New Legacy Berkshire strange behavior

Not only that, but you also have to take the smoke unit apart to get to it.

Yes and I pull the motor off the housing and try to get oil in the housing but sometimes its a lost cause. Usually the bearing has worn that has created the squeak.

The oil is a good band aide until another replacement is on its way.

Lets see I need to order one for my Allegheny, H16-44, a 2-6-6-2 mallet, a K4, the Northern shown above....

argh... I'll just order a bunch...

I guess $800-$1200 per engine doesn't buy you much these days. 

Other than the smoke unit issues, the current Legacy Steamers really are fantastic....but these problems with the smoke units are like going in for a root canal every day.

But here's the REALLY annoying part: once you replace the smoke unit, there's no guarantee on how long the new one will last.

IMHO, so many features of the new Legacy Steamers are wonderful.  How can earth can Lionel let something as simple as a "regular" smoke unit trip them/us up?

BTW the motor I speak of was on my SF Northern.  This was during the run of suspect motors.  My 765 Berk has preformed flawlessly.

There was several years where they were getting a lot of defective motors, and those are settling in on us now.  I've put a number of MTH motors in those units, I'm about to try some Lionel motors again, just as soon as you can actually get them.

Normally they can fit.  But, some of the Lionel motors have horizontal vice diagonal screw holes and that can mean the difference in fitting for close quarters.  Also some Lionel motors are shorted and that also can matter.  MTH motors are standard size and diagonal holes.  Many older Lionel have no issue with them.  Some of these newer units with almost custom smoke unit shape for each engine could be an issue.  MTH smoke units are pretty standard over most models.  Only difference is long or short legs.  Other than stacks.   Only some switchers and the 10 wheeler use a smaller smoke unit.  G

Are you 100% sure that the fan motor is bad?

Yep just becomes one of the maintenance items at this point. Order 1 heating element, 1 gasket, 1 flocking, and 1 motor...

Sounds like our purchasing dept. at my last job.  If you have a hunch, just buy a bunch....

I have specifically put the MTH motor into a number of Legacy Northerns, they fit.  Note that they come pretty close to the shell, so you want to make sure the soldered connections don't stick out from the motor connections.  I also put two layers of Kapton tape on the shell, just as added insurance against them touching.  Not really needed, but it makes me feel better with close fitting stuff.

Well, I have two of the new Legacy Berks and both have the exact same issue: 3 cab light blinks and main smoke unit dead. FWIW: both engines ran fine for about 1-2 hours before this problem developed. The PE Berk kind of fixed itself for a while, and now is giving the dreaded 3 blinks. This is 0 for 2. Charles Ro is taking back the Erie next week and I am awaiting for Lionel to take car of the PE Berk.

I talked to Mike Reagan at Lionel the other day about this. A board senses an amperage out of spec and shuts down the smoke unit, the blinking cab light is the diagnostic code. He suggested blowing compressed air down the stack, which has helped him with other engines...I tried it and it didn't help with mine. He also said try shaking the engine, also didn't help. Regarding the Reset via Cab2 per Mike, you can press R three times, then cycle transformer off and on again to be able to do it again. Unfortunately, this has not helped either.

For me, these engines cost a lot of money and I want them to operate in full. Fortunately, I purchased them from Lionel dealers and have a warranty.

Both of my Legacy Berks are now back to Charles Ro and Lionel, respectively, for repairs.

I find it improbable that my two purchases, from two different dealers, were the exceptions in what had to be at least a thousand Legacy Berks sold within the last several months. Some have reported this happening in older Legacy engines. For both of my Berks, they both operated fine until about 1-2 hours of use.

I'd like to know if anyone has operated their Legacy Berks with smoke units on for any length of time (> 2 hours cumulative running). Either I received the only two smoke unit lemons out of the lot or there's a lot of smoke units that will go fubar once the operators rack up some miles with their engines with smoke units on.

