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I've had this itch I wanted to scratch in regards to three items in my O-Gauge collection. Two are just out of my curiosity, but one is more serious and I was wondering if anyone could help me answer these questions, ESPECIALLY the first one.

  •  There appears to be a broken wire on the front tender truck of my Lionel #18750 Southern Pacific 0-8-0, from the Lionel #30167 Southern Pacific Merger Set. I bought the whole set, NIB, online off of eBay. I have not roughhoused the tender in any way whatsoever since, and the tender has strictly ran on 0-36 curves. There are sounds, but the sounds function correctly and do not cause any issues. What is this wire for, how can it be fixed (if it can be fixed) and could it cause and problems if further damaged?

  • Now onto the curiosity questions. My Lionel #15067 Southern Pacific Quad Hopper (Also from the Lionel SP Merger Set) has the Road Number and Lettering printed on only one end of the hopper. When it came with the whole set, it was NIB and had never been ran before. I couldn't help but notice that the other cars in the set (Central Pacific Stock Car, T&NO Tanker) have the numbers printed on both sides). Is this a factory error or is this common on all of the SP Merger Hoppers?

  • And the last question. About a year or two ago I was given an O-Line Refrigerator car by a close relative of mine. The reefer came with a cute little rubber figure, but I've never really had a use for said figure because: 1) He doesn't fit onto the end or side ladders. 2) He wont fit on any of the cabooses I have and 3) I do NOT have a layout for him to stand or sit somewhere. For the longest time I've put up with it until now. If this figure does fit on the reefer, where is he supposed to go? If he doesn't go with the reefer, what is he good for?

Last edited by OGR CEO-PUBLISHER
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Is there an axle wiper (copper colored strip with single hole) on the other tender truck?  If yes and it has a solid black wire attached to it then that unattached wire is most likely supposed to be attached to the front truck's axle wiper.  You would need to confirm that the other end of the loose wire connects to the wire on the rear truck before soldering to the front truck axle.

GregM posted:

Is there an axle wiper (copper colored strip with single hole) on the other tender truck?  If yes and it has a solid black wire attached to it then that unattached wire is most likely supposed to be attached to the front truck's axle wiper.  You would need to confirm that the other end of the loose wire connects to the wire on the rear truck before soldering to the front truck axle.

On any other given day I would not have understood a single word of that mumbo-jumbo but I can confirm that the solid black wire is connected to that axle wiper on both the front and the rear truck. This wire however appears to be for something different, and it is NOT the contact roller (there is a black/white colored wire connected to the front pickup roller). There appears to be a small soldered blob with the tiniest hints of copper-colored something on the drawbar of the tender. This is the first steamer I've gotten that has sounds, so I don't know if this part is significant or not but since it caught my attention I'd like to know if this is what it was connected to, or if it served another purpose.

This is the ground wire. Since the axles have plastic bushings on the ends, this wire and axle wiper are needed to establish electrical contact between the wheels and the tender frame or sound system ground.  Since the wire is probably too short, add a piece of super flex wire and re-solder the connection. Otherwise the sound system may be intermittent.

When the Chinese need flexible wire, instead of using super-flex wire, which has many small strands, but is expensive, they just use smaller gauge wire which breaks off more easily.

Last edited by RoyBoy
RoyBoy posted:

This is the ground wire. Since the axles have plastic bushings on the ends, this wire and axle wiper are needed to establish electrical contact between the wheels and the tender frame or sound system ground.  Since the wire is probably too short, add a piece of super flex wire and re-solder the connection. Otherwise the sound system may be intermittent.

When the Chinese need flexible wire, instead of using super-flex wire, which has many small strands, but is expensive, they just use smaller gauge wire which breaks off more easily.

The sound has not caused me any issues when I've run, but is it recommended that I solder the wire on the off-chance something goes kablooey-sputter-sputter-I-have-to-go-to-a-service-station-now or can it still work without it being soldered?

Checking out the parts diagram for this tender (listed under the set SKU), it sure looks like there’s a black ground wire connected to the drawbar:

4B89BA79-CAED-4AFE-AF4D-DC837708E2D2

I’d guess that’s your broken connection but why there’d be a ground wire connected to the drawbar I can’t guess. The parts diagram also shows two ground wires from the truck but not where they connect to.

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Hancock52 posted:

Checking out the parts diagram for this tender (listed under the set SKU), it sure looks like there’s a black ground wire connected to the drawbar:

4B89BA79-CAED-4AFE-AF4D-DC837708E2D2

I’d guess that’s your broken connection but why there’d be a ground wire connected to the drawbar I can’t guess. The parts diagram also shows two ground wires from the truck but not where they connect to.

That solves it, thank you very much!

