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A LOOK AT LIONEL'S CAB FORWARD INSIDE THE BOILER//PICTURES

Alex MAlex MOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBERDIGITAL SUBSCRIBER

Hello everyone,

 

          I'm a very curious person, I really like to know how things work. I'm not at all worried about voiding my warranty because i fix, upgrade, and repair lots of engines. I was interested to see how Lionel set up this cab forward smoke unit, so I went for a look inside. I'll start from the beginning the shell comes off quite easy, two screws in the front two screws in the back and two screws that will remove the cab. After that the top shell opened up with ease. Fantastic craftsmanship by Lionel !!!!!!!!!! Take a look below

 

Enjoy!!!

Alex

 

          Inside view of the cab, the wiring is so nicely done

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Top smoke funnel, you will notice on the right side of the smoke funnel, where the whistle

steam exhausts, you cannot put smoke fluid in there. Only put smoke fluid in the main stack

Also notice the dual fan motors, one for the main stack one for the whistle steam

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 Notice how neatly done the wiring is.

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Here's a look at the underside of the PCB board, one resistor for the whistle steam and

one for the main stack. I like the way Lionel constructed this.

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 Notice the smoke batting, I really like it. In my last thread I mentioned how many Lionel

engines have different smoke units. I added 25 to 30 drops in this cab forward and when

I touched the batting it still was kind of dry. After I put this engine back together I ended

up putting another 10 to 15 drops and it smoked like crazy. My point is when you have a smoke

unit like this it needs a lot of fluid.

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To further prove my point, notice the bottom fan blade melted just a bit. I think this is do

to not enough smoke fluid. The fan was still spinning but it was stressing to spin, so the way

I repaired this was to just snip off the one bad blade and the fan motor no longer was under stress.

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     Two separate reservoirs

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 When adding smoke fluid to this type of smoke unit, it has to travel quite a long way

to reach both reservoirs, This is why you should add a minimum of 25 to 30 drops to this

type of smoke unit .

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    Here's the smoke unit all put back together.

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Original Post

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FM Former Member

 Man Alex that took some big b***s to open that sucker up, brand new and all. But I know you're the guy to do it  Nice to see how it all comes together.

 

Now if only MTH would take notice of the neat wiring under the shell  That's how ya do it!

 

Good point on the amount of smoke fluid. I was recently tinkering with some smoke units on some of my MTH diesels because they were so inconsistent. I preloaded it with 25 drops after re-stuffing the batting, and that barely made it moist. I ended up putting 45 drops in that thing before finally getting a good soak. I am always afraid (like most people) of over filling the reservoir.....and you know I've done that before

 

 

John KorlingJohn KorlingOGR Forum Member

Overall the disassembly and innards look very similar to the original 2005, except of course for the dual-smoke unit.

 

One thing that is not easy on the 2005 version, though, is to replace the traction tires.  For whatever reason, Lionel decided to locate traction tires on the wheels closest to the pistons, which places them directly behind the crossheads.  This makes replacing the traction tires a royal pain in the tush.  Is this latest version the same way, or did they move the traction tires on the opposite ends away from the crossheads to make it easier to replace?

H Hancock52OGR Forum Member
Originally Posted by KevinB:

 

I'm surprised the fan melted a little, I guess this particular engine just needs to really be filled with fluid. 

 

Me too - surprised that is. Not good and I'm surprised this happened - presumably when the smoke unit resistors were heated and the fan was not spinning, which I assume can only mean that this is the whistle smoke fan that melted and it happened when the fan was stationary. May militate in favor of saturating the wadding before running this engine, which it seems can only be done by taking off the boiler shell. I'll decide whether to do that when my DAYLIGHT version arrives.

 

Originally Posted by John Korling:

 

Overall the disassembly and innards look very similar to the original 2005, except of course for the dual-smoke unit.

 

That's true. The wiring in my 2005 RS5 version is similar and relatively simple or neat compared with other Lionel steamers. It still does not match the user-friendly wiring of MTH diesels where the body shell detaches completely and the lighting is all wired through a set of contacts that make it easy to service the innards without any real risk of pinching wires when the unit is re-assembled.

