Randy.......Discouraging isn't it? High end costly locos not repaired by the importers. Yes, send this to Alex. He has done repairs for me. I had the same issue with that depleting coal load. Lionel fixed it under warranty. After warranty, smoke unit issues were repaired by Alex for me. I sold that Big Boy shortly thereafter. Just didnt want to deal with any more issues in the future. Shipping that loco to NJ from Ohio with insurance was very costly. I had a Lionel FEF that was repaired by someone else (not Alex). Dumped about 600.00 in repairs that never worked. Tech kept putting in RCMC boards (3 or 4 of them) that lasted only minutes on my layout. I talked to the service manager at Lionel and practically begged him to repair my FEF. He refused because it was out of warranty. 2 independent service stations attempted to do the repairs but could not get it. I pushed Lionel some more and finally Lionel bought the loco back from Me. I did appreciate Lionel doing the buy back. Problem was I was still out 600.00 for previous repairs. Bottom line here is your best to let Alex handle this repair. I have not purchased a Lionel locomotive since and will never again.
I was always a MTH fan and still am however I will not buy any more locos from MTH due to no service after warranty and more than likely parts drying up. I will still buy passenger cars and freight cars. In my opinion, these high end locos are way too cool when all is working well. But when you need a repair you really are on your own.
