I haven't been at this very long, so I have some very basic questions concerning Williams locos. All I have purchased so far has been Lionel products and to keep it polite I’ll just say I am less than satisfied with their locomotives.
My questions are:
Are the Williams locos Standard or Traditional O as defined by Lionel.
Can they be operated with a Lionel CW80 Transformer?
Will they operate on Lionel’s FasTrack, especially their switches without bouncing around and derailing?
Will they couple up properly with Lionel and K-Line cars?
What I’m looking for is a dependable locomotive that will work with all of this Lionel equipment that I have purchased, otherwise I’m ready to EBay and yard sale what I have to recoup as much of my money as I can and move on to a new hobby.
YES to all of your above! I don't have any of there new stuff, mine all postwar Lionel and have made the switch to williams. Just do a search on Williams here and here, http://ogaugerr.infopop.cc/eve/forums you won't be dissapointed with Williams. I have 8 different ones and like them all. I'm not real fond of their horn/whistles units though. Yea, I'm happy.
This thread originally appeared in Classic Trains in error, so I have moved it to its appropriate forum, and am also bumping it with this post so that the OP gets the benefit of the membership's experience and good will.
Maybe it would help to describe the issues you are having. I don't have any Williams, but the price seems pretty good but I don't know if I would consider them overly detailed, at least their plastic shelled diesels. Certainly no more than any Lionel or MTH engine. If you are unhappy with a starter set engine and wish it had more detail or less plastic parts, consider stepping up to better engine in Lionel, MTH or Williams. I assume that to be the case since you noted you had a CW-80 which usually comes in starter sets. Either way, unless you really aren't interested in the hobby, don't give up just yet.
Answer is yes to the above but I would say traditional in detail and closer to standard in length. Lionel railsounds is a hard system to beat in my opinion though!
I have 8 Williams locos,7 Diesel and 1 steam.I have had no problems with any of them.They are compatible with ,seemingly,all 3 rail O guage products.Some are very close to scale in size and some are close to what Lionel refers to as traditional.The detail on their products is often better than on Lionel post-war products.The locos with 2 motors are wired in parallel and can easily be modified to series wiring for slower running speeds.The horns and whistles have a nice sound but only blow one pattern.TMCC or other modifications can be added.
The freight cars are larger than Lionel traditional.Passenger cars can be had in O-27 traditional size and two longer lengths,I think.
None of the present Williams products are super detailed but do have a very nice appearance for the cost.
All of the above is,of course,just my opinion.
Williams engines run very well and will work with your Lionel set. But don't be so qiuck to judge a company by one set, Lionel has some real nice running engines just like all the other toy train importers.
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The Williams products are well built and run well. They are reproductions of the classic post-war Lionel without all the modern electronics (which can be added). You get a good product at a good price.
Many of their items are considered "Traditional O", but Williams does have some scale items too.
They are heavy items so bouncing around and derailing isn't much of an issue.
My engines and cars work fine with Lionel, MTH, and Ready Made Toys, products (I don't have any K-Line) .
Enjoy.
You might keep in mind the new PW classics coming in the spring which if no less expensive are at least comparable in price to the williams copies of the same engines, ie. FM, GG-1, GP-7/9 etc.
I'm looking for them!
I have 8 Williams locomotives that are powered and four unpowered units, for the price the Williams is much better than Lionel or MTH but doesn't come with TMCC or DCS built in. Most Williams engines are two motors and can be wired to run slower if you know how to do basic wiring. Williams uses metal gears, not plastic, so there is less chance for a break-down later on.
Almost any O gauge A.C. transformer will run any Williams engine. I have a post war ZW and a new Z-1000 that I use and have no problems with the Williams engines.
Lee F.
I refer to the Williams locos as the Timex of the trainworld, very affordable and seem to run forever. It seems as though the coupler tends to ride a little bit higher than the other brands.
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One thing a freind that owns a hobby shop and I discovered about 3 years ago ( yes back when it was williams by williams not Bachmann not saying anything wrong with Bachmann just getting facts straight) was that we put my williams Virginian FM Trainmaster is it was exstreamly quieter on fast track than any of the Lionel engines. You could harley hear it running compare to the lionel engines. I'm thinking about checking into adding TMCC to this engine as it wouold be great with Tmcc. I agree with earlier poster not thrilled with horn but its better than Post war horn. only thing I really dislike is it is set to a certain series instead of letting you decied how long or short of a blast. But bottom line I really like my Williams engine its acually the second one I have owned I sold a A-B-B-A sharknose set kinda wish I didn't but oh well
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Williams are well made, that is for sure. Also, from what I have been hearing, Bachman has been sticking by the warranty, which is amoung the best in the business. As for size, Williams does have both "scale" and "semi-scale". So, you need to know what you want. As for the transformer that you use, it depends on a few things. If you are going to run a diesle engine or GG1 with two motors, plus lighted passenger cars, accessories, etc, you will push the limits of any starter transformer. Any layout beyond a simple loop with siding will benefit from more power. If you want to give the hobby a good try, I suggest as least a medium output unit. MRC makes one, or you can pick up a older Lionel KW or ZW refurbished for not a whole lot of money.
As suggested above, please share the problems you have had with Lionel, the problems may be an easy fix. Or, they could be inherrant in a particular locomotive.
dennis
TCA#09-63805
I could NOT run a Williams single motor steam engine [Berkshire] with a Lionel starter transformer [not a CW 80].
If by starter power pack you mean the 30-40 watt powermax, I agree it won't run anything more than what came in the set. Wouldn't run my old pullmor twin motor Conrail SD-40, it would just overload as soon as I turned on the throttle. In fairness, It was not designed to run anymore than a starter set. We can argue all day about how "oversize" a starter set transformer should be though! The CW-80 ran the SD-40 fine though I wasn't pulling a bunch of cars....
No matter what trans you start out with, if you want to run loooong heavy trains, you WILL need to upgrade to BIG transformers.
My 2cents... I prefer the pullmor over the can motors that Lionel, williams, and MTH use (far as I know they are all the same (high dollar engines excluded)) and would prefer a postwar or modern FM, F-3 or SD-40. My preference and I don't care what I should or shouldn't reasonably like via others opinions! And maybe that is the bottom line, you are the one you must please so take all this great input on these loco's but keep in mind you may find you don't agree with every detail. Run some trains and have fun!
Hi,
I noticed you seem experienced with Williams locomotives. I recently purchased a Williams crown edition brass locomotive. I am very sure it has a DC motor, based on reading threads; it does not have a center rail roller. Do you have any recomendations for a AC-DC rectifier, that I can use with my MTH Z4000 AC transformer?
Hi Williams Train Rookie,
No answer for you, but responding in hopes someone sees the response, as this was an older thread.
Lionel put out an AC to DC power converter back in 1991, for use with transformers with an up to 30 volt output. The Lionel stock number was 8-82116.
Here's the manual for the same:
http://www.lionelsupport.com/media/servicedocuments/78-2116-250.pdf
There might be some floating around out there, you might try an eBay search.
I've got one I've been sitting on, grabbed it years back, because you never know, do you?
And if that Williams engine is DC, and I'd assume it is with no center rail pick-up, you might even be able to run it with a powerful HO transformer. HO trains are DC powered, so are N and G gauge trains, for that matter.
Williams Train Rookie am very sure it has a DC motor, based on reading threads; it does not have a center rail roller. Do you have any recomendations for a AC-DC rectifier, that I can use with my MTH Z4000 AC transformer?
MRC makes a DC transformer with sufficient wattage for O trains.
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