# 2420 Searchlight Work Caboose



## Taylor622 (Jan 31, 2013)

I bought this Lionel 2420 on eBay. The seller honestly stated it had problems. A step was broken, the caboose shack had a corner of the roof broken off and the stove pipe chimney was broken off. And, the light did not work. I also bought the companion 2460 crane car, broken, but that is the next project. 
I bought a new old stock caboose shack and chimney. That was easy. I include a picture of the self- tapping screws that hold the caboose shack. Notice the spiral grooves. They don’t make them like that anymore. I brushed off the old bits of plastic and they went in like the holes were threaded. The chimney was so well engineered that it fit snugly into the hole without need of glue or a fastener. These old trains are just marvelous.
Replacing the step is a bit of a challenge. Getting a replacement part is not difficult. Removing the old step is difficult. The flat car body of the 2420 is diecast. Diecast is brittle and breaks if you try to bend it or distort it. There are two studs that were mushroomed holding on the steel steps. I tried to crush one and it broke off. I ground off the top of the other stud with a Dremel. That was much faster and cleaner. I fit the new steps in position and put a drop of gray JB Weld on top of the studs and the step brace. There’s a picture of that too. 
That great looking aluminum spot light did not work. I cleaned the black gunk off the wheels with a small sharp scraper and finished with acetone on a paper towel. I put the car on my track and applied some voltage; no light. I used my multimeter continuity test to trouble shoot the light circuit. To test the bulb, I removed the bulb and put one lead on the screw base and the other lead on the center contact; current flowed through the light bulb. The current flow is interesting for this car. The outside rail is electrically connected through the wheels and axles to the car body to the outside of the spot light. The screw base of the light bulb is connected to the outside of the spotlight. I connected one lead to the outside rail and the other to the outside of the spot light and current flowed from the outside rail to the outside of the spot light. Half the circuit worked fine. With the bulb removed, I connected one lead to the center rail and touched the other lead to the various mechanical parts of the circuit leading up to the center contact inside the spotlight. Since there was continuity to both contact areas of the spotlight, I concluded that there was a small gap between the center contact of the spotlight and the center contact of the light bulb. A picture shows my fix. I formed a small copper hockey puck to bridge the gap. But I needed to insulate the loose copper puck from also bridging the gap from the center contact to the outside of the spotlight. The little circle of plastic does that. My grandson will have another toy train as old as his grandpa.


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## ErnestHouse (Sep 6, 2015)

I like it. Nice job bringing it back to original working condition. In the category of modernizing these postwar trains for handing it down to another generation, I am updating/renovating mine with LEDs. I personally hate the "dead" look of darkened black windows in train cars. They are too lifeless for me. I recently updated my postwar work caboose with windows, lighting and FRED. Your's is already electrified and should be a piece of cake. YMMV.

http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showpost.php?p=1440849&postcount=43


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