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Keep seeing this...This was my original post.

So, as you know these break in shipping.

I have an RA from Lionel but have asked for just the nose cones. I suspect they don't have any. But await my answer. It has been more than a week. I guess they are hoping we all go away.

They want the engines shipped to them. I think they will just get broken again in shipping. Steve at Muffins told me just to return them to Lionel,  but....they cannot even tell me if they have engines to send me. So, if I send them, and they don't have replacements, I guess a refund...who knows.

As you can see the two pieces are broken off that hold the covers on. I pulled them with tweezers and carefully super glued them back on. Let them dry all night and replaced them. One cover took three tries. But they are on firm for now. I have no plans to remove them, they will probably break.  My plan is to await the day when I can simply order two new covers. The old ones were just $6.00. Hopefully, they produce hundreds of extras!

Greg

@tom21pa posted:

That sux

@TheRambles posted:

Busted nose from Charles Ro.



D784FBCE-7BE5-4E2F-9037-867A3A684A16

Looking at that photo......Seems to me that if Lionel does not have nose replacements and they want to refund your money, but you really want to keep the set..........Could you epoxy a 1/4" round earth magnet to the front of the loco (this would be hidden with nose in place), then epoxy a metal washer inside the nose cone that would react with the magnet and hold the cone in place?  Just a thought......I totally get you should not have to do that and Lionel should just send replacements instead of wanting the whole set back. Those are beautiful. That heavy metal flake silver is gorgeous. Just an observation about a possible repair.

Keep seeing this...This was my original post.

So, as you know these break in shipping.

I have an RA from Lionel but have asked for just the nose cones. I suspect they don't have any. But await my answer. It has been more than a week. I guess they are hoping we all go away.

They want the engines shipped to them. I think they will just get broken again in shipping. Steve at Muffins told me just to return them to Lionel,  but....they cannot even tell me if they have engines to send me. So, if I send them, and they don't have replacements, I guess a refund...who knows.

As you can see the two pieces are broken off that hold the covers on. I pulled them with tweezers and carefully super glued them back on. Let them dry all night and replaced them. One cover took three tries. But they are on firm for now. I have no plans to remove them, they will probably break.  My plan is to await the day when I can simply order two new covers. The old ones were just $6.00. Hopefully, they produce hundreds of extras!

Greg

Greg,

I like your solution and, like many others have said, I have no intention of ever removing those covers.  I too would have just liked the nose cones shipped but they wanted the engines....

- Jeff

@jini5 posted:

Looking at that photo......Seems to me that if Lionel does not have nose replacements and they want to refund your money, but you really want to keep the set..........Could you epoxy a 1/4" round earth magnet to the front of the loco (this would be hidden with nose in place), then epoxy a metal washer inside the nose cone that would react with the magnet and hold the cone in place?  Just a thought......I totally get you should not have to do that and Lionel should just send replacements instead of wanting the whole set back. Those are beautiful. That heavy metal flake silver is gorgeous. Just an observation about a possible repair.

If by some crazy chance Lionel cannot fix the front nose covers I will be requesting them to be sent back.  Then the choice becomes trying Greg's solution (see prior post), looking into your solution, and finally just lightly gluing the covers on period.

- Jeff

Everyone,

So just to update there is nothing to update.  The last communication from Lionel was on Tuesday 4/5 acknowledging reception of the RA package.  Believe me those engine boxes with the engines were packaged well in an "old" U-Haul moving box that was then filled with various type of popcorn packing material all around.

Regarding the set itself I ordered it from Nassau Hobby and would be pretty certain they received them on pallets but obviously the individual boxed set had to be shipped from NY back to NC.  I never engaged Nassau Hobby about the problem since I originally thought I would just open an RA ticket, run over to the Lionel Repair center at lunch, have the nose cones replaced, and be back up and running that evening.

Currently have the expansion set sitting in the shipping box from Charles Ro which arrived perfectly fine, but I have not yet opened.

- Jeff

I dealt with this once, recently, with a large Lionel dealer and Lionel itself. I bought a BTO Legacy switcher, I got it and noticed the shell on top was cracked from the stacks radiating out, on both stacks and sent it to Lionel. Nothing they could do, they said take it back to dealer, The dealer got mad and said he was going to take it up with lionel and he would call me back, never did. I called him and told him he either takes it back or I am filing a credit card dispute. He says he will sue me, I call my lawyer and he told me, file it! He said he is not going to file a suit for $450 and he has to come to NY to file the suit, which would cost more, as the purchase happened in NY. I filed with AMEX, and had my refund in 6 weeks. They told me to keep the item as well. No more of putting up with broken trains that are new!

Last edited by Cincytrains
@Cincytrains posted:

I dealt with this once, recently, with a large Lionel dealer and Lionel itself. I bought a BTO Legacy switcher, I got it and noticed the shell on top was cracked from the stacks radiating out, on both stacks and sent it to Lionel. Nothing they could do, they said take it back to dealer, The dealer got mad and said he was going to take it up with lionel and he would call me back, never did. I called him and told him he either takes it back or I am filing a credit card dispute. He says he will sue me, I call my lawyer and he told me, file it! He said he is not going to file a suit for $450 and he has to come to NY to file the suit, which would cost more, as the purchase happened in NY. I filed with AMEX, and had my refund in 6 weeks. They told me to keep the item as well. No more of putting up with broken trains that are new!

