@Keystoned Ed posted:Rick - you may want to consider keeping the new Lionel PRR L1s and selling your incorrectly painted Pennsy power.
While PRR painting and lettering standards evolved over the years - pilots, ......... were consistently specified to be painted black.
Well now that IS interesting Ed.
I still prefer the DGLE of my early legacy M1, but.... even though those black pilots on the new L1 look off.......
I stand corrected.
@MartyE posted:I agree but I’m getting tired of the multitudes of Lionel boards.
When theyre throwing the spares in the trash, does it really even matter??😉
@rplst8 posted:So I greased my gearbox up and the engineer said “make sure you oil up them side rods!” So I did that too. Here’s a before and after on rollers.
Before grease:
After:
Not exactly a scientific test, but I’d say it noticeably better. In the second video it’s mostly the rollers singing as I increased the throttle.
Note the mic on my phone is pretty sensitive. In the first video you can hear the hum of the transformer which is below and to the right of the bench.
I probably won’t mess with it anymore as it performs well enough. I’ll report back after I put some miles on it. These L1s are worth it for that banshee whistle alone. In really sounds beautiful. Part of me wants to pick up another on in the postwar variation and cancel a preorder I have for a different non-PRR engine.
I would certainly preorder more Lionel steam if I was more confident in the drive trains. Even with that spacer they have, I’m not confident the metals are compatible and won’t end up with the same slop that the K4s have. Hopefully the added grease will go towards longevity.
Ryan, sounds like adding some grease did make a noticeable difference, …….any clue how much you added?……I’d say a generous half a teaspoon would be a good place to start?….
Pat
I think your on the mark with that, again, Pat.
Mth recommends .5- 1ml in their gearboxes. I use this as a base line with a baby medicine syringe I use for greasing gearboxes.1 ml isn't much.
1/2 teaspoon comes out to just under 2.5 ml on Google. Sounds about right , given the extra gears.
@harmonyards posted:Ryan, sounds like adding some grease did make a noticeable difference, …….any clue how much you added?……I’d say a generous half a teaspoon would be a good place to start?….
according to the syringe I used, about 1.5 mL which if my calculations are correct, is around 1/3 tsp. I might go back and add a little more.
@rplst8 posted:according to the syringe I used, about 1.5 mL which if my calculations are correct, is around 1/3 tsp. I might go back and add a little more.
I’d say so, ….look at the pics I posted of that Olympic sized swimming pool of a gear box,…..I’d bet it hold 1/2 a cup,…..🤣🤣🤣🤣
Pat
@harmonyards @jrose609 @RickO Thanks for the wisdom everybody. I agree the 0-6-0 surely doesn't carry much speed. I'll grease up and keep running. Hopefully they'll improve over time. It doesn't bother me that much but I was up for making an improvement if it was possible.
@harmonyards posted:Ima go out on a limb, and share my observations why I think they modded this MTH chassis to suit Lionel’s needs,…..
before they got their hands on MTH’s tools, they already had a an established chassis with the forward facing small motor, ….we’ve seen it used many times now, …..no??………look at the size of that board, and the configuration they used, ….legacy board, IR, sounds in the tender, …….having that motor face forward, opens up vast amounts of real estate in the firebox/ cab area, …..so they stuck to what they know …….MTH’s original design had a gear tower, that was divorced from a sizable motor ….Pittman at first, followed by a knock off, …..it’d be nice if Lionel would confirm or deny my suspicions, but I doubt it …..I certainly hope they just didn’t throw in the towel and jump to their ( I’ll go ahead and say it! ) crummy gear box, but more than likely since we’ve already committed blasphemy and opened up their conundrum, they’ll remain silent,…..call it ease of manufacturing , call it case of the lazies, call it the electronics technology already exists so we ain’t reinventing the wheel, ……I’d a left the stump puller chassis MTH had already alone, and handed the legacy board back to the electronics people and said “ make it smaller, or stick it someplace else” 😉
Pat
You're probably correct. Here's the standard MTH USRA Mikado chassis layout. When MTH produced the L1 the chassis was set up identically to the USRA Mikado. Big Pittman in the firebox, gear tower with a separate worm shaft. Rugged and indestructible, but no room for a Legacy board in the locomotive. Lionel would have had to put the Legacy board in the tender and used a tether if they wanted to keep the MTH drive line. Personally I'd take the tether if it meant keeping the MTH drive line.
