I recently bought a K-Line Hershey steamer set from a train show and I broke the eccentric plastic piece trying to find out why the engine wasnt smoking. Turns out its a TINY Sleuthe smoke stack (which works really well now I know what it is). This video helped me identify what I need to do to fix the eccentric. Thank you so much for a great and easy to follow video with part numbers and descriptions so I could find them. Thank you thank you thank you!! Really excited to have all my Hershey cars being pulled by a steamer and not switchers.
Neat topic......I have a nice 1990s Yuengling beer train with that engine I have been wanting to get out and run.....this motivates me to go over it and inspect it good before trying it out.
Very true, K-Line made some excellent locos. I'm a repair tech at Zitnik Trains in Pinellas Park, FL and we rarely get any K-Line locos in for service. On the other hand, we do get a constant flow of Lionel and MTH needing repairs and, unfortunately, about half of those need new control/sound boards of which most are unavailable.
I don't need or want all these high tech features. Just give us smoke and whistle/horn. That's all we need. Lionel wants to ram this high tech junk down our throats,
@@UPLINKUSA We got in a Lionel 8101 C&A steam loco with a bad sound board, but because it was made up of all discrete parts (transistors, capacitors and resistors), I was able to easily repair it. If you buy an older Lionel steam loco with a sound board, open up the tender BEFORE running it to make sure it isn't shorting out on something metallic because Lionel's adhesive pad lets go after a few decades and the board likes to short out against the speaker frame.
Thanks, Mike. I just bought a K-line AT&SF engine and tender with Railsounds at my local train show that I just uploaded to TH-cam recently on my channel. I have a second identical AT&SF engine with a mismatched tender. They both smoke pretty decent for now. I wasn't aware of the eccentric crank problem. I'll be sure to keep an eye out now. I lost a rivet on one of my Marx 333 eccentric cranks and will order some from Grossman. I'll order a complete eccentric crank also to see if it will work or can be modified to work on the K-line models.
The unfortunate thing is that they did it to themselves. They poached many designs directly from Lionel, and got caught with their hand in the proverbial cookie jar.
Ronald blame Bob Grubba he is the person K-Line hired from Lionel who stole all of Lionel's technology and ruined the K-Line train company and his own career in the process.I miss K-Line too.
I actually own a k line pacific and it’s awesome (apart from the previous owner doing a poor job at a tender truck swap). If there are suggestions on where I can find another one, I want to use its chassis and a General so I can have a budget friendly 19th century ten wheeler.
Hi Mike can you find out all the other road names that K-Line made this 4-6-2 steamer in I would greatly appreciate that. Thank you for sharing this!!!
🚂My smoke unit on mine burned out. It shorted the motor. I snipped a wire and now it runs fine without smoke. The smoke unit is a suethe tube i think its called. I couldn't find an exact replacement tube. 🚂
You can order Seuthe smoke units on line. Just Google Seuthe smoke units and the information should pop up for you. Seuthe units come in various sizes so you should find one that will fit. I've got a K-Line Pacific (From the Hershey set) with a blown smoke unit. I've never bothered replacing it as the set only comes out once a year for under the Christmas tree and I run those trains sound-off, smoke-off anyway.
@@wayneantoniazzi2706 Ok, thanks. I did that but could not find an exact match but I could adapt a similar one i suppose. They produce so little smoke i wonder if it's worth the effort.
@@UPLINKUSA I've got some Williams engines with Seuthe units and the smoking is let's say a six on a scale of one to ten. Not bad. However the Williams Seuthe's are twice the size of the one in my K-Line engine which looks like something out of an HO model. That's most likely why I never really gave serious thought to replacing it. Yeah, I don't think I'd bother.
I recently bought a K-Line Hershey steamer set from a train show and I broke the eccentric plastic piece trying to find out why the engine wasnt smoking. Turns out its a TINY Sleuthe smoke stack (which works really well now I know what it is). This video helped me identify what I need to do to fix the eccentric. Thank you so much for a great and easy to follow video with part numbers and descriptions so I could find them. Thank you thank you thank you!! Really excited to have all my Hershey cars being pulled by a steamer and not switchers.
Glad I could help!
Neat topic......I have a nice 1990s Yuengling beer train with that engine I have been wanting to get out and run.....this motivates me to go over it and inspect it good before trying it out.
My Lionel Hudson Jr. Smokes just about as well! Enjoyed the vid as always Mike!
