First post here, hello everyone! I have a 675, 2035 and 2020 that were my fathers (among others) Carefully cleaned and oiled them. They run great, but no smoke. They will consume a pill but no smoke. Also 2 tenders that will whistle when on the track alone, but not when being towed. Any thoughts? Most of this has been packed since the 60s. Lots of ?s. I'll start here. Thank you for your time, Bob
You need to take the shell off the chassis and check that the smoke unit piston is moving up and down freely. You also need to take the smoke unit apart and check that the air hole in the smoke chamber is not clogged.
For the tenders, clean the track, wheels and rollers with naphtha to get any dirt off. Then disassemble the whistle motor and clean everything with the naphtha. Reassemble, and lightly oil the armature bearings.
Larry
Checking to see if the air hole in the smoke chamber is clogged is a great idea, but you need to know where that is. It’s located underneath the chamber. Use a a toothpick to clean out the airway. The piston that goes up and down is what pushes air through that little hole which in turn pushes the smoke out of the smokecstack. Also, do not put in too many pills. This will not allow the heating element to heat up correctly to the proper temperature to get it hot enough to generate the smoke needed. I recommend putting the locomotive on the track, turn the power on the track enough to cycle the E-unit into neutral, then turn the E-unit off to stop the humming noise, and then turn the power all the way up to the maximum. This will then make the heating element get to a good heating temperature to start producing smoke and burn off any excess smoke pellets you may have in the smoke chamber. If you start seeing and smelling smoke, manually move the locomotive back and forth on the track making sure the wheels are turning in order for it to move the smoke unit lever, and then to see if there’s any smoke puffing out. This will be a good test to see if your smoke piston is working properly to push the smoke out before you start taking anything apart to clean. If it starts to puff out smoke, you’re good to go then. If not, then you will have to take the boiler off and do a little preventative maintenance on the smoke unit and check to see if everything is in motion with the smoke unit lever, the piston moving freely up and down, and check to see if the air hole is clogged underneath the smoke chamber. Try the simple way first, then go from there. I usually found that excess smoke pellets usually needs to be burned off. Lionel built a quality smoke unit back in the day that’s pretty fool proof, but you never know. Let us know how you make out.
Thanks for the great info. A couple wouldn't even squeak. Carefully took them down, cleaned and very lightly oiled and they came to life. Most of this was my fathers and wrapped in the Chicago Tribune papers dated 1967! As I stated more ?s. Most don't smoke. Tried running in neutral to heat up (cleaned the plunger and vent, added a correct spring) We are talking about a early 2025 and 2035. Stick with pellets or convert to liquid? I'm in a very rural area so both would have to be ordered. I have the K-line service manual and have been using Lionel grease and Lucas gun oil where indicated in the service manual. One last ?. The 2025 was running very slow and the smoke element was glowing bright red. I had never seen this before as best I can remember. I disconnected the heat element and she is now dead in the water. They run when they don't smoke so why when it is disconnected would this happen. I'm pretty handy and have been a part time gunsmith for many years but a lot of this is greek to me, Sill its fun a what memories! Thank you all again, Bob
The smoke pellet heating element will work with both pellets and liquid smoke fluid as long as the element is not clogged with un-melted smoke pellet material.
There is no reason the smoke element should be glowing red, and your engine should not be dead with the smoke element disconnected. Double check the wiring to the e-unit and motor.
Here is a wiring diagram for locomotives to check your wiring against.
http://pictures.olsenstoy.com/cd/locoinfo%5Cloc-e-p1.pdfLarry
About 6 months ago I started waking these locomotives. The 2025's E-unit didn't work so I sent it out to have it replaced. It seems the smoke unit is connected to what the drive motor should receive and the smoke unit to the drive unit. I think I will be doing my own work. A great big thank you to all. More ?s to post
I had the same issue with the tenders, fine when they had all the juice but not with an engine. Ultimately I replaced the rectifier disc with a diode and now they work fine while with the engine. Don't understand how a copper disc wears out, but they do over time. Just s thought.
I believe that the heat generated in the rectifier disc ultimately destroys it. Bad ones are discolored by heat.
Larry
A very special forum, great people. I opened up the 2025 and checked everything. Looked fine, straitened some wires and runs like a champ. Installing a new smoke unit and will test. Thank you, Bob