Parts from Lionel

The new parts website is a mess and a big step backwards over the old site.  I have yet to order anything but I have done searches, others will chime in on the experiences.

I've been asking them for a year for the parts diagram for a Legacy Berkshire. I need a 10 cent part. They are pathetic.

@William Jack posted:

I was just on the phone with Lionel.    I explained that I could not find parts for my American Flyer trains.  She explained that" if it was not on the web site then Lionel does not have it"

Are any of you having problems getting parts from Lionel?   If you are not having problems, please tell me your secrets for success...........

Jackie

It’s a total dumpster fire, it seems they have very little appetite in the way of support/parts. But they will sell you another new and improved one.

I've been resurrecting my Lionel stuff that had been sitting in a non-climate controlled garage in Houston for 20 years.  I needed a lot of parts.  I've had near 100% success rate on eBay.  I have an old K-line book with all the postwar Lionel stuff in it, along with exploded parts diagrams and instructions.  I just search for that part number on eBay, and there was maybe 1 or 2 things I had to go elsewhere.

I need to jump on the bandwagon here too. Last night I was looking for the pick-up assembly used for the baby Madison 6 wheel trucks. I knew the main number was 9536, I couldn't remember the suffix number. I looked under pick up, pick-up assembly, 6 wheel truck, 6 wheel truck with pick-up. Nothing. I could not find that part anywhere. If you don't have the complete number, the search function is useless. At least the old site a partial number you could usually find what you need. I went over to Train Tender's site and found the number easy-peasy.

LIONEL: Dump this site and reinstate the old one. It is a failure. Not user friendly at all. Too much wasted space with duplicate pictures of the same item. No logical order at all.

@Chuck Sartor posted:

LIONEL: Dump this site and reinstate the old one. It is a failure. Not user friendly at all. Too much wasted space with duplicate pictures of the same item. No logical order at all.

You have to wonder who's bright idea it was to nuke a working site and replace it with this monstrosity!

Usually the people in the company's IT department come up with plans for these "new improved" sites, also known as job security. Otherwise they are the results of outside IT consultants and are called a good sales effort (by the IT consultants).

I can't say what happened with the lionel parts page, but it looks familiar to me.

I have been working with software companies for 40 years and this is the best way I can explain what happens to some.

• Get something made, hurry. No time for documentation, hack and wack to get it going.  We will fix it up later.
• Success, keep building and try to patch the structure and fill in documentation when you can.
• After a few years, no one, not even the one that wrote it can figure out the mess. 
• Before full collapse, start over with new and improved version.

Companies that follow the Einstein axium, tend to do better and software works better.  "If I had 1 hour to save the world I would take 55 minutes to define the problem."    During the internet explosion, the creator of Amazon took 6 months testing and building the system.   Can anyone even remeber the original competitors to Amazon today?

Just placed an order in the Lionel parts system. It has been exactly one month since my last order.

There have been 7,959 orders for parts in the system in a month.

7,959 orders in a month? That's a 1,000 part orders a week. Something doesn't sound right. How could they humanly process all those?

@choochoopaul posted:

It has been exactly one month since my last order.

Did you receive it?

Mine took a month. They could speed it up if they didn't vacuum seal every part individually.

@Robert Cushman posted:

Mine took a month. They could speed it up if they didn't vacuum seal every part individually.

They have always done that plus put the part number on the bag and still got it out the door within three days before this change. Thats not the holdup. Who knows whats going on? My last order from MTH was marked shipped within 30 minutes of my placing it. Had it in three days.

Pete

Lack of parts, lack of repair facilities, and to a lesser extent, lack of a 990 have caused me to permanently stop buying anything new from Big Orange.

I found everything that I needed for a repair to a Legacy 3751 back in January.  Easy PZ and I was somewhat impressed at the time.  But, in typical, modern Lionel fashion....."if it's not broke, we'll eventually screw it up."  They, literally, can't do anything right any more.  They actually spent time and money to make their web site.....worse.

I now need parts for a Legacy Big Boy and can NOT find them on this ridiculous web site.

At today's price points, I can't see how people still put up with this horrific customer service.

