Hello all,
I have been nuts for the Milwaukee Road since seeing the solarium cars backed into the Milwaukee Road's sandstone stub station in Minneapolis when I was just a tadpole.
In the local TTOS chapter, we have a standard gauge layout at the mall. Today, I received a Standard Gauge Hiawatha Hudson built by Lionel some years back. It's a Lionel standard gauge Milwaukee Road F-7 streamlined Hudson steam locomotive with TMCC, Railsounds and smoke. It was listed on eBay as a fixer-upper, and I snagged it at what I thought was a good price.
It must have been one of the locos they used for parts, or it was DOA and whomever tried to fix it was unsuccessful. It's banged and bashed and scratched and dented, (just like the pictures showed it was, no complaints from me about that) but the funny thing is, it's never been run.
It's sad to see such a beautiful machine so badly abused. It's heavy, too. I'll build up my upper body strength by just putting it on the track.
It will be fun to breathe life back into it. I've already tested the motors and drivers, and they seem to work. I've heard that a number of these locos were DOA and that was probably this one's story.
So, here are my questions:
What is the catalog number of this locomotive?
Is Lionel the only parts source for these locos?
What was the major problem that these locos experienced when they were new? I'm thinking that it was in the TMCC system, or the sounds, or the smoke. The RS3 sound board is missing also, but the power supply board is there, along with the motor driver and the radio board.
A couple of key parts are missing.
a) the center rail pickups complete assembly
b) wheels and axles for the tender. The truck sides seem rather flimsy, BTW, but I have almost no experience with Standard Gauge repair.
Anyway, it will keep me off the streets, as they used to say back in the day.
Thanks
