This week involved some troubleshooting based on last week's operations, and a few new entries to the roster.
On Saturday I hooked up two Lionel 5906 sound activation buttons to the Track 4 wires. These allowed the horn and bell (I didn't know it had a bell) to operate on the Rock Island E-8 units without problems. However, the wires coming in and out of these buttons are 16 gauge, and the rest of the wiring is 10 gauge. What I would like to do is get 6 more of these buttons, and modify all 8 of them to use 10 gauge wire. Annoyingly, these buttons go for about $20 each, which seems kind of silly. I will look for them on auctions and pick up more over time.
On Monday I lubricated the Rock Island E-8 powered unit, the Illinois Central GP9, and the CNW Doodlebug power unit. To address the coupler issue on the caboose train from last week, I added a layer of scotch tape to the link between the red Lionel CNW bay-window caboose and the Lionel MRL caboose. I had used similar techniques on the Illinois layout, and the tape remained in place and continued working for nearly 10 years. A long-range solution for the red caboose would be to upgrade the trucks/couplers to nicer, all-metal units, rather than using the stock mostly-plastic trucks.
On Wednesday I acquired two new pieces at auction. The first is a battery-powered Lionel locomotive that looks like the classic #2343 ATSF F3. I changed the batteries, but got no results yet. I searched, but couldn't find any info on what set this engine was a part of. It may actually require a remote to run, and possibly may not run on track at all. The other is a #2034 Lionel steam locomotive. I lubricated the gears and was able to get it to run intermitantly. It shoots off quite a few sparks, and the E-unit has some trouble. Sometimes it causes a short in the line by simply sitting on the track. This may give me some good experience doing a more in-depth diss-assembly, cleaning, and reassembly job to get it up to full working order. So, these two locos will be a work in progress over time, but they look acceptable and will be good display pieces while they wait their turn in the engine house.
I don't normally mention it, but I do run the trains every week, even if there are no "guests". The RI Northern ran well last night again at high-voltage, and the other locos all completed their circuits too.
On my lunchtime walks this week, I snapped photos of some visiting Canadians, and some real-life caboose work.
Have a swell week, and keep your rails shiny~
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| Tape does the job |
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| Artsy through-the-pantograph photo of the 2034 |
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| First warbonnet in the collection |
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| Two Canadian grain hoppers |
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| Crossing the road |
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