December 21, 2003
TRAIN!!!!!
One of my projects over the past two weeks has been to get my dad's (now my) old Lionel train set up around the tree. Since the train is heavy, the track needs to be secured to something. We always had a 4'x4' board for it before, but I didn't want to have a half-sheet of plywood to store in the off-season. Instead, I cut out strips of plywood to go just under the tracks. I painted them with that nifty stone-looking paint. They didn't line up entirely correctly, but I was able to hide to worst blunders in back. Yay! Train!!!! (I've always loved trains).
BTW, this train is somewhere around 50 years old. I think my dad was around five when he got it, but a lot of the cars say "Built 1948." That's a little strange, though, because my DAD was built in '48, and I know he didn't get the train right away. Perhaps the set was used. Or hot. I'm very curious about it - moreso than I have been before. I used to just play with it. Now I want to know more about it. And possibly restore it. Anyway, it's at LEAST 45 years old, possibly up to 55.
A few times, I have had some symptoms of the locomotive not wanting to run, both when I first set it up in the basement and again when I moved it upstairs. This isn't something I've seen before. In both cases I had to up the track voltage a LOT to get the engine rolling. But when it does run, it runs great. I'm wondering if the brushes in the motor are going or something. It's just getting started (after being handled) that it has problems with. . . . I guess I'll just keep it running 24x7.
NOW it can be Christmas.
(I'll try to get some pics at some point.)
In my limited experience, probably your locomotive could use a good cleaning and lube job. My dad's old Lionel trains (about 50 years old) needed exactly the same thing. There's a shop not far from me that does it for about $30, depending on what they find once they get into it.
If you want to take the cheap way out (I tried this first), get a $9 can of TV tuner cleaner at Radio Shack and blast that into every crevice you can find to clean out some of the cobwebs and lube things up a little.
The best place to get information on Lionel locomotives and rolling stock is postwarlionel.com. Punch in the (usually) 4-digit number on the locomotive or car, and you can find out when it was made, how common or rare the item is, and sometimes even an idea what it would be worth.
Posted by: Dave Farquhar at January 23, 2004 05:23 PM
