Lionel Antenna wire

[magicman710]

On a lionel antenna wire for a tmcc locmotive, what is the antenna wire connected to on the curcuit board? What lettering does it have? My engine has a gray wire that is connected to a curcuit board that is labeld ant/gnd/gnd and it is connected to the "ant" hole on the curcuit board. Is this the antenna wire and it does not connect to anything else? I just have a wire that is not connected to anything and wanted to make sure it is the antenna wire.

 

Grayson

[wrmcclellan]

Grayson,

The ant wire is typically a single wire to the ANT position on a JST connector (the little white connectors). Normally, the wire is tied to the handrails on a steam engine and a metal plate (usually brass) on diesels.

It would be helpful to know exactly which Lionel loco you are talking about. Can you provide the Lionel P/N (ie 6-XXXXX) from the box it came in.

 

[magicman710]

Its a lionel postwar cellebration series B&O F3 A unit, origninal number 2368P, current lionel number 6-34502.

 

Hope this help!

[wrmcclellan]

The B&O PW Celebration loco is too new for Lionel to have released a parts list supplement.

However, it should be set up very similar to the earlier Pulmor motored F7's like the NP one shown in supplement 38.

http://www.lionel.com/Supplements/Supplement38/Completed/Supplement38Complete.pdf

This is a large file (4.3 MB) since it is a scanned PDF. Hopefully you have high speed access.

Ignore the wire colors and the TMCC board style. Note that the antenna wire is normally attached to a plate antenna (see page 2 of 3 for the NP F3). If your wire is not connected to anything other than the JST connector that plugs into the TMCC mother board, then look inside the loco shell for the antenna plate which may be attached with adhesive to the underside of the shell roof. If there is a plate there, you should see where the gray wire was attached (look for solder). Also check the free end of the gray wire, normally it should appear that it may have been soldered to something.

If there is no plate antenna, you might call Lionel service and see what they say. It is remotely possible they decided the plate antenna was not needed and just the wire was sufficient. However, my experience is if the plate antenna is not there, TMCC will not perform well when the shell is installed.

BTW - sometimes the antenna is mounted on a standoff above the TMCC circuitry.

Phone:[phone]

Fax: [phone].

Customer Service Respondents, "CSR's" are available Monday - Friday from 8 am. to 5 pm. ET at ext.9105 to answer general questions concerning product and services.

Technical Services repair techs are available Wednesday - Friday from 10 am to 5 pm. ET at ext. 9106 to answer technical repair questions concerning specific product requiring service

You can also send them an e-mail via their web site at:

http://www.lionel.com/CustomerService/Findex.cfm

CLick on "Tech Talk" and then click on "Via E-Mail."

 

[magicman710]

Well the tmcc still works fine, but I'll take a look inside tomorrow, thanks as well.

 

Grayson

[magicman710]

Lionel tech said it should be soldered to a metal plate inside the shell, there are 2 screws keeping the plate on, I tightened the gray wire the the screws(so its touching the plate) and everything is working fine.

 

Thanks,

Grayson