North Lima Train Works

They are as far as I know. These guys are 20 minutes from me. I could swing by sometime and see what's up. They're right next to a Lionel dealer according to the internet. Maybe the shop will know something. 

thanks, would really appreciate that.

Marty

I'll try to swing by tomorrow. I believe the place is closed on Sunday so it'll have to be Monday if I don't make it tomorrow

Maybe they are closed because of Covid. I called Precision Scale yesterday for parts and just got a recording. They wrote me and said only the family is working because of Covid. The offices are on their property so the family can work but all the other workers can't work here by state law. They will fill my order but it will take longer if they have everything in stock. Don

The new owner of NLTW took over something like a year ago, and personally my luck with them has not been good. The last part I tried to order, he finally responded to my email by saying that the woman who knew where everything was out on vacation, or somewhere, and he had to wait until she returned, because she was the only one who knew where things were. (!!) I was simply asking whether they had a certain part (a tender shell). He was slow to respond to emails, but then did on several occasions, and then stopped responding to my repeated emails altogether. Then about a month later I saw that he had listed two of the same part for sale on Ebay!!

@BillYo414 posted:

I'll try to swing by tomorrow. I believe the place is closed on Sunday so it'll have to be Monday if I don't make it tomorrow

 

Ask for John Crouse--he IS N. Lima Train Works.

I spoke to him earlier this week because of a problem with the website ordering process.  He told me he's been virtually 24/7 with his primary business, Crouse Tru Value Hardware store.  Very clear to me that NLTW is on the back burner for him and he has no one in charge of that operation.  Yes, there are a couple of young girls who may pull parts and ship, but no real control person.

Well, all I know is what he told me, which was that some woman was the only one who knew where things were. It seems obvious that if he's too busy to operate NLTW, then he should sell it to someone who can run it. Lionel probably needs to know that in their replacement parts site, when they refer people to NLTW for certain parts, that NLTW is effectively closed. I've never understood why Lionel decided to give a small portion of their parts to a separate company to administer. It's never worked properly. 

I'm confused as to why "select parts" are not available from Lionel and they refer you to NLTW. Lionel could have nearly every single part for a 15 year old locomotive, except for maybe the shell.

Unless these are "knockoffs" , why doesn't Lionel just stock these items and make everyones life easier? These parts had to originate from Lionel anyway right? 

Someone please explain.

Lionel made it clear years ago they don't want to be selling parts.

There is a chance I'm mistaken, but I think the N Lima Trainworks "mass parts divestment" Lionel did so many years ago had something to do with one of the moves of headquarters?.  They presumably didn't want to have to warehouse every old part, so they basically sold off a lot of the inventory, with little oversight of how the business of selling said parts would be carried out after the sale by their buyer at the time.

I think far too many people consider the NLT reference some sort of endorsement, or a currently active business relationship with Lionel.  I see it as a "hey we don't have this part, but these guys here may still have some (well, at least we sold them some a long time ago)" type of reference.

-Dave

@RickO posted:

I'm confused as to why "select parts" are not available from Lionel and they refer you to NLTW. Lionel could have nearly every single part for a 15 year old locomotive, except for maybe the shell.

Unless these are "knockoffs" , why doesn't Lionel just stock these items and make everyones life easier? These parts had to originate from Lionel anyway right? 

Someone please explain.

@Train Nut posted:

Lionel made it clear years ago they don't want to be selling parts.

Ricko, that's my queston as well.

Train Nut, if Lionel said that, obviously they changed their approach quite awhile ago. They have a large parts department, which they spent a ton of time and money getting updated and organized (including pictures), much of it done with the guidance of Mike Regan, and stock probably at least 95 percent of all parts. NLTW handles only a small percentage. I wish Lionel would just take back NLTW's inventory.

@Pingman posted:

Ask for John Crouse--he IS N. Lima Train Works.

I spoke to him earlier this week because of a problem with the website ordering process.  He told me he's been virtually 24/7 with his primary business, Crouse Tru Value Hardware store.  Very clear to me that NLTW is on the back burner for him and he has no one in charge of that operation.  Yes, there are a couple of young girls who may pull parts and ship, but no real control person.

I assumed it was him. The registered address is right next to the hardware store. My first set as a kid came from that store. The store has grown in recent years. They just had some sort of train show there last weekend. I'll try to find out what the deal is. 

The website is pretty bland but has Lionel logos and links to Lionel social media sites. I'm sure that's causing part of the confusion on what this company actually is. 

@breezinup posted:

Ricko, that's my queston as well.

Train Nut, if Lionel said that, obviously they changed their approach quite awhile ago. They have a large parts department, which they spent a ton of time and money getting updated and organized (including pictures), much of it done with the guidance of Mike Regan, and stock probably at least 95 percent of all parts. NLTW handles only a small percentage. I wish Lionel would just take back NLTW's inventory.

Lionel made the statement i believe a few years before Mike R left.                     I will look for the thread/post.  I may be mistaken, but i don't think so.

95% of all parts in stock- Not even close!!

Mike R was the one who put in all the time updating and inserting pictures.

    (We all know what happened to Mike R, and all the good things that went with him.)

The parts listing for more recent items have never been updated/listed either.

Lionel doesn't "stock" parts except "staple items"  They make so many, whats left over after assembly is used for warantee work, the rest sold off and are then gone.  

So is everything copyrighted that they make? What would happen if somebody started reverse engineering and making the spare parts? 

@BillYo414 posted:

So is everything copyrighted that they make? What would happen if somebody started reverse engineering and making the spare parts? 

I thought that had been happening for some time now, especially on postwar parts.  I'm sure the parts would need to have a high demand, which would exclude most things made since LTI including those pesky electronic circuit boards.

I don't know much about electronic circuit boards but infrared measuring (I think that's what its called) is pretty accessible to the avera person these days. It still would be easy to make physical parts but I mean in terms of whether or not someone with capital would come along and reverse engineer a bunch of parts and produce them. I don't know. Maybe I'm just dreaming haha

@Train Nut posted:

Lionel made the statement i believe a few years before Mike R left.                     I will look for the thread/post.  I may be mistaken, but i don't think so.

95% of all parts in stock- Not even close!!

Mike R was the one who put in all the time updating and inserting pictures.

    (We all know what happened to Mike R, and all the good things that went with him.)

The parts listing for more recent items have never been updated/listed either.

Lionel doesn't "stock" parts except "staple items"  They make so many, whats left over after assembly is used for warantee work, the rest sold off and are then gone.  

Ironically. Lionels parts site is not working correctly. I get some sort of unsecured warning.

However, i know I can go on there and pull up a parts list for a 15+ year old loco and they will have 95% of the parts listed and available, except for  something like the shell that says its at NLTW.

As far as parts on newer stuff. There is typically a long delay after the release until the parts are listed. This is probably due to the item still being under warranty as well as the parts lists are made when a production model is disassembled, and the parts are identified, numbered and listed.

There are no 'parts" made. All parts come from extra 'whole " locomotives that are "parted out" ,this takes time.

Having said all that, I totally agree with you as far as "Mike R. " is concerned, and I have ended new big ticket purchases from Lionel for that reason.

I don't think Lionels parts dept is dead just yet, but its  likely beginning to wane

PARTS  are not stocked in a parts bin. A guy at Atlas once told me that they stock extra engines and cars that they disassemble  to satisfy parts requests.

Gee...I recently placed two separate orders for parts and had them in hand within, I would guess, 10 days or so...

Mark in Oregon 

Where are Carl, Lou and Joe when we really need them? <sigh>

Here's another active thread about North Lima Train Works...

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...9#149239177402906849