I was visiting a friend today and saw his Lionel Breakdown B unit in action. I've recently acquired an A-A set of Lionel Legacy F3's. First, could I buy a B to match my A-A and swap shells with a breakdown B chassis? I don't really want to buy a B to go with my A-A's, so the next question is could I buy a breakdown B and somehow fit my dummy A shell to the breakdown B chassis? Has anyone tried this? Can it be done easily, or at all?
Replies sorted oldest to newest
I'm thinking that the breakdown unit was traditional size, rather than scale size. If that is the case, you would have to swap the sound and smoke system into a scale sized loco.
Seems to me moving the truck(s) and or tach/hall effect, and topside electronics parts over to the A dummy chassis would be the thing to do. I'm imagining the Broke B. is more or less a hot box reefer car with extra Legacy goodies & different sounds. The hot box cars had a lot of open space in them. The B is larger too I believe. Speaker and smoke unit space are going to be the main concerns. Openings for the smoke another.
Most new B shells should swap for another B shell, on a B chassis easy.
Unless ducting for smoke was been body added(?), a swap like this should be very do-able if motors aren't eating space up in the A dummy.
I've swapped the Breakdown B insides into a Standard O F3 A unit, which the same as a Legacy F unit. The easiest way is what Adriatic alludes to, you need to remove the trucks and the plate that holds the trucks from both the A unit chassis and the Breakdown B chassis and switch them.
I did it for sound. The Breakdown B had one of the most powerful sound units, and largest speaker boxes ever placed in any F unit. There are some issues with programing the electronics. The Breakdown B's were RS5 and when using Legacy controls in Legacy mode, the RS5 Breakdown B doesn't respond.
If you want a Breakdown A, I don't recommend it.
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership
