Gargrave switch ativates 3359 coal car

Quizshow,

Did you buy it new?  If not, someone may have altered it.

I have 3 coal dumpers 2 #3459, 1 #3469), which have one shoe connected to one end of the solenoid coil and the other shoe to the other end.  My pre- and post-war log cars are the same.

The 3359 twin dump is wired so this can happen when an active rail touches the slideshoes. The car is too long to use the regular track sections effectively, so it is wired differently from the other dump cars (other than the 3562 barrel unloader). Lionel included the locking lever (under the dump bins) to avoid unwanted dumping action (the coil will still energize, but the cam lock stops it from moving).

Didn't realize this was the twin bin.

Yes, I see the locking lever and I had not figured out what it was for. And I am seeing the same issue with my old 3562 barrel car as it crosses these same points. I will engage the 3359 locking lever to avoid unwanted action and will have to think about the 3562 barrel car. Thanks guys.

The later barrel cars provided a catch nub in the plastic casting to swing the swivel arm into a locked position.

 Maybe experiment with a small piece of  electrical tape over the spot where the contact shoe gets energized. Hopefully  the center rail rollers will still make  enough  contact to make it through the switch.    If it works a small dab of clear nail polish  might  be better than tape.  

Greg,

That's a good I deal too.

Thanks, John 

The solution might depend upon whether or not you want to activate the car otherwise.  My problem was older cars would uncouple when their sliding shoes went over certain Atlas switches.  Other than enjoying the sound of your engine crashing into a string of detached cars  there was no real upside.  I didn't really care if these cars could automatically uncouple on uncoupling tracks.

What I did was to put a small cable tie in the groove of the sliding shoe and hook it around the coupler plate.  Pull it tight. This fixed the whole problem.

Alan