Menards Santa Fe locomotive Maintenance & troubleshooting jerky operation

[@jameshyde1501]

Such a pleasant person to watch as a hobbyist who is good at repairing and restoring and enjoying.

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Thanks for the heartfelt comment James, I really appreciate it. I'm glad you are part of this community.

[@jameshyde1501]

@@TooManyHobbiesJeremy I continue to learn a great deal from your vlog posts. THANK YOU!

[@Coreyt1976]

I’m glad you were able to fix it. I love watching your videos where you fix things.

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Thank you Corey, I really appreciate it.

[@vitale6633]

Great Debug Video! Totally dig your environment and setup! Thanks for sharing the fix to the locomotive.

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Thanks! I really enjoy fixing these more than running them.

[@goldenmanuever1176]

Recently purchased SF production AA units (not the betas). I could not be more happy. Flawless paint, assembly, and operation. As a Lionel-only guy, I have to admit that these are some of my more exciting O purchases. I took mine apart and found it to be well assembled. I did place a drop of syn. oil on the end of each motor bushing as they were dry, cleaned out all the grease, and re-greased with Vanquish rock lube, which is one of the best model greases available (compatible with all kinds of gears). What attracts me the most to these engines is the super bright LEDs, chrome frame, and trucks. It may not be prototypical, but man, is it cool!

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Excellent! Thanks for sharing your experiences. I'm hoping for more road names this winter season. Or at least a blue bonnet SF paint scheme like they had on the Betas.

[@goldenmanuever1176]

@@TooManyHobbiesJeremy Agree 100%! If we could get Western Pacific, New York Central lighting stripe, or the SF Blues, I would purchase immediately!

[@bnmodelrailroad1856]

Thanks for sharing this maintenance video for the Menards locomotives.

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Your most welcome BN. I hope my relief when I found only a broken wire showed. I was worried it would be much worse after that rear motor quit.

[@bradkorando]

Excellent repair video Jeremy. I'm really surprised to see such heavy gauge wire beings used. Also, the wire looks to be really stiff and rather short. I recently rebuilt an old non-operational Lionel ZW transformer and used 14 gauge stranded copper high temperature wire with silicone insulation. I was very impressed with how flexible the 14 gauge wire is when it has silicone insulation. I think it would be great wiring for locomotive motors, or pick-ups on rotating trucks. Thanks for another helpful video and keep up the great work!

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Thanks Brad. The short length was due to the excess being stuffed under the circuit board and everything zip tied together. Now that's fixed I will hopefully not have that same problem again. Congrats on rebuilding that ZW - was it as hard of a job as you expected? Those things look pretty involved for a teardown just by looking at the diagram.

[@bradkorando]

@@TooManyHobbiesJeremy Thanks! I referred a lot to the video by Ron on @classicmodeltrains and was able to get the job pretty well. I'm not nearly as good at repairs as you are and yet, by following the instructions on the video, I found the process to be pretty straight forward. I spread the work out over a few evenings, but all total I think it took me about 3-4 hours. Including the time I spent thoroughly cleaning and polishing the case and lenses and applying new paint to the voltage scales. I bought the transformer as non working with a cutoff cord for $20 and spent about $50 on the rebuild kit, so for the $70 I have a into it I think I got a good deal. It's certainly a doable project for anyone willing to give it a try. I think you'd have no trouble at all with the rebuild.

[@trainman5603]

Nice video and glad you covered screws into plastic bodies!

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Thanks! My friend Ed who does videos on my other channel (Pinball Mayhem) is a big proponent of being super careful with screws in plastic. I'm slowly learning 😁

[@RaysTrains]

Love watching your fixes Jeremy. Also you are getting close to 1K!!

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

I really appreciate that Ray. Thank you for the continued support. My 1K goal is in sight ❤️ I'll reach 4k watch hours in a couple of weeks. To keep public watch hours up, I've been putting out 2 videos a week (plus livestreaming). It seems to be working.

[@stevesoscaletrainchannel.1901]

Good video diagnosing the problem. Thanks for sharing.

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Thank you very much Steve.

[@w.rustylane5650]

Looks like you intermingle O gauge with Lionel 027. Only true O gauge I have is a Williams Mikado that I was gonna repaint and make it into the famous Southern #4501, the last of the MS class which now resides at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. The Williams engine is a lot larger than any of my Lionel 027. Cannot wait to take a ride on the 4501. I model that engine in HO gauge with a Mehano Mikado smoker decked out in the Southern Crescent Limited livery. Cheers from eastern TN

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Yep! I'm not focused enough to stick to one standard or railroad gauge :) Thanks for watching the video.

[@paulbervid1610]

Very nice. Great work

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Thanks Paul, I was super happy how it turned out.

