3512 FIRE CAR

The Lionel Postwar 3512 car has operating and manual elements. I read that this car required more spare parts be stocked than any other Lionel operating car. I can see why.

I am not trying to replace the Lionel repair manual, just add some notes that I think would be helpful. I had 2 of these cars. One with broken plastic and one with plastic in good shape, but missing a lot of the pieces. I took 2 cars with problems and made 1 good car.

The drive wheels were different on the 2 cars. One had one solid axle wheel set and one floating axle wheel set. This only provided driving force from one wheel. The back wheel set has a floating axle here.

The other car had 2 solid axle wheel sets. This is the setup I used in the end. It worked much better at driving the mechanism. This shows the rubber band installed. Use the original style rubber band with a rectangular profile. Many vendors offer an O-ring as the 3512-26 part number. It DOES NOT WORK well. It is too stiff and the round profile does not grab well on the axle. It took me many tries to find a vendor that sold the correct rubber band under the 3512-26 part number. I bought a bunch. Sorry, I can't find the vendor reference currently. The axles and pulley need to be cleaned of any goo the previous rubber band may have left behind. Some disintegrated into goo while sitting on shelves for years.

This shows the mechanical linkage that rotates the light cover causing a strobe effect and moves the fireman back and forth. It is covered and rarely dirty. The only place I would oil is on the gear shafts. A small drop of lightweight oil only. The plastic gears need no oil.

There may be a problem with the slotted lamp shade cover for the light. It can rub on the red light cover and interrupt the motion. Why does this happen?

First look at the assembly. This picture shows the light is not centered front to rear in the hole of the cover. Both of my cars were this way.

This alone does not cause a problem everything clears. Until the car moves. As the car moves on the track, tolerances time and fit cause the light cover to tilt.

This tilt happens on both of my cars. The height, size and amount of tilt of the Lamp Shade is the problem. I did 2 things to minimize and eliminate the rubbing it caused.

First I noticed there was slop in the cover when mounted. I bent the mounting tab next to the light out to move the cover back a little. To better center the cover. This small difference may be enough to fix the problem.

The other thing I did was make a new 3512-58 lamp shade with 3D printing. It was 2mm shorter and 1.5 mm smaller OD around the top. This will work when an LED bulb is used for the light. It may not work with an incandescent bulb as it will be closer to the heat of the bulb with less cooling air flow. The details for this are in the 3512-58 mod page.

The Extension Ladder

The extension ladder is cranked out manually. The extension ladder must move smoothly within the base ladder. Mine did. There is a crank, string and spring involved to allow you to crank out the ladder.

The 3512-49 line is a set length with formed ends for attachment. The line connects to the 4th rung from the bottom of the extension ladder. goes under the extension ladder and over the base ladder to the front roller. Around the front roller, under the base ladder to the crank pulley. Under and around the puller for 1 full wrap plus 90 degrees and back up over the base ladder.

As shown in the first ladder picture it attaches to the 3512-48 spring, under the extension ladder and the spring connects to the middle rung of the extension ladder. You need a hooked wire to do this. Attach the spring to the line and then use a hooked wire to pull the spring and clip it on the middle rung. Trying to connect the spring to the ladder first and pull it to the string will cause you to over-extend the spring.

A click-pal and spring are used to hold the ladders elevation. Attach the spring to the click-pal first. The spring body goes around the square end of the click-pal. Then attach the spring to the ladder base.

This mechanism may not hold the ladder down against the front mount firmly. This is a problem if it swings around and breaks bits off of the front mount. The front mount is often broken on these cars. A tie down band may be needed to keep the ladder down and prevent it swinging while the car is running.

The other delicate thing on this car is the 3 spare hose nozzles and their mounts. Often missing or broken. The nozzles do not actually fit over the fireman's rubber nozzle.

I suggest mounting the fireman lightly and observing the motion and adjusting the position. DO NOT twist the fireman. Pry it up off the shaft, adjust the position and then push back down.

There are 2 side ladders, one for each side. There are two mounting pins on each side. Carefully mount the ladders and make sure they are down behind the top of the pin and fit under the bottom of the pin. Any bend, twist or ding in the side ladders may prevent it from sliding under the bottom of the pin.

Lionel 3512 Post War Fire car

Repair and Tuning