Now if you'll excuse me, im gonna go figure out how to solder or get someone to solder that.

Hancock52 posted:

Checking out the parts diagram for this tender (listed under the set SKU), it sure looks like there’s a black ground wire connected to the drawbar:

4B89BA79-CAED-4AFE-AF4D-DC837708E2D2

I’d guess that’s your broken connection but why there’d be a ground wire connected to the drawbar I can’t guess. The parts diagram also shows two ground wires from the truck but not where they connect to.

I'll take a shot at this.  The loco is an 0-8-0 so  there are limited number of flanged wheels actually making contact with the outside rails.  In order to ensure the loco has a complete circuit it uses the tender through the drawbar as an extra ground path as a backup.  

 

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Last edited by Steims
Adriatic posted:

 Do you have a Madison obesrvation car with a back porch?  

  A caboose?

  Glue him so he is hanging onto a tranformer handle.

Your observations were spot on, throw a little shaving cream at it all and Occam's Razor does it again. Good eye.

Only one Madison car, from the Polar Express. Outta the question, not only because the theme is wrong but because I need to replace the actual platform ^^;

I like the transformer idea... Oh and im not gluing him to the 7 different cabooses (or cabeese? I dunno...) because  I don't want to damage either the caboose part OR the figure.

Thanks though

Well, glue might be too strong of a word then 🤔    

I could see "Nah" being a perfectly acceptable answer too; just thowing out ideas here, wild to mild.

  There are a couple of no mar/ no stain 'goos' that could keep him in place.  Naptha would remove stick-um from 2-sided tape (safe for most. Ink & paint require caution.)

  I can't recall what the name of the product is called offoffhan dnly though. Hopefully someone that uses it reads this (if nothing else to remind me)

The "spellwreck" insists thats how offhandedly should be spelled. Resistance is futile.

Adriatic posted:

Well, glue might be too strong of a word then 🤔    

I could see "Nah" being a perfectly acceptable answer too; just thowing out ideas here, wild to mild.

  There are a couple of no mar/ no stain 'goos' that could keep him in place.  Naptha would remove stick-um from 2-sided tape (safe for most. Ink & paint require caution.)

  I can't recall what the name of the product is called offoffhan dnly though. Hopefully someone that uses it reads this (if nothing else to remind me)

The "spellwreck" insists thats how offhandedly should be spelled. Resistance is futile.

Oof, thats my bad then. "Nah" WAS my response when I read the response. I should really word things differently. Thanks though for the tip, I'll be sure to remember those names on the off-chance I feel like sticking "Little Walter" (see response above) to the caboose deck or anywhere else I please.

The light on the tender should light'.  Those wires are grounds and one of the ends has something to do with the light.  Often times, lights are not mentioned in the catalogs.  As the focus is mainly for the locomotives'... Take a 9 volt battery with leads attached to it and try different ways touching it to the wire and the wheels.  If you get a slight blink in the light, then that wire is for the light...........

@TheRWBYRailfan

  You've got some catching up to do if you ever want to equal my foot-in-mouth prowess. I don't think your posts even qualify here.

Some days the words flow well for us, somedays they don't; oh well.

   I guess I often come across as condescending to some folk at times. It usually isn't intentional; wasn't meant to be here either.

  I'm already kinda used to questioning my own reponses fyi; Asperger's often means the path less traveled is mine regardless. My communication skills outweigh my lack of social finesse, but unfortunately they don't bury it.

Quarter Gauger 48 posted:

The light on the tender should light'.  Those wires are grounds and one of the ends has something to do with the light.  Often times, lights are not mentioned in the catalogs.  As the focus is mainly for the locomotives'... Take a 9 volt battery with leads attached to it and try different ways touching it to the wire and the wheels.  If you get a slight blink in the light, then that wire is for the light...........

So the tender does light up...Im gonna have to try that out as soon as I find a 9-volt.

Adriatic posted:

@TheRWBYRailfan

  You've got some catching up to do if you ever want to equal my foot-in-mouth prowess. I don't think your posts even qualify here.

Some days the words flow well for us, somedays they don't; oh well.

   I guess I often come across as condescending to some folk at times. It usually isn't intentional; wasn't meant to be here either.

  I'm already kinda used to questioning my own reponses fyi; Asperger's often means the path less traveled is mine regardless. My communication skills outweigh my lack of social finesse, but unfortunately they don't bury it.

I understand. My brain apparently doesn't like to function right whenever I talk to people. Sometimes its on, sometimes its off, and I end up spewing words or sentences that usually make no meaning to the subject being discussed. I dunno, sometimes I try to be humorous in how I type but I don't think it works or I have a hard time turning it off ^^;

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