Wow! Unbelievable.....My guess is that was the last purchase from that dealer for you. Probably Lionel as well.

@Cincytrains posted:

I dealt with this once, recently, with a large Lionel dealer and Lionel itself. I bought a BTO Legacy switcher, I got it and noticed the shell on top was cracked from the stacks radiating out, on both stacks and sent it to Lionel. Nothing they could do, they said take it back to dealer, The dealer got mad and said he was going to take it up with lionel and he would call me back, never did. I called him and told him he either takes it back or I am filing a credit card dispute. He says he will sue me, I call my lawyer and he told me, file it! He said he is not going to file a suit for $450 and he has to come to NY to file the suit, which would cost more, as the purchase happened in NY. I filed with AMEX, and had my refund in 6 weeks. They told me to keep the item as well. No more of putting up with broken trains that are new!

Good for you for standing your ground. More consumers need to do this, or nothing is going to improve. It's unfortunate that this dealer didn't see this as an opportunity to earn your loyalty by "going to bat" for you, but instead threatened to sue you. I'm thinking this was your final transaction with this dealer.

I can understand everyone's concern about this happening. You are right, it should not be, as a lot of other things that have been going on with Lionel!
However, I am going to agree with one other poster on one thing. You might be better off using magnets to hold the nose on. This should have been the way Lionel produced them in the first place! It would be a simple fix that anyone could accomplish and then you wouldn't have to worry about the plastic tabs breaking again.

@Cincytrains posted:

I dealt with this once, recently, with a large Lionel dealer and Lionel itself. I bought a BTO Legacy switcher, I got it and noticed the shell on top was cracked from the stacks radiating out, on both stacks and sent it to Lionel. Nothing they could do, they said take it back to dealer, The dealer got mad and said he was going to take it up with lionel and he would call me back, never did. I called him and told him he either takes it back or I am filing a credit card dispute. He says he will sue me, I call my lawyer and he told me, file it! He said he is not going to file a suit for $450 and he has to come to NY to file the suit, which would cost more, as the purchase happened in NY. I filed with AMEX, and had my refund in 6 weeks. They told me to keep the item as well. No more of putting up with broken trains that are new!

Can you give us a hint as to the dealer was? I'd hate to be put in your position to do what you did - rather just avoid a potential headache and not purchase from them altogether.

Had a problem from a vendor on an item which was defective and was basically told to pound sand. I took it up with Lionel and they had it replaced within a few weeks - just showed a receipt and described the nature of the problem and it was covered under the manufacturer's warranty.

Appears some dealers will take care of the problem and some won't - those are the ones I'd like to avoid.

No, I’m not going to say. No reason to drag anyone through the mud. I have bought 3 Lionel engines since. 2 from Toms Trains and 1 special Penn Central from Mr Muffins. No problems at all. But I will stick to Toms as he is my guy except for a special that I may like. This was the only time I did that. And to the person that said they should of tried to gain my loyalty, it wasn’t a $1500 Hudson, it was a $449.00 switcher. They didn’t care about me. Oh well!

It's admirable that you won't "rat on" the dealer in public. I would hope that if someone asked you privately that you'd consider helping a fellow collector avoid a situation like you experienced.

We had a similar experience 3 years ago with a brand-new Crownline boat: poor quality control at the factory, combined with an incompetent dealer who literally turned our boat into a bomb, and I never hesitate telling anyone who asks where we bought the boat. When someone puts my family in harm's way, it's time to speak up.

Last edited by BlueComet400

Everyone,

This morning I received an eMail from Lionel stating the nose cones have been replaced and the engines are in the process of being shipped back. 

I also took a moment to check the Lionel Parts system and while the parts are listed (as Ed shared above) it does not appear they are available yet for purchase.



- Jeff

Everyone,

Benefit of being local; both engines just arrived via FedEx and luckily (for me) I am working from home today.

The Lionel technician did not install the replacement nose cones out of concern they could be broken again in shipping but provided instructions to perform the installation myself.  While it's fairly simple the 2021 engine was a breeze and I struggled a bit with the 2024 engine because it's a very tight fit (same as the roof cover).  They also reapplied the "piston" which had fallen off the rear truck of the 2024 engine.

Pictures of the install:

Step 1 - Insert the tabs into the holes so the cone is flush with the front but "dropped" (see below)

          22-05-17 13-48-18 1124

Step 2 - With the nose cone flush to the body, using both hands (at least for me) slide the nose cone upward being careful to slide both side together

          22-05-17 13-48-34 1125

Step 3 - There is no step three, just a picture of the finished install...

         22-05-17 13-49-32 112622-05-17 13-50-45 1128

Hopefully for everyone else who has experienced the problem you can just request OR they will simply send you the nose cone parts and avoid all of the shipping.

- Jeff

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  • 22-05-17 13-48-18 1124
  • 22-05-17 13-48-34 1125
  • 22-05-17 13-49-32 1126
  • 22-05-17 13-50-45 1128
Last edited by jeffdoo

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