Lionel Milwaukee Road Streamliners

I have them and I like them.  Here is my post about them when I got them....

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/t...99#22547924374180299

I still have lighting problems with them once in awhile with the lights not staying on or flickering too much.  I have to sometimes resolder the wires back on and adjust the ground screw.  I have removed the paint around the ground screw on some of the cars which has helped especially with the observation car and the red light not staying on at the end of the car.

My S3 and the cars will appear TM's Books and Video next video release,

Toy Train Revue, Part 4, which will be coming out in a few weeks. 

Ken

Hey Ken I remember when you posted that video and thinking; Man that is sleek you just know that's gotta leave anything the Southern made sucking ballast dust.

Thanks, Ken. I wonder if your experience was the norm or the exception, trucks falling off is not good. And, you still have to fiddle with the lighting even after they went back to Lionel.

Congrats on the TM video.

Paul

I heard of several people here on the forum asking for fixes for the cars over this past year.  I also Eric from Eric Trains said in his review video there were a few problems with his, but he fixes his problems on his own and also he replaced his lighting with LED’s.  Apparently, Lionel has been having problems with their production of aluminum passenger cars.  Since this set of cars was shipped last Fall, they have not shipped any more aluminum passenger cars out until a week ago.  

If you are looking for the 4 pack I do know of an authorized Lionel dealer near me that has them on sale.  I believe if I recall correctly they are on sale between $475 - $500.  I know the MSRP is over $639 on them.  They are probably still on his shelf because he sells his inventory very slowly.  However, I don’t know if he will ship them or not. 

Ken   

Matthew,

You are are right about that one!!!  Although, if I had choose between the Milwaukee Road and Southern...Southern still wins for me!!

I have this set and really like it, but I did have a bit of work to do to get the lights to not flicker. This is from a recent run at a local library.

Charlie

Charlie:  Are those 21" cars on your shots?  They really do look too long to be only 18".  I didn't think that Lionel made any 21" cars, unless they were from the old K-Line production runs.

Perhaps the video tends to exaggerate the length of the cars.  I also noted that the BiPolar uplling them also looks a bit elongated.  They do look like very nice cars.

Paul Fischer

Paul:

Thats funny. After reading you comments I looked at it again and your correct, they do look longer then 18 inches.

This is the Lionel Bi-Polar from a few years ago. I never measured the units so I'm not sure how accurate it is.

The cars are 18 inch cars from the newest run.

At the end, the yellow train is the Lionel Milwaukee Road E9 pulling the K-line 21 inch cars and even they look too long so I suspect the video editing was/is the problem.

This was my first video and was not sure what to was the best for uploading. I compressed to 4/3 in stead of leaving in the normal, original format.

Charlie

Charlie, that looks nice. I found a 4-car set and waiting for them to arrive. Can you give me directions on what to look for and how to repair it?

Thanks.

I bought the 4-pack recently, the observation car has one wheel axle that is not in the truck and the lights flicker. I took it apart to my ability, but I cannot get the C-clip to come off in order to drop the truck. The grounding screws look like bare metal on bare metal, so I am not sure what else to do?

Does anyone have any specific tips on how to repair above, if not I'll have to send it to Lionel.

To remove a stubborn c-clip, I take a needle-nose pliers (offset if you have it), set one jaw on the stud and press the two prongs with the other jaw. That usually exposes enough of a gap on the other side to insert a miniature screwdriver or a pointed object and get the c-clip off. If that doesn't work, you can try pushing the prongs with one needlenose and use another to pull the clip off. 

C-clips and E-clips are a chronic problem. They can be hard to get off and they often fly away when you're trying to replace them.

Paul K, Sorry about not responding to your post from 11/15, I just saw it now.

It might be easier to post some images, but the problems for me were NOT the wiring, but rather the bushing/bearing on the truck.

After trying every fix listed in the current and former threads about this set and not getting any resolution I decided to take my meter (which I should have done first) and isolate the problem area. Sure enough, in almost all cases I was not getting a good ground from the center pickup to the wheels. 

After a little more digging and the last spot it could have been, I found the bushing/bearings were painted and/or presses into the truck frames. The paint was so thick that it became an insulator. 

The fix is to remove the truck/wheels and if possible the bushing. Remove the residual paint from the truck frame and bushing and reassemble. In some cases I broke the bushing so I ordered a few more from Lionel.

I will try to post some pictures soon.

Like I said, in my case, the wires were never the problem.

Also, don't start with the observation car or stop if it is already apart. That was the most difficult car to deal with in terms of reassembly.

As for the C or E clips, I just use a flat blade screw drive and twist. The clip always comes off and rarely flies off. It’s the reassembly that might be a problem.

Charlie

Thanks everyone. I fiddled with it last night for hours, I'll try again tonight.

Charlie; nice video & good looking consist.

Paul

I had to remove all the black paint around the grounding screw on the observation car.  My lights kept on flickering until I did that and even the red light on the back end would not stay on.   It drove me crazy for a long time.  However, I still have a couple of cars that still have flickering problems especially on my dome car and I have fixed the grounding screw and wires but the problems continue.  I will have to look at what Charlie described above. 

Charlie, if you could post some pictures, I would appreciate it!!  Thanks. Ken

Ken, even though mine has bare metal to bare metal for the grounding screw to frame, I'll try some fine grit sandpaper to see what happens.

I noticed the rear-most two screws in the observation car don't have any thread, they're not biting into anything. One fell out completely.

Paul

I had the same problem.  One of the screws on the back-end of my observation car I lost last year because it fell out and would not stay in.   It really did not do much for holding the car together so I am not concerned about it.  At first I thought that might be the problem.  However, my ground screw was touching a little bit of paint on the frame, so I had to scrape it off to get a good metal to metal connection to the frame.  I am not sure if sandpaper will help with your car.  The problem might be what Charlie is describing.