Hi all, somewhat new to this and need help. I built my son a 5x9 layout, and he absolutey loves it! We went to a train show a few months back and purchased somewhere around 10-15 Lionel freight cars. Nothing fancy, plastic bodies, the trucks are rivited onto the car, got them for around $10-25 a piece. I believe they are either modern or MPC era. They have plastic trucks, metal wheels, a plunger on the bottom of the coupler, and a small tab on the side of the coupler, that when pressed, opens the plastic knuckle. Unfortunately, we seem to have about 4-6 that have knuckles that do not open when the tab is depressed. You physically have to depress the tab and open the knuckle yourself. Once the knuckle is open, it couples to the next car and doesn't reopen. I have looked on the internet, and haven't found a solution yet. The knuckle is held in place with a small rivet. How do you repair this? I purchased some rivets and springs, but later realized that these are for post war era cars, not the ones we have... My guess is the knuckle itself has a spring on it, and you have to remove the existing rivet, place the new knuckle in, and then secure with another rivet.... I could be wrong. Does anyone know the fix, and more importantly, the replacement parts I would need?
I have tried to clean the cars the best I could, and re-lube them per a Lionel youtube video, but it did nothing.
Thanks for your time!
