# New Bright Question



## StXElectroWiz (6 mo ago)

Hello everyone, I recently purchased a G scale Silver Rail Express on a bargain find I couldn't pass up for 5 bucks. I used to have many train sets growing up and my dad left me his 3 lionel sets when he passed this year on June 25th, I however didn't get them as to step family stole them. So being at a junkyard helping an older lady with her car and seeing this thing amongst items left in trunks and what have you setup on cheap snap together shelves was this 5 dollar find. Everything was in tact, but upon powering it up the bell rang, whistle blew, light worked, and a no go on the wheels. So be it as it may my wife opened the thing up lol and was afraid to tear into the gearbox though, before I opened it I noticed there was no gear in a position to make contact with the gear made onto the axle. It seems as if a worm gear should power the axle, or some other great engineering feat. I have searched everywhere and can't find any diagram of this train. I know this is more of a toy, and is Chinese made but at this point I figure why not ask you guys. I know yall probably hate them, I bought it because I remember my grandmother having one under her tree and it had the real smoke and loud bell/whistle noise and you could stop it or switch directions with the manual switch track. This one isn't the one that was recalled, it is the "two prong" female version. Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance. My 6 year old son is totally in love with it and hope I can get this particular going, he has been right there next to me through the whole thing and is really interested, ironic thing is he's the age at which my grandmother had one of these and when they issued the recall she packed it up in a box and in her attic it still sits.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Your comment about “Chinese made” caused me to laugh…..almost all the model trains now available are made in China….from the very best, most reliable, highly detailed, and expensive ones, to the lousy, crappy ones…..it all depends on the engineering, and what the manufacturer has invested in it….

And unfortunately, the New Bright line was not the one that was well engineered and invested in…..a total toy, albeit eye catching and cute….so unless you can find a second unit to cannabalize parts, I’m afraid it’s more trouble than it’s worth…..

So, if the train bug is starting to build, maybe it’s time to invest in one of the more reliable “Chinese made” models….just a thought….


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## StXElectroWiz (6 mo ago)

Well call me old school at 41 yep yep  I am not buying that crap! Detailed or not detailed it's time we take the hobby market BACK!!! LMAO No seriously though I kinda figured that it was a huge shot in the dark with crooked site lol. It was worth a shot...Anywhoo I messed around with it some more and introduced some different gears into the picture as well to see what I might be able to get going. It's no big deal and really thanks for the help bubba. I am thinking about making my own train from scratch, literally piece by piece but first I am going to make something out of this old RC controller I found when cleaning out the attic and a weedeater engine using a pocket bike centrifugal clutch! I may just cancel out the old 2.4 ghz RC troller and stick with an android or intranet solution using old cell phone parts including the camera to drive it, that way there really is no range restrictions. I am running into issues with getting the cameras removed from phones to work with the C programming language header files, if I get it to work it freezes up after a while, I just need to perfect the video buffer flushes and coding. I think maybe the problem is I am trying to add too many at once! So back to the drawing board again grrrrr.


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