Giorginetto's Questions on Trains

[Wesley Myers]

Be careful do not try to pull to many wagons with the Playmobil locomotives as you may strip the main gear in the motor unit. A lot of people have and you can not get the spares now.

So this is something to be very wary of when buying a train off the internet then (especially ebay).

Why wouldn't Playmobil still offer that part? 

It's like they want them to become wrecked and unfixable so you have to replace them with the new RC trains (which aren't around anymore, anyway!)...

[tomegood87]

So this is something to be very wary of when buying a train off the internet then (especially ebay).

Why wouldn't Playmobil still offer that part? 

It's like they want them to become wrecked and unfixable so you have to replace them with the new RC trains (which aren't around anymore, anyway!)...

 Still it could happen to the RC trains

[Wesley Myers]

Still it could happen to the RC trains

So we should buy extra main gears while they are still available then (for RC trains).

Obviously they are not compatible? (R/C to transformer trains' main gears)



I still find it hard to believe Playmobil doesn't support it's products.  It's not like they went out of the toy business or only sold a few hundred transformer powered trains or this is something from 50 years ago.

[Knight Train]

DS in US doesn't sell the gears and wheels for the RC engine, you have to buy the complete engine block.  I know because I got a train off ebay that had stripped gears 

[Wesley Myers]

DS in US doesn't sell the gears and wheels for the RC engine, you have to buy the complete engine block.  I know because I got a train off ebay that had stripped gears 

So are the engine blocks the same for R/C trains and the transformer powered trains?

[tomegood87]

The shapes of the blocks are different. You have to make modifications to the loco to fit the battery in the old style .  I haven't converted any of my trains from electric to R/C.  The electric block has a double ended motor with two gears one for each axle, and the RC has one gear going to one axle.  I'm not sure if the gears from the RC can be used in the electric or vice versa

R/C block http://playmodb.org/setpics/7248.jpg

electric engine block http://playmodb.org/setpics/7550.jpg

[Knight Train]

I think I remember looking and they engine block wheels are not interchangable.   Buying poor condition engines on ebay is one way to get used engine blocks cheap.  I found that engines in poor condition - missing roof, smoke stacks, bumper switches, ususally have decent blocks.  Maybe they don't get used much after the parts fall off 

I've had engines in good condition with engine blocks that needed to be completely rebuilt - new springs, pickups, gease removed and relubed and the wheels sanded down to make good contact with the track.

[Giorginetto]

yep i think so too...

[playmofire]

I still find it hard to believe Playmobil doesn't support it's products.  It's not like they went out of the toy business or only sold a few hundred transformer powered trains or this is something from 50 years ago.

Playmobil does support its products but it cannot afford to do so indefinitely. Spares are usually available for something like 7 years after an item has been discontinued and the electric trains were discontinued long before that.

[Giorginetto]

I am sure i have seen this before here somewhere but is there a software design pack for building LGB rails truck layouts? with so much truck i will desperately need it to design my rail layout !!!!