So, I may have made a bit of an expensive mistake... I bought a 3454 in fairish condition, largely because it looked nice, and the mechanism seemed interesting. The price was a little above what I’ve seen online but not outrageously so. I’m just prone to buying sprees and spending more than I mean to when trains are in the room!
I knew about postwar shoe couplers and how they worked in theory but had no real experience with them.
Well, now I have the experience and the answer to “how does that work” is “not well”: they get hung up on all my switches and like an idiot I managed to cause a shoe to come off. Now I’m mulling: 1. How to go about fixing it, 2. If there’s a fix for the switch/shoe issues (probably not but I’m willing to hear suggestions), 3. If not should I consider selling the car?
Even if I decide to sell, I would want to try and fix what I can (higher asking price (?) plus least I can do for the next owner). The mechanism still works (or at least did before the switch messed up the one shoe), but the door spring needs to be replaced I think: it’ll spring back into position if you open the door by hand but it doesn’t open when the unloading mechanism operates.
I think it’s been rewired at least once before: the wires running from the truck to the body & mechanism are a light blue and are nice and pliable which to me says it was repaired perhaps in the 1990s.
And no, it doesn’t have its original Baby Ruth crates with it, those were missing. But I knew that I had some bits of wood of proper dimensions I could use to test, and of course there are plenty of places to get repro spare parts for postwar stuff.
I know you will be wanting pictures but I have had the thing apart far too much already today and need a break from it! Those corner screws to get the body off are a pain.
So not the best way to get ones foot wet in PW Lionel, but thankfully I have you guys.
