Standard gauge Lionel Hiawatha Hudson

I have this engine and it may be my all-time favorite train of any gauge. I saw that one on the Bay, thought about bidding, and decided I had enough projects on my plate. 

To address your questions:

Catalog number is 6-13004. That is the number for the whole set; the locomotive was not for sale separately.

As far as I know Lionel would be the only source for parts.

I am not aware of any chronic, specific problem unique to the Standard Gauge Hudsons. The early version of TMCC had a variety of problems, mostly DOA radio boards, but nothing endemic to the Hiawatha and its twin, the NYC Commodore Vanderbilt. The only problems I have had with mine were a chronic problem with the headlight circuit in the TMCC board, which I eventually solved by wiring the headlight directly to the power pickup, a burned out smoke unit, fixed with a new resistor and wick, and a couple of the stamped sheet metal tires coming adrift from the drivers, solved with super glue. Or maybe it was JB Weld - I forget. 

By the way, the sound board is RS4, not RS3. I don't know if there ever was an RS3. As far as I know it went from RS2.5 to RS4. If you can't get the specific board for that engine, a generic medium size steam board should be fine. Or you could get the RS5 board for the 0 gauge Hiawatha 4-4-2, which has an air horn instead of a whistle. The sounds on this thing are superb - the speaker is huge and that makes all the difference. 

Neither the center pickup nor the tender wheels and axles should be a problem. I am pretty sure the tender uses standard 500 series wheels and axles, which are available from any of several prewar parts dealers. I get most of my parts from Jeff at The Train Tender. I'm not 100% sure about the wheels and axles and my Hiawatha is in the box and buried under a lot of other stuff, but I'm pretty sure. If you can't get the exact center roller set from Lionel, it shouldn't be rocket science to mouse one up. I suspect a regular Bild-a-Loco pickup (just the pickup, not the whole plate) could be made to work, if that's not what's there to begin with.

I would advise starting with Lionel when their parts department reopens in a few days, and then move to Plan B if they don't have what you want. Boxcar Bill should have whatever TMCC parts you need, at a discount. You can contact me offline if you need any help - you have my e-mail. If necessary I can pull mine out of the box and look at the areas where you are missing parts to give you some advice on what might fit. 

Thanks.

I was hoping that there was a parts diagram on the Lionel website so I could see how the pickup attaches to the chassis. I will have to look at the loco again tonight. The bottom pick up area does look like a Build-a-loco motor to me.

Craig,

Thanks for the lead. I sent them an email.

Hiawatha,

Thanks for the catalog number.

They did not respond to the email, but I was able to find the part number on their site and ordered it. Hopefully it will come and hopefully it will be the right part. We shall see.