@Lou1985 posted:You're probably correct. Here's the standard MTH USRA Mikado chassis layout. When MTH produced the L1 the chassis was set up identically to the USRA Mikado. Big Pittman in the firebox, gear tower with a separate worm shaft. Rugged and indestructible, but no room for a Legacy board in the locomotive. Lionel would have had to put the Legacy board in the tender and used a tether if they wanted to keep the MTH drive line. Personally I'd take the tether if it meant keeping the MTH drive line.
Is that the one that had the dead Mux Lou? …..,very neat and tidy wiring, ….as usual!
Pat
@harmonyards posted:Is that the one that had the dead Mux Lou? …..,very neat and tidy wiring, ….as usual!
Pat
No. That's my USRA I converted to an ATSF 3129 class Mikado. It's got factory PS3 boards and a ball bearing 9234 Pittman.
Guess I’ll have to see what happens when I get my L1s. If they aren’t right I’ll let Lionel deal with them. I was hoping they’d be on my layout by now, weathered, Kadee’d and YouTubed. 
I bought a pair for doubleheading since Legacy handles it so well and I like the fact that Legacy has 100% usable matched speed steps.
@Norm Charbonneau posted:Guess I’ll have to see what happens when I get my L1s. If they aren’t right I’ll let Lionel deal with them. I was hoping they’d be on my layout by now, weathered, Kadee’d and YouTubed.
If they’re good out the box Norm, grease them and let them eat!….this is looking like isolated incidents …..
Pat
Here’s Dave’s out of the shops, back on the same section of track we recorded the forward noise on straight out of the box,……..listen closely, we’ve eliminated I’d say 90% of all the noise, …..it’s smooth as silk, even in reverse now. Big thanks to Norm on helping resolve this issue, I took his suggestion on critical gear lash on these fixed worm shaft gear boxes, and I ran with the ball for the touchdown,……Dave will be pleased with his new model. One other thing to note, Lionel did a nice job with the lower boiler support rods, …they are separate pieces held on by screws, …..no having to fiddle around trying to fit them in as you lower the boiler for reassembly, …….that’s a nice touch for techs ….
Pat
@harmonyards posted:Here’s Dave’s out of the shops, back on the same section of track we recorded the forward noise on straight out of the box,……..listen closely, we’ve eliminated I’d say 90% of all the noise, …..it’s smooth as silk, even in reverse now. Big thanks to Norm on helping resolve this issue, I took his suggestion on critical gear lash on these fixed worm shaft gear boxes, and I ran with the ball for the touchdown,……Dave will be pleased with his new model. One other thing to note, Lionel did a nice job with the lower boiler support rods, …they are separate pieces held on by screws, …..no having to fiddle around trying to fit them in as you lower the boiler for reassembly, …….that’s a nice touch for techs ….
Pat
Fantastic!
and a cameo by the #5272 to boot!
- Mario
So this problem is in every single engine that was just produced of the L1 Mikado? Or is it possible that one Lionel L1 Mikado may have this problem and another model from this run may not?
@A.J. posted:So this problem is in every single engine that was just produced of the L1 Mikado? Or is it possible that one Lionel L1 Mikado may have this problem and another model from this run may not?
No, if you’ve been following this thread, and the other thread announcing L1’s are now being delivered, you’ll notice that it’s not every engine, but some failures were reported. Enough to warrant a look around to determine the issue, given the past history of this type of chassis used in previous models.
Pat
Hardly any sound Pat, I can barely hear anything other than just a little tiny turning. With the engine sounds on, that won't even be noticed I would wager. Awesome Job Pat.
Kudos to Pat and everyone else that helped with this investigation. I’m glad there are solutions for those with troublesome L1s.
Another example of how great of a resource this forum is!
There’s no doubt that new L1’s can certainly be turned in to Lionel for warranty repair, but, when the warranty runs out, we know there’s hope for these when that time comes..…..a year can go by so fast!!
Pat
Really appreciate all the work you put in to research this engine. My son just got his and you really helped with him identifying any possible issues. No issues found and it’s greased up and ready to go. Thank you.
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