I need to do a major overhaul on my postwar Lionel K4 2025 locomotive. Is there a Classic Toy Trains article about this? If so, what issue? Also, are replacement parts available for this loco? Where might be a good source? Can they be obtained directly from Lionel? Is there a repair manual that offers exploded views?
Thank you,
Lyon El
I have restored a couple of these--it was a lot of fun. They are well-built locos, and with the exception of the marker lights, nearly bulletproof. There was a really excellent series of articles in CTT on restoring postwar steamers....in 1991 I am sure there have been more since then, but cannot think of them now.
Lionel will not be able to help you with parts, but there are other options. I like Olsen's: http://pictures.olsenstoy.com/searchcd1.htm You can check out the service manual article on your engine, then find the parts you need.
Really, the only hard part to this particular engine is getting everything back into the shell when you are done!
Thanks, Nickaix, you have been very helpful. Yes, I have heard that working on these engines can be a little difficult. Apparently even the Lionel techs had trouble working on them. I did find an interesting article about the development of the K4 toy engine by Lionel in the January 1999 issue of CTT. It shows great pics which show the arrangement of wheel rods, which is very much what I needed. What's interesting is that the article states that real K4's sported a 4-6-2 wheel arrangement, not a 2-6-2 -- the way Lionel produced it. I wonder why Lionel missed on that? Another article in the same issue shows how the Lionel K4 can be modified with the proper wheel arrangement to make it more accurate.
My K4 took a real beating when I was a child. It was originally my brothers but the set got handed down to me when he outgrew them. I played rough with them, and have a recollection of getting mad at my sister when I was a little boy and throwing this engine at her! Thankfully, I must of missed her, 'cause this engine, as you know, is built like a brick ****house. But I am sure that is where I incurred all the damage.
(I have since apologized to my sister.)
---Lyon El
Wow, that's a story!
I imagine Lionel did not include the 2nd axle on the lead truck because those wheels would probably have hit the cylinders as the engine swung out around O-27 curves. Since the engine was "selectively compressed" there was not as much room between the cylinders and the drive wheels as there should be. Not only that, but the prototype never had to take those sorts of curves! Lionel solved that problem with the 746 "J" and the small Hudsons, but at the price of using almost comically small wheels on the lead truck.
As far as working on them, when the time came for re-assembly, I had the best luck laying the shell on the table upside-down, and lowering the motor and steamchest assemblies into it. IIRC, you have to lower them together--can't do one and then the other. Find some way to prop the shell up so that the e-unit lever will have space to protrude from the shell once you get the motor seated. The real trouble-spot is right around the smoke unit: the shell is very narrow on the inside here, and you have to be very careful not to pinch any wires in this area. I like to run the wire to the headlamp through the little gap between the two parts of the smoke unit (i.e., below the heater part and above the piston part).
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