-Ellie
I guess it's better to have bats in your condenser than in your belfry!
Same me, different spelling!
Admittedly, Fifey is a bit late to the Halloween train craze. And although I have a few cars in the fleet, it still left me scrambling for some "fillers" for the 2022 Boo-Choo. Sooo, here's what I came up with...
Here's an old Williams Chessie hopper I've had for some time. I think the black cat on "yellow moon" works well. The glow-on-the-dark skulls and bones are from Michael's. They really work well when I shut the lights off, and kind of remind me of the "soup" ingrediants in the first Conan movie...
Next up is a Lionel NASCAR flatcar, that's never been out of the box. I purchased it for the 1/43 Jimmy Johnson car, and it still has the elastic band that held it in place. I loaded it with 2 of my favorite Revell (remember them) cars. The Scooby Doo/Cartoon Network Chevy, and the Kellogg's Spooky Loops Monte Carlo (both circa '97).
Here's an old Lionel gondola, that I filled with eyeball gumballs from the Dollar General. Gives new meaning to term "catchin' the red eye"... Thanks to submmbob for this contribution.
And finally, here's a PW Allis Chalmers car, that just needed a little somethin' somethin'. The orange color makes it a natural for a Halloween train. At the Dollar General, burried under the masks, fake fingers, and rubber spiders, was a lone pack of LED lights with purple bats (10 count). TWO BUCKS! Now I have an experimental bat transport car. It really shows up when the lights are off. The bat stickers are also available at DG.
I absolutely love this car. Thank you, rt. I think it would work well with a string of green aliens, for you AREA 51 fans.
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