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Way back in December of 2018 I purchased a  Lionel 6-18018 Southern 2-8-2 Mikado Steam Locomotive at a local train show.  After about 6 months the engine would only run in reverse or neutral. I took the engine to a Lionel service center in October of 2019. A month ago or so the "repaired" train was returned to me and actually worked in all directions for a hour. Sadly, now the engine is stuck in neutral and will not go forwards or backwards. I'm not sure what they did to get it to work for an hour but now they are saying that the part the engine needs in order to be repaired is no longer made. I think the part they are talking about would be the e-unit. I looked at the Lionel parts website a discovered the e-unit for my engine is "unavailable ." Does the e-unit seem like the prime suspect? Is their another e-unit that might work? If so I'd love to know the model number. The engine was a significant investment I hope I didn't buy a door stop.

Last edited by Woof
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I would contact the person who repaired it again. By saying the part is not available without looking at the engine sounds like a brushoff. It might be something simple like the wiring between the engine and tender. A broken wire possibly. If it the e-unit is bad, what caused it to burn out after only an hour. Is the motor drawing too much current? If it is then why? Bad motor or maybe a bind in the running gear? This should have all been checked out when repaired. If they are unwilling to look at it I would ask for a refund?

When I do a repair I always list the parts replaced and what service I performed on the receipt. If by chance it does come back, looking at the receipt will tell me what I originally did and give me a clue as to what to look for. If the part that I installed failed I need to be able to determine if it was a fault of mine or something else. I also give a 3 month warranty with the repairs in all but a very few cases.

I had a proto1 engine come back to me one time. I could not determine what was causing the error so after fixing it the second time I had the gentleman bring the engine to the club and show me how he was setting it up. He kept trying to put the engines on the track and hook up the tethers between the power unit, the middle and the slave with power on the track. It didn't take long to blow another board. These were Proto1 boards that I removed for Proto2 upgrades that were in good working order. I gave the fellow a full refund and explained I wasn't interested in spending any more time on it. Kinda made me look like a dummy but I did not want to loose any more money on it. Watching the sparks fly while putting the engine on the track was bad enough. I avoided having the sparks flying between us. Trains I can Fix. People sometimes its best to just walk away.

I hope you can get it fixed.

Forest

 

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