toy1 - Be sure it is broken. These slide into the truck to hold the axle. Mine was that way and I repaired it. Read above on process.
Hi Bill
yes it is broken there are two bearing housing on each side of the truck it appears that they are glued on or bonded some how, one of those is completely off which I found in the wrapping, on the other side the bearing hub is broken the place where the axel goes, half of the hub is broken if they both fell off I could fix it.
I did call Lionel today and there computer was down and could not tell me what to do, if I do not get a call back tomorrow from lionel which they said they would; I will call Charlie Ro and return the unit.
I do like the locomotive big difference from the flyer chief unit.
@TOKELLY posted:
Congratulations Terry on having your Berkshire photo placed in the home page photo rotation for the NASG website!
Rusty
Thanks, Rusty. I love that NASG website...it's like flipping through a Christmas wish list catalogue to see all that's available in our scale. Scrolling through the "News" section pops up dates when anything was changed, so it's very easy to find the latest news. Peter Vanvliet does and extraordinary job keep anyone in 1/64th scale--whether prototypical scale, high-rail, or American Flyer--informed.
I was looking at Dave Olson's original description of the Berkshire CAD drawings and information and noticed that he planned to have the headlight and boiler front hinged to swing open because they were held in place by a magnet. Sure enough, the front does open. I'm hoping that Lionel might offer a Mars light/headlight combination that could replace the single headlight on the Nickel Plate model as "easily" as on the Lionel O gauge version from 2014. The Mars light operation is only mentioned in the manual in the section on DCC commands and, for now, only applies to the American Railroads version. The opening boiler face is not mentioned at all.
the latest on the broken front truck, I call Lionel 3 times today only to go on hold and then 15 minutes later I get disconnected and they say the mail box is full and to call another extension which I have no idea, so after spending 3 hours today and 1 on Monday I called Charles Ro and they understood and they told me that Lionel is shipping them trucks as we speak and when they arrive they will send one out.
that is all I wanted and Charles Ro came thru!
Got mine today the american railoads one had the same problem with they wheel falling out put it back together and it ran ok for a few minutes then it started sparking from the tender wheel to the loco draw bar also the hand rail hits the switch on both american flyer switches and fastrack switches very disappointed here
Doug-Sr - Check to see if the insulated wheel on the axle is on the right side. It may need to be switched to prevent shorting.
I didn't have the switch problem.
DOUG-SR
You are having the same problem I had with my Flyer chief Berks. The pilot wheel assembly and trailing trucks are the same on both. Lionel has repaired all of mine and the last one they did came back with the pilot wheel loose in the box
Three repair orders state they had to replace the boards in the engine and the one I just got back is going to them again.I call it design flaws that they did not engineer out of the new LEGACY engines based on the problems noted on this topic.
Gunny
THANKS Bill will check when i get home tomorrow now its a dead short hope the board not blown and the switch problem is on fastrack manual switches strikes the stand.
Gunny the front wheel was easy fix but going to have to send back think board is bad if i can get ahold of lionel my mail order dealer said im on my own
My American RR Berkshire had same problem with front truck. CA on bearing tabs did the trick. Runs great. Thanks for the tip Bill
Just tried to run my Erie. Sporadic running... lose control... acts like it has a mind of it's own :-(
After all this waiting......
@Erie-modeler posted:Just tried to run my Erie. Sporadic running... lose control... acts like it has a mind of it's own :-(
After all this waiting......
It seems like an antenna issue?
@Chuck K posted:I received my American railroads version today. It arrived with a wheel in the pilot hanging loose, but I was able to snap it back in. It has the Mars light which is very cool. This, the cab detail and lights and the whistle are my favorite features.
Like TOKELLY, I installed a scale coupler. I removed the tender shell (6 screws), unclamped the C clamp holding the rear truck on, unscrewed the electro coupler from the truck, and unplugged the wire connector from the circuit board. As TOKELLY mentioned, the electro coupler’s wire connector will not fit through the hole in the chassis where the truck attaches, but instead of cutting the wires, I pulled them out of the connecter so they could be snapped back in (I sell these on ebay).
I also had to bend the coupler pad bracket because it does not fit the hole locations in the tender.
I had a lot of trouble trying to program it in Legacy. Eventually I got it to take the number ID I was trying to assign. The problem is it doesn’t respond reliably to my Legacy signal. I have to try repeatedly to get it to start up or shut down, the speed control is all over the place, and I have no control over the smoke volume or forward/reverse. I tried one of my other Legacy locos just to make sure something hasn’t gone haywire, but it ran fine. So the Berk will have to be sent in for service, but I will run it for several hours first to see if any other issues arise before shipping it off to Concorde.
The good news is that I then ran it with DCC, and it ran perfectly.
Here’s a video and pictures.
What size is your layout, I would like to see more of it.
@DL&W Pete posted:What size is your layout, I would like to see more of it.
It's just 11×6 with a 3x3 yard attached to one end. Here are some links:
@Chuck K posted:It's just 11×6 with a 3x3 yard attached to one end. Here are some links:
I found your youtube channel, I have so many questions to ask you. I have HO DCC, O 2 rail and 3 rail. I bought some American Models S scale trains. I got the powered AA set E8 DL&W in scale wheels and the DL&W heavyweight car set. Still new in the boxes, I just need someone to talk to in S scale. I want to put DCC in both A units, still don't know enough on which track to buy. I want to stay with scale wheels and kadee couplers.
@DL&W Pete posted:I found your youtube channel, I have so many questions to ask you. I have HO DCC, O 2 rail and 3 rail. I bought some American Models S scale trains. I got the powered AA set E8 DL&W in scale wheels and the DL&W heavyweight car set. Still new in the boxes, I just need someone to talk to in S scale. I want to put DCC in both A units, still don't know enough on which track to buy. I want to stay with scale wheels and kadee couplers.
Send me an email and we'll set up a time to talk.
chuck7612@hotmail.com
Had same problem with sparking drawbar on flyer switches Just slightly bend up bar. Draw bar hanging to low. Am gone now
Thanks, cocker and Bill, my tender was shorting out on the track i tried making a few a adjustments then it start running if i stayed under 10 volt findley keep making adjustment now it will do full voltage in both tmcc and dcc afraid to crank it up again just wondering maybe a board in side is a little loose.