I've been running mine daily since getting it in November.  Back on the 3rd of January I ran it for almost 3 hours straight without even a hiccup in the smoke unit.  Matter of fact it was smoking up a storm.  I would say all total I have about 10-12 hours run time on the Berk without issue.

Well I have been running the 765 for about an hour and I am sure this will curse me, but the only issue I had was the broken bushings in the pilot.

So I just picked up my 1225 PM Berkshire yesterday and hopefully tonight will check it out.

Sorry for the pain. Its no fun ordering a new engine and having to wait another couple of weeks to run it. Lionel service is very good though, a vast improvement over the years.

50-50 chance my 1225 will need new  bushings for the pilot?

Good news is; they have great sounds, and look good pulling freight or passenger trains too.

Still a great product for a good price at pre-order.

Maybe time for an MTH smoke motor in those Paul.

Been running my PE consisistently since November also. I have found mine to be a good smoker so far.  This report could be the kiss of death however.  Seems by some reports I have been seeing on the forum that it appears to be a crap shoot regarding the longevity of these units.

-Pete

It's kind of hard to fathom, two $1,000+ engines and both main smoke units crap out within a couple of weeks of running. What good is the diagnostic code of blinking cab lights if when you press "R" = reset on the CabII and it doesn't fix it? I tried blowing compressed air down the stacks, took the shell of the one, wires were fine. Taking apart the smoke unit is not for me, however, too many things that can go wrong and make it worse.

Your aggravation and disappointment are well placed, Paul.....especially at that price point.

I do NOT want to hijack this thread but the notion of BTO....when coupled with these initial QC issues....is just laughable to me.  It's almost like this: 

"Please give me (Lionel) $1,100.  When the product arrives broken, we will replace it under warranty.  When the warranty is over, your SOL.  In the meantime, here is our most recent catalog....and we are now taking more BTO orders.  We promise to have all of our QC issues fixed in this run...."

I can understand the frustration in regards to 3 blinking cab lights.

in my case I have discovered most times I get this issue is after filling the smoke units possibly to many drops!

but all I do is sideline it for an hour and walla blinks gone and I haven't done diddly to it.

I also now and then get it when house is cold in early morning so am wondering if in some cases were not getting a false positive in that the small motor is sluggish thus I get the 3 cab flashes?

all I can say is so far this seems to work ok for me. may not help some of you but give it a try you have nothing to lose.

Yes its frustrating,  but Lionel will make it right.

I had an S3 that still gives me the blinking lights once in a while.

Found out the impeller blades were hanging up on the gasket... then it would come back again every time I added smoke fluid. Come to find out the smoke fluid was being absorbed by the gasket and the gasket would increase in size and block the impeller blades again... just the nature of the beast on this one...

I didn't hit the panic button when the 3 blinks started flashing; I would run them, blow the whistle smoke feature, which always worked; try again the next day, hit the "R" button, cycle on and off, and so on for about 3 weeks, prior to crying Uncle and sending them to Charles Ro and Lionel. If anything would have moved the impeller blades, it would have been the shots of compressed air, that stuff has some force to it!

Wouldn't you know the first time the 3 blinks happened was when I had my family over on Christmas?! They all love my train layout and here I was running my new PE Berk and cars and the freaking smoke unit quits and the cab light is blinking.

Good point John, now I remember.   I've put them in a number of Legacy engines, but I guess that's not an option...

Darn, thought you might have.  If I remember the clearance problem was due to the mounting holes being on an angle.

You're correct, I forgot yours was that model.  The diagonal holes must be there for some of the tight fitting stuff.

FWIW, the Legacy Santa Fe #3751 is one I know the MTH motors fits, and I haven't gotten any of them back that I put it into.

Me too...(knock on wood)

I would guess that since the workee not workee characteristic of these Lionel smoke unit motors responds to extreme rpm air compressor treatment means that the bearings, shaft, impeller are not aligned well. The wear caused by high rpm must run them in. Maybe all Lionel has to do is blast them with an air compressor for 20 seconds at the production stage.

I wonder if they fix them under warranty that way...