@AlanRail posted:This is where I disagree. Lionel realized that the opening door feature was not very robust. So they made a wise decision to remove it.
If they could have made it work they would have done so. Lionel saved future Acela owners a ton of grief and frustration.
The Acela can be very agrtivating and disapointing when no operating properly. If one takes about 1 hour per car to clean and relube the door mechanism, 90% of the problems go away. The factory grease has the consistancy of wax. Also the worm gears in the mechanism are factory dry. There is aquite a bit of gearing in the mechanism. Half of the torque of the motor is used and lost just working the gear assembly at the motors. With PTFE oil, the gears run smoothly. Disconnect the door mechanisms from the pcb and power the motors with 3 VDS from 2 AA batteries. Cycle about 20 or 30 times to get a really smooth operation. Then reassemble. It's too bad that the set was misguided in terms of reliability and operation. I for one, sold 1 of my sets, and I have decided to keep my 2nd. The set is really special. If I did not have this one, I would order one of the new ones.
