ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.
I inherited the subject piece from my father when he passed away. I think there are several things wrong with it (although I'm not sure as I have n't seen it work in 40 years. I was wondering if there was someone on this forum who had one that was working or was familiar with it.
I've tried running it. Nothing happens. I've removed the cover so I could get at the innards. When I apply power to the solenoid (?) again nothing happens. The arm that moves the forklift has a spring with a piece of string attached to it. The string is not attached to anything. Unfortunately, all the pieces are riveted to a steel housing, so I can't easily remove anything either.
The guy at The Train Tender used to have it listed, but I don't see it in his current on-line site. Perhaps you might email him and ask, it was $29 from him.
If there's a busted spring, chances are, you could replace it with a new spring (you might find a 'close enough' in a hardware store variety pack). The solenoid probably pulls it one way, and the spring pulls it back; without the spring, the solenoid doesn't have any work to do.
Get a little oil in the joints, make sure it all moves freely, new spring... give it another go.
So after fiddling with it for a little bit, all of a sudden it started working. There may be some corrosion on the the copper wire because I have to move it around to get it to work (one of the binding posts is broken and the wire has broken loose from the other post, so I am wiring it direct to the transformer) I'll keep "exercising" it and see if I can get it to work consistently. I appreciate all your help and information
