Hotline Train Repair Guide

[ElectroDude]

Hotline Train collecting seems to be a fringe activity, but having recently acquired an opened but un-used Hotline set, I thought it would be a good opportunity to video me actually opening up a fresh Speedchief & show how I break these things apart & look at the state of the inside.

In the end it mushroomed into a 4 part restoration/repair guide epic. Hopefully someone somewhere will gain some useful information from this. I know myself there is little out there on repairing Hotline trains.

Most of this has been realized from applying fragments of information about Sizzlers cars from different sources, plus my own dissections & trials & errors. A lot of errors infact .
Many years ago Mike Grove told me his 'trade secret' method of how to open a Hotline train . This didn't work for me though, so I devised my own method of brute force & gratuitous violence...

The final part credits information sources I've used at the end, (even though they are mainly fragments), so hopefully haven't trodden on any toes.

If you have no interest in Hotline trains, these still may still be useful to watch if you suffer from insomnia.

Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C12JlLrJ67Q

Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2iwh...eature=related

Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT5eO...eature=related

Part 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ0Tz...eature=related

[nytro97]

I never the Hotline trains but, these video's will help someone not to destroy one trying to repair it. I might even have to find one now.

Thank you for sharing.

Tom

[JamHud22]

Thanks for posting, I opened one up a few months ago, having no tips on how it should be done, it was a chore to say the least. Never did get it running.
I shall have to watch you vids to see if I can get it going again.
I've never seen one actually operate.

[scull31]

I had the Hotline trains when I was a kid and enjoyed them immensely. In recent years I have acquired a good many Hotline pieces at flea markets & shows. I have had Mike Grove restore & re-chrome some of my pieces. I have also performed the following modification to 2 of the Speed Chiefs & Freight Crate Boxcars with great results.
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I have a very extensively equipped electronics store fairly close to me where I acquired these clips (I have never seen them in regular stores). They have flat surfaces where they clamp to something as opposed to serrated edges like most alligator type clips. Usually it is only the contacts around the battery that are destroyed, simply attach these clips to the contacts in front of the damaged area and you can run the trains normally through the forward/reverse switch at front of engine. I then modify the door assembly of a freight crate (see pic)to hold a 2 AA Battery holder (a AAA one might work a little better as it is narrower) I chose the AA holder as it will fit snugly in the space. For longevity use braided wire to make the wires between battery & clips(because of the constant flexing between the cars, it will hold up better). I don't know the gauge wire I just matched up something that was close to the wire size on the motors. As you can see in the pictures it is barely noticeable running between the cars. If you think about it it adds a little realism as real rail cars have air lines running between them anyway. These trains run very fast on 3 volts. I have never burned out a motor and have probably run them for 30 minutes or more. You do have to put at least 5-6 cars on it to control the speed as they will not stay on the track, particularly if you have a straight-away that is 3 track sections or longer. I guess the thing I like about this set-up is no recharging necessary also it has the same performance throughout it's run. Some day I would like to incorporate a wireless speed control of some sort to make it operate more like a model train.
Just thought I would share this with everyone. Thanks, Chris