Thanks for watching!
Great job Mike simple explanation to clearly get the train back on the rails thank you sir
Thanks for watching!
Greatly appreciated, thank you 😊 !!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great tips video, thanks!
Glad you found it helpful!
Loved K-Line🚂😊
Me too. 🤠
Very true, K-Line made some excellent locos. I'm a repair tech at Zitnik Trains in Pinellas Park, FL and we rarely get any K-Line locos in for service. On the other hand, we do get a constant flow of Lionel and MTH needing repairs and, unfortunately, about half of those need new control/sound boards of which most are unavailable.
The sad thing about our electronic age is that boards will eventually fail.
I don't need or want all these high tech features.
Just give us smoke and whistle/horn.
That's all we need. Lionel wants to ram this high tech junk down our throats,
@@UPLINKUSA We got in a Lionel 8101 C&A steam loco with a bad sound board, but because it was made up of all discrete parts (transistors, capacitors and resistors), I was able to easily repair it. If you buy an older Lionel steam loco with a sound board, open up the tender BEFORE running it to make sure it isn't shorting out on something metallic because Lionel's adhesive pad lets go after a few decades and the board likes to short out against the speaker frame.
Great tutorial
Thank you!
I have a couple of the marx replacements. I don't even have a 333. Ill check to see if they are the same size.
Thanks, Mike. I just bought a K-line AT&SF engine and tender with Railsounds at my local train show that I just uploaded to TH-cam recently on my channel. I have a second identical AT&SF engine with a mismatched tender. They both smoke pretty decent for now. I wasn't aware of the eccentric crank problem. I'll be sure to keep an eye out now. I lost a rivet on one of my Marx 333 eccentric cranks and will order some from Grossman. I'll order a complete eccentric crank also to see if it will work or can be modified to work on the K-line models.
Thanks for watching...and nice layout!!
It's a shame what happened to K-Line. They made real quality. And look at what Lionel is making.
The unfortunate thing is that they did it to themselves. They poached many designs directly from Lionel, and got caught with their hand in the proverbial cookie jar.
Ronald blame Bob Grubba he is the person K-Line hired from Lionel who stole all of Lionel's technology and ruined the K-Line train company and his own career in the process.I miss K-Line too.
I actually own a k line pacific and it’s awesome (apart from the previous owner doing a poor job at a tender truck swap). If there are suggestions on where I can find another one, I want to use its chassis and a General so I can have a budget friendly 19th century ten wheeler.
@@HighballMachineWorks Search train shows and eBay. Honestly, I see more original Marx 333s at shows than Kline steam.
Hi Mike can you find out all the other road names that K-Line made this 4-6-2 steamer in I would greatly appreciate that. Thank you for sharing this!!!
@@MatthewJoseph-td5qc I'll see what I can find out. K-line information is more difficult to acquire than Lionel.
Okay Thank you very much for that Mike I appreciate it!!
Brasseur sold their remaining inventory to Trainz.
Thanks for the information!
I had my side rod snap on my Hershey's model I got the train for $30 so I cut the rod to prevent it from getting worst
I guess that's the other solution.
@@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks not the greatest one but it works lol
🚂My smoke unit on mine burned out. It shorted the motor. I snipped a wire and now it runs fine without smoke.
The smoke unit is a suethe tube i think its called. I couldn't find an exact replacement tube. 🚂
The early smoke units were made by Suethe. After about 1993 or so k-line tried other suppliers, but none of them worked any better.
You can order Seuthe smoke units on line. Just Google Seuthe smoke units and the information should pop up for you. Seuthe units come in various sizes so you should find one that will fit. I've got a K-Line Pacific (From the Hershey set) with a blown smoke unit. I've never bothered replacing it as the set only comes out once a year for under the Christmas tree and I run those trains sound-off, smoke-off anyway.
@@wayneantoniazzi2706 Ok, thanks. I did that but could not find an exact match but I could adapt a similar one i suppose. They produce so little smoke i wonder if it's worth the effort.
@@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks Thanks. That's great info.
@@UPLINKUSA I've got some Williams engines with Seuthe units and the smoking is let's say a six on a scale of one to ten. Not bad. However the Williams Seuthe's are twice the size of the one in my K-Line engine which looks like something out of an HO model. That's most likely why I never really gave serious thought to replacing it. Yeah, I don't think I'd bother.