Drawbar pins on Lionel M7's

Kevin-

I was able to find the exploded parts view for the MNR/LIRR/DC Comics M-7 "A" and "B" cars on Lionel's website and have inserted it below for your reference. The bad news is Lionel does not sell the replacement drawbar pin, but it does sell the replacement drawbar on its parts site. To complicate matters the "A" car and "B" car frames are slightly different, which I believe is due to the special pilot under the cab on the "B" car. Lionel made the units as A-B pairs, so it sounds like you might have an odd "A" or "B" car in your consist which is creating the problem.

If I am following correctly, it sounds like you might need to swap the "B" car frame for an "A" car frame, and then install the additional drawbar pin (probably a rivet) in order to get the units to couple together. Another alternative (possibly easier) would be to eliminate the drawbar pin altogether and connect the two units using a custom fabricated drawbar.

"A" Car

"B" Car

As an aside, MNR and LIRR do not solely run 12-car M7 trains; 6, 8, or 10 car trains are also prototypical, depending on the branch, time of day, and day of the week. For example, the LIRR would usually run a 12 car train on the heavily traveled Ronkonkoma or Huntington Branch, but only 10 cars on the Port Washington Branch due to the shorter platforms. In contrast, the West Hempstead and Far Rockaway branches might see 6 or 8 car trains due to the lower ridership.

Hope this helps!

-John

Thanks for the information John.

Based on the images that you provided above, the "B" Car is the one with the issue at hand with Part #16 as the non-functional realistic coupler.   That is both the front end of the powered cab (#4135) and the rear end of the rear car (#4155).  It would be the coupler end of the two car #4155's that I would be trying to join together to connect both 4-car sets together.  Looks like that is not really possible.  If I were to create an 8-car train, the two #4155's would be sitting on the sidelines and I would have to use the #4162 and #4167 Add Ons.

I've inserted below a drawing that I did on Excel on what I believe is how all of the cars are connected.  The lines descending from each car represent the pins and the Blue represents the "Motorman/Conductor" cab.

On the aside about the 12-car trains.  I guess that my thought came from what I apparently incorrectly remembered while riding the M3's in the 1980s and 1990s and from the YouTube videos, where it seems that all the ones I watch have 10-12 car consists.

I think in your middle drawing the 4145 and 4150 should be swapped in the order. The B ends of the cars should be together and the A ends should meet together. I really don't understand why Lionel is offering these M7s as odd numbered sets like they are now with the current catalog set of 3 cars.

Thanks, I will make that change.

I'm with you on the new 3-car M7 sets that Lionel is offering.  I'm guessing that the 3-car sets are "unfortunately " selling well, which means Lionel will continue to produce them as such.  

The Batman sets don't interest me, but with the new LionChief M7 Set being a 3-car set, it looks like that odd-numbered set is here to stay.  If anything, I was hoping that Lionel would have built a 2 car Add-On set for the Candy Cane M7 Express, as that 2-car train is just too short. 

I always thought these were a poor effort, even as a minimal price-point starter set.

Better than nothing, yes, but between being intentionally designed as non-expandable beyond the initial add-on, and the single-motored power car, the set looks like about the most minimal-cost effort to satisfy some condition of the MTA license.

One gets the impression that had the competition made this set, it would at least have twin motors in the power car, or at absolute minimum, designed the "A" ends of the cars so two or more sets could be linked together. I once thought about making up a semi-functional MU coupler+drawbar and a slotted replacement pilot to retrofit the set I have, so a second power car could be added to the consist, but the odd number of cars in the LionChief set put that initiative on the back burner.

---PCJ