MTH smoke unit/traction tire parts arrived. Upper right, in the picture, is the complete smoke unit for the Z-6 4-6-6-4. Comparing it to the E-8, the basic smoke unit appears to be 'generic'. The Z-6 smoke unit has no stack over the smoke hole whereas the E8 has a plastic extension. Not sure if all the motors run on the same voltage but probably any smoke unit could be easily adaptable for any engine. Also, it makes sense for MTH to have interchangeable parts for cost reduction. Top row also has an extra smoke motor, smoke fan and gasket. The bottom line is traction tires.
Lionel post war F-3 (2333) repair: Collector assembly (center rail 'juice' pickup) replacement. The rollers on my F3 needed replacing since they had huge grooves in them (my first clue was the ton of sparks occurring when I ran her!). Fortunately, there was a train flea market last weekend so I could get one ( I also picked up some collector rollers as extras). I was going to just get the rollers but since they had the entire assembly, I figured that would be easiest to do. The top plastic shell comes off easily with one screw in the front and some J shaped hooks in the back that slide over the cast metal base frame. Two wires had to be cut and soldered with some shrink tubing over them to prevent shorts. While there, I figured that I'd add new lithium grease to the gears, which it definitely needed since the old stuff was hard. Some oil to the wheels and motor shaft was also added. A toothpick was used to clean out the old carbon in the 3 slots along the motor armature. The brushes look good: they must have been replaced to last that long. As seen in one picture, I had to cut one wire twice and re-solder it as the wire has to go through a slot in metal base frame.
F3 repair (cont) I also cleaned/greased the other motor/truck assembly. I also oiled all four passenger cars. It's amazing how much drag there is on post war cars when there is insufficient oil!
A video of my post war trains: The santa fe passenger set I got when I was 7. The two steam engines and cars when I was 5. I love all the noise they make! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JZaBnqR0mw&feature=youtu.be
A video of post war F3 NYC with williams passenger cars and a MTH F3 with passenger cars on a couple small loops going around the piano in the family room. I run the powered unit backwards and put the dummy A and B unit up front on both the Santa Fe and NYC as they seem to run better, backwards! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQSTZli-bus&feature=youtu.be
I just got my ZW multi watt transformer back from Lionel's service department with no charge (not even shipping) to fix the two outer throttles as they had no power. That was very nice of them!
Ok , that's about enuf of this O gauge ... I will be selling all my N if anyone is intrested and will be feeding the addiction in O and O27... scheesh i knew better than to read the thread but when I got to the video and the steam steamin .... I lost it .... ( wait for pace maker to slow my heart back down ... couple of minutes ) . and Ken .. Ken, just eggin' 'em on .... But then I got out my two shays and ......Naw I'll stay with N , can't afford to change gears now ... Awesome stuff samparfitt , awesome stuff indeed ! I just watched the video of Z6 pass train with smoke and lights ... with scenery that will be a totally awesome train . the smoke was right on dude !!!
Boxcab, The post war ZW's only deliver about 250 of the 275 watts plus their circuit brakers are for big juice hog motors so the circuit brakers are slow to open. The new multi pack ZW's can take four 180 watt 'bricks' (power supplies) so you have 720 watts, plus the circuit brakers open quickly to protect today's expensive circuit boards. In reality, the new ZW's are very light as they only have circuitry in them: the heavy brick supply have the 'transformers'. It's best to use the new ZW on the new engines. See lionel's video for why: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMR25JoCZiU&list=UU4AsU1wGe_FzUx5eEczSiMA&index=4&feature=plcp
paperkite, Yeh, I hear ya': I've got a very large HO layout but, for the last 15 years, I've been buying and running my old/new Lionel/MTH/Williams. As I mentioned, previously, if I was starting over, I'd probably go O gauge. Back when I built my HO layout, the amount of stuff in O gauge was limited. The new plastic HO steam engines are very high quality over the old engines, especially with the new DCC but the O gauge gives ya' the wheel sounds and realistic smoke. ps: glad to see you're an NMRA member. My Div 7's monthly meets are a real 'treat' to attend. 360 members and about 60-80 members show up monthly, we have "how to's" and then see 2-3 layouts open for the day. Each month, we rotate to different parts of the city so we're always seeing new layouts. I won't tear my HO down as it took me, literally, a life time to build it. I like putting my O gauge under the HO layout and elsewhere as it is easy to set up and makes me 10 years old again!
That's what keeps tugging at me. Perhaps when my eyes are finally poor enough to force me from N scale, I'll get some Lionel again.
Christmas present (from me to me!) UPS just delivered these williams extruded aluminum pennsy passenger cars. They come in a nice four box set. I can add it to my williams GG1 electric. This is a 'knockoff' of a post war set that would be very hard to find (and expensive) if the original lionel set were bought. CharlesRo is selling them for 200 bucks, couldn't pass up that deal. They don't say 'lionel lines', but 'Pennsylvania' but I'm a 'runner' and not a 'collector'!
Boxcab, those boxes are what the passenger cars came in. ======== An old 1955 Ozzie-Harriet show with Lionel trains. I remember watching this and anxiously awaiting to see again the following Christmas season. It has a commercial at the beginning: interesting how, back then, fast food was mixing a few ingredients versus today's frozen and/or junk food. http://en.sevenload.com/shows/Classic-TV/episodes/kfG0ScS-The-Adventures-of-Ozzie-Harriet
To the upper left of that box, what I saw looked like some F units, perhaps NYC type paint? I have an old time radio show about trains from the Ozzie & Harriet Show. I wonder if it is this same episode? Will check it out.
Boxcab, Those are the MTH premier E-8 A-B-A Erie set. I think the Ozzie show only had one train show so they should be the same shows.
