I'm feeling lucky

[darianj]

Good work!  You fixed the problems yourself and saved yourself some money by not taking it to the shop.

[twaldie]

What a great week this was from a toy train viewpoint!  Some things that went well....
About a year and a half ago I bought a Santa Fe F3 ABA (from 1995 or 1996, with TMCC)  set and the Western Pacific Postwar Celebration F3 ABA set, which also has TMCC.  Both were very cheap because they werent working correctly.

The Santa Fe powered A unit ran, but not well, it "stuttered" around the track in TMCC or conventional mode.  After a little poking around, I found that the wires from the pickup rollers, cab light and mother board all tie together with a wire nut.  The wire from the mother board had broken off inside the wire nut.  Restripped the wire, put the wire nut back on and the train runs great now!

Since I was on a roll, I decided to look at the WP set.  The only problem I could find with the set was the Railsounds in the B unit couldnt be controlled.  It made diesel noise, but no horn or bell.  Also, the engine sounds started up as soon as power was applied to the track, like it should if it is in conventional mode, which it shouldnt have. After opening the shell on it, it was obvious that the antenna had come loose, since it was sitting along the railsounds board.  I taped it back to the roof of the shell and now it works great.  Lionel must put them there for a reason!

Not too bad, about one hours worth of time to add two nice sets to the collection.

Third and lastly,  Lionel has a few NS SD40-2s in their new catalog!  What more could anyone want?

Now if I can get home from New Jersey and play with my trains life will be perfect.  Anyone in NJ have a layout they want to show off this weekend?

Happy training.

Tim