Regarding the new Lionel support website, I've said it a few times before, they really need to bring back the previous functionality for searching for items vs replacement parts. And the old filters for item/replacement part starts with, contains and ends with.

Another item I noticed, some of the items are almost hidden, for example item 1933500 CN&W Alco FA. Go to the page for that item and the only item listed is the owners manual. Does not list the two A units.  However if you search for 1933501 or 1933502 you will find the parts list for each of the engines.  And the search only works for an exact match, type 193350 and you don't see any results. So unless you know the exact item number, you wont find the parts. On the old website, the two engines would be listed right under item 1933500 along with the breakdown of the individual items, made sense.

What's quite quite concerning, if you look at many of the high end sets from the past two years, there are virtually no replacement parts. Some only list just placeholders with only a manual.

I've worked with Engineering databases for the past 20 years, and I can say the Lionel support website is truly a mess. Definitely falls in to the category of lets get something new up and running, even if it doesn't work.

@Berkshire President posted:

Lack of parts, lack of repair facilities, and to a lesser extent, lack of a 990 have caused me to permanently stop buying anything new from Big Orange.

I found everything that I needed for a repair to a Legacy 3751 back in January.  Easy PZ and I was somewhat impressed at the time.  But, in typical, modern Lionel fashion....."if it's not broke, we'll eventually screw it up."  They, literally, can't do anything right any more.  They actually spent time and money to make their web site.....worse.

I now need parts for a Legacy Big Boy and can NOT find them on this ridiculous web site.

At today's price points, I can't see how people still put up with this horrific customer service.

Which Legacy Big Boy are you looking for parts for ?  I have one of the first Legacy versions, made around 2007 and surprisingly there a few parts listed for it. Searching just "Big Boy" shows 527 parts, way too many items to scroll thru. Entering the Lionel 5 digit PN found it, don't need the 6- prefix.

@ed h posted:

What's quite quite concerning, if you look at many of the high end sets from the past two years, there are virtually no replacement parts. Some only list just placeholders with only a manual.

That's a very REAL concern, IMHO.

I can no longer justify or risk spending 2K+ on a steam engine when it's unclear if there are replacement parts available and there are essentially no local Qualified Service Stations any longer.

When the Warranty Period expires, you're pretty much left hanging in the wind if anything goes wrong.

Fortunately, there are are several excellent "repair guys" on this Forum who do an excellent job.

Unfortunately, even they need parts.

@ed h posted:

Which Legacy Big Boy are you looking for parts for ?  I have one of the first Legacy versions, made around 2007 and surprisingly there a few parts listed for it. Searching just "Big Boy" shows 527 parts, way too many items to scroll thru. Entering the Lionel 5 digit PN found it, don't need the 6- prefix.

6-11104.  The first Legacy Big Boy #4014.

https://www.lionelsupport.com/...tive-Only-6101104001

My 4014 is perfect other than the smoke unit.  But guess what parts aren't available?

My thoughts were to get an extra board(s) as well....but I don't think they're available either.

My model was at a local Service Station that, surprisingly, is qualified to make the repairs.  I dropped it off in January and picked it up last week...untouched.  The guy is retiring next month and doesn't want to crack open my model without first knowing the likely required parts are available.  I can't blame him.

I had the unfortunate luck of dropping this model off while the website was taken down.  Boo........

@Berkshire President posted:

6-11104.  The first Legacy Big Boy #4014.

https://www.lionelsupport.com/...tive-Only-6101104001

My 4014 is perfect other than the smoke unit.  But guess what parts aren't available?

My thoughts were to get an extra board(s) as well....but I don't think they're available either.

My model was at a local Service Station that, surprisingly, is qualified to make the repairs.  I dropped it off in January and picked it up last week...untouched.  The guy is retiring next month and doesn't want to crack open my model without first knowing the likely required parts are available.  I can't blame him.

I had the unfortunate luck of dropping this model off while the website was taken down.  Boo........

I believe that smoke unit uses this AC regulator and is available.

691ACRG103

Its usually the regulator that fails, not the unit itself. Worth a shot.

Pete