Rotary Beacon not working so well.

[pbjwilson]

My rotary beacon is operating so -so. It rotates one revolution, stops, kinda hums then starts up again for one revolution, stops, repeats. Do the little nibs wear out on the bottom of the light housing? Can you buy a replacement rubber nib ring thinga-ma-jig? Help.

[msacco]

Yes, the vibrating washer is replaceable. Either get one from Lionel or go to a train show.
I remember seeing the Lionel part number listed in my modern rotary beacon's instructions. Can't find that box now but a search on Lionel's site would surely bring it up.
Also you might want to try some graphite powder. It jUst about always improves the action.
I've had fingers that were pretty worn out but still worked nicely using some graphite.

Mike S.

[Anonymous]

Both my Lionel and Marx rotary beacons don't work. I've made repeated attempts to resolve the problem without success. I understand that it's hard to find one that does work on a consistent basis.

[msacco]

Maybe someone else will chime in here but you shouldn't have trouble with the later postwar beacons or the modern ones. Both used the vibration motor with the driver washer fingers.
Older postwar beacons that relied on heat current passing through the vanes on the top of the beacon light were very problematic.

Mike .

[trigtrax]

Older postwar beacons that relied on heat current passing through the vanes on the top of the beacon light were very problematic.

I have the original Beacon and it has worked for all these years. The trick is vibration. If you build rock solid benchwork with foam and cork or other methods to keep noise down you'll have trouble, but run a train on a plywood board and that beacon will spin like a top.

[pbjwilson]

QUOTE: Originally posted by trigtrax


I have the original Beacon and it has worked for all these years. The trick is vibration. If you build rock solid benchwork with foam and cork or other methods to keep noise down you'll have trouble, but run a train on a plywood board and that beacon will spin like a top.

It is a modern beacon with vibroter motor

Interesting. My benchwork is very solid and is covered with carpeting. Maybe the carpet is absorbing the vibration. Thanks.

Mike, I'll try the graphite, may be just the thing to free it up.

[trigtrax]

It is a modern beacon with vibroter motor

My comments don't apply to the modern beacon. They use a rubber washer with slanted feet and the vibrating coil gets them to move.. You can replace the washer and sometimes placing a diode in series with the device helps.. The reason is the half wave rectification makes the base vibrate at 30 cycles instead of 60.

[Anonymous]

I have the old version with the vanes. I have a new beacon and new bulb but it still just sits there. Are there any tricks to get the old style to spin?

[lionelsoni]

Sorry, trigtrax, but it's still 60 hertz. At least, the fundamental frequency is. The rectification adds harmonic frequencies to the spectrum; but they're all even multiples of 60 hertz and therefore at higher frequencies.

This is not to say that your diode trick doesn't work, just that halving the frequency is not the reason that it does.

[Anonymous]

1862 General
Crank up the voltage to 18v to get more heat and on the negative, less bulb life.

Charlie

[wrmcclellan]

Yes the washers do wear out and get stiff with age.

You need to make sure the rubber washer is bonded to the spinning beacon assembly and that the fingers are pointing down. Use a little rubber cement to bond the washer. If it is not bonded it will not work properly. The original used an adhesive washer to bond the finger washer into the bracket assembly.

Olsen's or George Tebolt typically have replacement washers. I do not know about the adhesive washer.

http://pictures.olsenstoy.com/searchcd31.htm?itm=314

http://www.georgetebolt.com/

The part numbers are:

3520-42 for the adhesive washer
3520-16 for the driving washer

These are not shown on their web sites. You will have to call to see if they have it.

Sometimes a replacement washer doesn't work because the rubber used is too firm or it is too old (stiff). When this accessory works, it is magnificent. When it doesn't, it's very frustrating.

You might also try MTH. I believe their copy of this item uses a similar washer setup.

Good luck.

Regards,
Roy

[SPFan]

Before buying new parts, try a little talcum powder on the rubber washer. It does the trick on the searchlight cars.

Pete

[wiz1500]

1862General,
Make sure that the vanes on the top have a good angle to them you may have to tweek them, not to much though. If that doesn't work replace the bulb. I don't no why but I have a bulb that just will not let the becon spin...

[wiz1500]

pbjwilson,
If your feet on the becon are still there use a little Labelle 134 PTFE dry lubricant that sucker will want to fly off...he he... You can get it at a well stocked hobby shop.. also whatch the voltage you don't want to over heat the coil.....

[pbjwilson]

Hey, thanks for all the advice. The thing was working great up until this weekend. Had it under the Christmas tree for a couple weeks - no problem. I've been running it alot lately and just yesterday it started giving me problems. So I took it off the layout for a while, perhaps the gremlins will leave. I'll experiment with a few things to try to get it going again.

[Anonymous]

On the old style beacon if you put a shim under one of the legs so the whole thing rocks slightly works for me most of the time. That plus the vibration from the table usually does the trick.