 

P.S. the 2005 AC-12 has a similar arrangement for the marker lights, and possibly others mounted on the cab, which is just visible in Alex's first photo above. 

 

Last edited by Hancock52
Alex MAlex MOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBERDIGITAL SUBSCRIBER
Originally Posted by John Korling:

Overall the disassembly and innards look very similar to the original 2005, except of course for the dual-smoke unit.

 

One thing that is not easy on the 2005 version, though, is to replace the traction tires.  For whatever reason, Lionel decided to locate traction tires on the wheels closest to the pistons, which places them directly behind the crossheads.  This makes replacing the traction tires a royal pain in the tush.  Is this latest version the same way, or did they move the traction tires on the opposite ends away from the crossheads to make it easier to replace?

Hi John,

 

Believe it or not, this engine has the traction tires in the same place as the older version. That's the only thing I wasn't to happy about.

 

Thanks,

alex

 

 

MartyEMartyEOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBERDIGITAL SUBSCRIBERMEMORIAL SUPPORTER
This is similar to the Texas class with the piston steam.
 
Originally Posted by Alex M:
Originally Posted by sinclair:

How does one make sure the fluid is going in both sides and not just all flowing into the main side?

The smoke funnel has channels and also there's two hole's inside the smoke funnel which will disperse the fluid to both reservoirs.

 

alex

 

John KorlingJohn KorlingOGR Forum Member
Originally Posted by Alex M:

       
Originally Posted by John Korling:

Overall the disassembly and innards look very similar to the original 2005, except of course for the dual-smoke unit.

 

One thing that is not easy on the 2005 version, though, is to replace the traction tires.  For whatever reason, Lionel decided to locate traction tires on the wheels closest to the pistons, which places them directly behind the crossheads.  This makes replacing the traction tires a royal pain in the tush.  Is this latest version the same way, or did they move the traction tires on the opposite ends away from the crossheads to make it easier to replace?

Hi John,

 

Believe it or not, this engine has the traction tires in the same place as the older version. That's the only thing I wasn't to happy about.

 

Thanks,

alex

 

 


       


Thanks for the info Alex.  That's a bummer. 

But it's still a great looking engine, just like the 2005 release is.
Alex MAlex MOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBERDIGITAL SUBSCRIBER

 

Me too - surprised that is. Not good and I'm surprised this happened - presumably when the smoke unit resistors were heated and the fan was not spinning, which I assume can only mean that this is the whistle smoke fan that melted and it happened when the fan was stationary. May militate in favor of saturating the wadding before running this engine, which it seems can only be done by taking off the boiler shell. I'll decide whether to do that when my DAYLIGHT version arrives.

 

 

Handcock52,

 

   You don't have to take off the boiler shell when yours arrives, just add about 35 drops then blow air down the stack, and it will work fine. I only took the shell off because i was curious what this smoke unit looked like.

 

   I was thinking from now on when I get a new engine, I might do a thread like this

calling it (A LOOK AT THE INNER WORKINGS)

 

 

Thanks,

Alex

Last edited by Alex M
H Hancock52OGR Forum Member
Originally Posted by Alex M: 

Hancock52,

 

You don't have to take off the boiler shell when yours arrives, just add about 35 drops then blow air down the stack, and it will work fine. I only took the shell off because I was curious what this smoke unit looked like.

 

I was thinking from now on when I get a new engine, I might do a thread like this

calling it (A LOOK AT THE IN WORKINGS)

 

 

Thanks,

Alex

 

Good advice and also a very good idea Alex. (I still wonder what made one of the fans melt. It's not as though it's that close to the resistor in this smoke unit design.)

 

I regard Eric Siegel's reviews as the gold standard of informed comment on new engines but I can't think of one where he's taken off the boiler shell of a new steamer! It certainly satisfied my curiosity to see what's new inside this issue of Lionel's AC-12. I didn't expect any change in the traction tire location because essentially Lionel is recycling its 2005 tooling, which on the whole was excellent. No doubt they are trying to maximise the return on the investment made in that tooling whatever exactly it amounted to.

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