[@williamsantangelo]

All wheel drive is kool, and a remote! Thanks

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

You're welcome. It's quite the puller too.

[@edwardrygiel5178]

I have this engine also. If I start having the same problem I will know what to look out for. Thank you very much!

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Congrats on getting the Menards engine. I hope you have many years of trouble free operation. I'm looking forward to seeing if/when they bring out either other road names or a completely new engine.

[@Northcoastrails]

A nice maintenance video 😊

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Thank you so much North Coast.

[@greendiode5522]

Great thanks for sharing!

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Glad you liked it

[@billfusionenterprise]

Like stressed wires wont break, right, see all the time at work

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

So true Bill ❤️

[@billfusionenterprise]

Except for the beta testers, no one has them before. Love the dummy units with one time smoke generators

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Tell me more about the dummy units.

[@billfusionenterprise]

@@TooManyHobbiesJeremy before the released to stores there was a powered and dummy set on website for beta testers. Apparently when someone designed them they forgot the AC nature of 3 rail and the constant lighting caps blew. Next models got a board fix

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Ahh, Thank you. I was worried about the production dummy A unit (they are now available for $90.00)

[@billfusionenterprise]

@@TooManyHobbiesJeremy When you look inside you will see a circuit board with a "full bridge rectifier" on it.

[@mikebrzostowski8183]

Question: does Lionel or any manufacturer make what was called a Camelback locomotive? Saw a video about early locos that were mainly used on commuter lines on east coast. Strange looking engines.

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

www.trainworld.com/lionel-2331560-erie-legacy-camelback-918.html

[@tnadeau6435]

Hi Jeremy. Love your videos. Very informative. I know they ship with DC power supplies and am planing on changing over to AC to run Legacy/TMCC locomotives. Will the Menards locomotives run on AC power?

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Yes they will. But I would restrict it to 18 volts. Of all my Menards videos (I have a playlist of videos) only 2 of them are using DC power from the original power pack. The rest are running off of my MTH Z4000 (AC power)

[@tnadeau6435]

@@TooManyHobbiesJeremy Thank you again! Yes the AC transformers I have on order are all 18V AC. I appreciate your valuable info as I'd hate to damage my Menards engines.

[@bendirval3612]

My front engine stops working intermittently (for much longer periods than you were seeing). I was really excited when I saw this video and checked those connections, but they seem very solidly soldered. Do these actual motors stop working randomly?

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Interesting! I think both motors are driven off the same output on the circuit board (not 100% sure though). If they are, then I might try some contact cleaner on the brushes - BUT let it dry completely before turning on the power.

[@josiah9008]

I just recently picked up a the Union Pacific. I was surprised how much slower it is than my 1997 Lionel o27 Santa Fe war bonnet set. Does the motor produce more torque being a bigger engine? So there is more towing capacity, instead of top speed? Or are the motors just that cheap in the Menards trains vs Lionel in 1997?

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Thanks for subscribing & commenting ❤️ The electronics are limiting the top speed. Since there are 2 large motors with traction tires, the pulling power is bery good. Check out my video on testing the Menards power pack. I pull 30 cars of various weights and it did great. The motors don't have flywheels but they do have large brushes wich was a big surprise to me. Cheap motors don't have any brushes (just metal tabs that rub on the comutator). I prefer the UP gray undercarriage to the SF chrome.

[@jamesnear3911]

I am wondering if the Lionel Universal remote could work with the Manards engines? Being that they are blue tooth. Do you know if this is possible?

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Excellent question - I doubt it would work. As Lionel will use their own identification codes. But if you had a remote handy it would be fun to test.

[@JimAlderson-cn6ek]

Have the blue bonet beta and UP may want to mention to use plastic friendly lubricate due to the nylon gears also had issues with Allen screw that holds truck to motor can work loose I just check it periodically had mine couple years still working well do wish they each had their own adres so u could run two santafes or two UPs at same time but as u say it is wat it is good for the price

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Excellent point!

[@Bootsvoid]

A FYI on WD40, it's nothing more than Kerosene with some additives. So it's not a good lubricant, just made to penitrate and free up frozen rusted joints like rusted bolts, etc.

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Correct, not a good lubricant.

[@genemanno1533]

The wires should have some type of strain relief to avoid the stress on the soldered portion of the wires. Obviously the wires are too short to install a strain relief to the motor case. China made stuff always has cut corners. In this case short wires. As the engine is run around curves the same thing will happen again and you will have another broken wire. Fatigue of the soldered wire end is inevitable with out longer wire and strain relief. Otherwise interesting video for beginners.😊

[@TooManyHobbiesJeremy]

Thanks Gene. Here's the interesting thing - there was plenty of extra wire available. The excess was zip tied up under the circuit board (Doh!) During the repair I was able to pull enough out.