I have a Lionel Union Pacific 9002 4-8-4. It needed a new drive gear on the rear axle. I had order the gear and was temped to replace it myself but decided against it because of having to pull the wheels.
Talking to a friend about the engine, he wanted to take a look at it and see how hard it would be. He kept saying it would be easy to do. I told him he has never been around trains before so how would he know. His next comment was I have rebuild many car engines how hard could this be to rebuilding an engine. I explained about how you had to mark the wheels to keep them quarter and all, and he kept saying just like pull the timing chain and gears off on an engine. I just told him I would find a train shop somewhere and have them fix it. Well long story short, he did work on the train engine and had it back together, but now it when it runs it jerks, and binds, and will stall running forward. Running it in reverse it runs a little smoother but not much. I didn't say anything to him about the way it was running. All he said was it wasn't running before he worked on it, it runs now, and look on the bright side you were going to have to send it off to get it repaired in the first place.
Lesson learned. Living in East Tennessee I dont know of any place to take it. Any ideas for a repair shop??
