Greenberg's Repair and Operating Manual for Lionel Trains, 1945-1969

I recently purchased this book and highly recommend it to anyone interested in collecting Post War Lionel. It has already saved me at least ten times what I paid for it in repair costs. I am thirty-five years old and have never owned a "new" train. I operate all of my father and uncle's old Lionel trains. Most of the accessories I own are Post War era and were purchased at train shows or as used items at local train stores. The older stuff just seems to have more character. That being said, they do not always operate as effectively as possible. Since I bought this book I have repaired a 342 culvert loader, two semaphores, a 140 banjo signal, a 252 crossing gate, and a 221 steam engine. I am by no means a train repair specialist, but this book made doing repairs much easier. The book provides exploded views of almost everything Lionel built from 1945-1969. It also provides parts numbers (as well as original prices for those parts), and explanations for how each item works as well as trouble shooting tips for most items. Although the print is small it is still clearly readable for me. This book has been a great resource and has allowed me to buy items in fair or poor condition (at a fraction of the cost of something new) and refurbish it to something that looks good and works very well.

I've recently acquired some Lionel locomotives from 1946-49 and really wanted to know how to look after them properly as they have some minor, but possibly significant, differences from locos made in the 1950's. I found this book absolutely priceless. Since there aren't a lot of these Lionel products left in the world, and a lot of the people who worked on them 50 years ago have gone to that great roundhouse in the sky, information has been hard to come by. It also tells me a lot about the various transformers made in the "glory days" of Lionel.I have to disagree with some reviewers who have noted that the type is hard to read and/or that the paper is poor quality. I found the type crisp and the paper of a quality sufficient to its purpose. The paper is certainly superior to the coarse paper found in mass-market paperbacks, though not of the very best quality which would have made the book more expensive. The type is small, but making it larger would make the book uncomfortably large or necessitate it being split into two volumes. Anyone with normal vision shouldn't have any problem with it.

It's been said before, it'll be said again: if you want to work on postwar Lionel electric trains, this is an essential resource to have. While unfortunately it doesn't contain everything Lionel produced between 1945 and 1969, almost everything is in the book. Every steam, diesel, and electric locomotive has some sort of reference to look to in this book, and most if not every single operating car (and some non-operating cars).These reprinted service documents are exceedingly helpful for two reasons (among many):For one, over time, Lionel took notice of recurring issues with certain products, and notes are made of some of these common faults, and the recommended solutions. While the vast network of Lionel Corporation's service stations are a thing of the past, the instructions provided to them are invaluable and very handy to be made aware of.The other extremely useful aspect of this book, is that the old repair documents show part numbers for all the exploded diagrams. This makes it exceedingly easy to locate replacement parts, as while the original company is gone, replacement/reproduction parts suppliers still use the old product numbers in most cases. Instead of stumbling around for the right search term, you can know exactly what it is you need, and find it online quickly.I personally felt that the physical quality of the book isn't perfect- the coating on the cover of my copy started peeling a bit not more than a week after I bought it. But the paper is bright and the printing is clear. A choice I'm not a huge fan of, is that rather than making some corrections to errors in the book, there is a section devoted to pointing out the errors, rather than fixing them. So sometimes you may unknowingly run into some incorrect information unless you double check the "corrections" section. A little annoying, but it doesn't ruin the book's usefulness.I will warn that among the items it does not give you a parts list or detailed service documents for, is the 3530 Generator Car set, No. 65 handcar, and anything HO. In the case of the former two, I do not know if these items ever had service documents. In the case of the latter, service documents DID exist but seem to have not been reprinted. Parts are largely un-reproduced, so the collector of Lionel HO manufactured by Lionel Corp between 1959 and 1966 is rather on their own.All in all, I do recommend buying yourself a copy despite the shortcomings it has here and there. On the whole it will serve you very well, and you'll be glad to have it.

Gerat information and diagrams.

These are not a step by step repair guide. There were written for factory trained service persons. Not every item number will be in the service manual. You may need to locate a similar piece and use that info. Have used these for years and usually wear the books out. Not every part is still available and many are reproductions.

Excellent reference book for maintenance and repair of older Lionel trains!

Excellent resource for all things Lionel in the post-war era. I can't imagine needing any other book here. As another person said, sometimes it's a little small with text, perhaps these were on larger sheets originally, but still good to reference and I can properly see the text and images.

Good general repair book

Muy ilustrativo

I have a very old 1950s train set. This book is well written with pictures and part numbers. Good detail on repairing, maintaining Lionel trains.

Um livro muito útil

I needed a book to revive a 1955 O-27 set that had a lot of butchered parts. This book was the definitive answer. Switches that didn't work turned out to be wired incorrectly. Wiring schematics in the book brought them back to life. This book has more than paid for itself 5 times over in both cost and frustration savings. Don't buy this book to build a railroad and scenery set. Get it because you want everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) to work the way it was meant to run. Part numbers, schematics and diagrams fill this book. Buy this book and be prepared to fix anything Lionel from 1945 to 1969.

The book has a comprehensive overview of the entire gambit of post-war Lionel products that helps you repair and understand how Lionel stuff was made. Very handy!