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Hi everyone. I just spoke with Lionel customer service and found out that they are not taking out of warranty repairs this year. I live in New York City and I asked them if there are any service stations that would take it near me. They suggested one in New Jersey called Jaydee but I can't find them listed anywhere not even on the Lionel service station website. Anyone hear of them? Or any recommendations in the NY NJ area?

Last edited by JamesRx
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Hi Marty.  Thanks for your response. I have a Lionel NYC E-7 (6-24579). It was in storage for the past 5 years. When I put it back on thr track all seemed well at first but then I realized that is not running smoothly but instead is moving in a sort of halting jerky motion where it speeds up a little and slows down a little in a regular pattern. It does this with or without Odyssey on and with or without smoke on. I tried turning the powered wheels by hand and the one on the front truck is harder to turn than the one in the rear. I applied a small amout of Lionel lubricant to the gears but it did not help. 

You may want to check the grease on the wormgear that drives the wheels, if it has been sitting for 5 years the grease might have become somewhat dried out and hard.  I don't think that is the command control or the motor, I think that is lubrication and cleaning. 

If you do need help, the guys at the Train Station are pretty good, they are about 40 miles west of NYC or so. 

I have used the Train Station for repairs and their tech, Mike, is excellent. That being said, they don't like taking repairs that were not bought from them. The first thing they will tell you is take back to where you bought it. I have seen them do it to people. But, if you fuss a little they will take it. I would suggest calling or emailing Mike Reagan at TW Design. He is doing out of warranty repairs and is very good. I know others will agree with me on this..

From the manual...

If your locomotives are unresponsive to your commands in the TrainMaster Command Control
environment, we recommend that you follow this procedure to reset your locomotive set.


1. Slide the Command reverse unit switch to the PGM position. See pages 7, 32, and 33 for the
locations of the Command reverse unit switches on each unit.
Work with only one locomotive at a time.
2. Plug in and connect your Command Base.
3. Place your locomotive on the track, then power up the track.
4. Press ENG and enter the locomotive’s ID#.
5. Press SET.
6. Press ENG and enter the locomotive’s ID# again.
7. Press AUX1.
8. Enter 78 for this particular locomotive.
9. Turn off track power and wait ten seconds.
10. Slide the Command reverse unit switch back to the RUN position.
Repeat these steps for each locomotive.
At this point, your locomotive set has been reset. Restore power to the track and operate the
locomotive as usual. Be sure to use the ID# entered in Step 4.

One consideration to take is the radius of your curve. Event though Lionel says minimum 036, these are long locomotives and opening up the radius to 054 might make a difference. Another suggestion is how large of a loop of track are you using, as power can fade the longer the distance from a power source. I have a 5x9 layout and use two power 'drops' on the layout, as I noticed early on some of my locos would slow down and not run as smooth at the far end. Once I did the second power connection there were no issues.

May be closing in on the problem. One of the traction tires on the front truck is chewed up from rubbing against the dummy brake shoe. But....for some reason the side frame screws on this model (6-24579) are mounted from the TOP instead of underneath! And sure enough, that makes the rear screw inaccessible not matter how far you rotate the truck. I could probably get the old tire off without removing the side frame with a dental pick or two but there is no clearance so I don’t see how I will ever get a new tire on. Any suggestions? Thanks again to Dave at The Train Station, who has been super helpful, and Mike Reagan too and everyone here on the Forum.

JamesRx posted:

I did apply grease to the visible gear on the wheel that seemed hard to turn but it didn't help. 

You also want to grease the worm gear and main gear in the gearbox of each truck.

Turn the loco over and using a small phillips screwdriver remote the pickup rollers, and the 4 screws that hold the gearbox cover on.

This will expose the gears, fill the gearbox with  grease and reassemble. These locos came from the factory with little to no grease in the gearboxes. Even if this doesn't resolve the issue, it will still need it.

Secondly, I agree with Dave P regarding the radius of the curves. Regardless of Lionels recommendation.  

I used to own a pair of these. O-36 is wayyyy too tight for these 17" long 6 axle diesels, not to mention all the wheels are flanged on these as well.

 I ran mine on 0-60 and they still looked out of place. IMO nothing bigger than 4 axle diesels on o-36.

If none of these suggestions help, including the tires, I'd ship it to Mike Reagan and get it fixed right. His turnaround time cannot be beat and its just as good as sending it to Lionel......just pretend its 2014.

Last edited by RickO

I noticed it as the train was slowing down, entering the station.

It definitely wouldn't hurt to make sure the gearboxes are properly greased.  However these are Odyssey, not Legacy.  I couldn't find the parts diagram on Lionel's website, but I'm guessing they lack the back-driveable gears which were later adopted on many Legacy diesels.  It could be that below a certain speed, one motor no longer wants to turn, and the other motor is straining to overcome the drag of the locked gears.  The result is an "inchworm" or surging effect seen in the video.  What happens if you run only the powered loco with no cars?  My hypothesis is that it would be more noticeable.

There is a feedback loop in which Odyssey determines the loco speed, and then commands the motor with a given voltage to maintain the desired speed based on load.  It looks like the whole system isn't reacting fast enough.  Specifically, it lets the train slow down too far, and then overcompensates causing a surge.  My $.02.

Last edited by Ted S

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