My question concerns the lionel 18001 Rock Island Northern from the late eighties. I know that they suffered from oversized bushings on the armiture shaft which made them run erratic. Were they all bad or were only some of them manufactured with this defect.
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Michael; Like everything else, there is an exception to every "rule". My 18001 has always been a good runner and I haven't taken the time to replace the supposedly "bad/wrong" bushings installed at the factory yet....
Not all of them were effected, I think the first ones shipped were bad. I have this, along with the Lackawanna and Northern Pacific Versions, and none of mine were effected. they are all great runners which I have since updated to TMCC and Railsounds 5.0
The story I heard was that most of the Rock Islands were bad, some of the Lackawannas were bad and almost all of the Northern Pacifics were good. That meant the problem was fixed in the middle of the run of Lackawanna locos.
Actually I heard that all of the Rock Islands were bad, but folks here say they have good ones. I know that my Rock Island was terrible.
Mine sounds like it's grinding rocks but runs OK, it's all original. I run it frequently, it;s big boiler gives it that massive look that a steam engine is suppose to have.
I bought a used R.I. unit at a train show earlier this year. After getting it home, it ran rough and noisy. A month or so later, I partially disassembled, inspected, cleaned, and lubed everything. During the inspection, I determined there was nothing wrong with the motor bearings, the armature turned free with no slop. After re-assembly, the loco ran much better, smoother, and less noisy. Evidently just needed a good cleaning and lubing, the motor was fine.
Unfortunately, no way of knowing now if this particular unit was originally bad and fixed later, or just a good one from the start. Although it's got a few other problems (broken cam lobe for smoke piston, and the "Mighty Sound of Static" needs replaced), at least it runs fairly well now.
The first 2 I had were bad.
The third was too, but I put a new motor in it and now it runs fine.
My NP ran great out of the box.
I have 4 of them all good. need to have old lionel lube removed on gear. noticed non slotted brushes on motor where slotted brushes with spring belonged, apparently origional replaced brushes with slotted ones. would buy another. However saw unit on e bay with problems, would have purchased, lost bid
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