Lionel's Docksider

[Anonymous]

I have the NPCL version and love it!  Wife saw the C&O version and said, 'That looks cute.'  I told her it would look really nice next to the 0-8-0 in the rail yard!  I think I'm getting one sooner or later... There is not enough room for sounds in the 0-6-0, but the TMCC upgrade from ERR is a definite buy!  As soon as we have the next house lined up and I have some spending cash, the C&O 0-6-0 and the ERR upgrades will be the first things ordered.  I also want to get the ERR upgrades for the 0-8-0... still waiting to hear the results from the repair shop on if the 0-8-0 has a blown speaker... according to the shop, Lionel has told him the speakers they had been putting in some of their recent shipments (not all) have been bad... they are shipping replacements for free...

[BobbyDing]

I now own two of these. Like them a lot. Hate the whistle. I guess the Docksider is meant as a low cost entry level loco, and that's why the whistle is so silly (want a better whistle, spend more money). Since the sound board of the DS looks to be somewhat sofisticated, to me at least, it seems the silly whistle was done quite on purpose. Am I stating the obvious? I can understand this to a degree, but I think that Lionel should have also offered a more realistic sounding upgrade whistle board for maybe $39.00. I'd bet they'd have sold a bunch, and the profit margin on that would be much higher than with the loco.

Just my thoughts on it.

Bobby

[Rickster]

I like the whistle.  Then again, I like plain vanilla ice cream too.....

 

Rickster, Lake Woebegone

[msacco]

Frank,

While I really like my docksider, you should know that it moves rather poorly through 022 switches. Sometimes stalls and always bumps and grinds. If my memory serves me correctly your layout features 022, correct?

 Mike S.

[49Lionel]

Even though my interests lie more in early postwar, I have to admit my docksider gets a lot of mileage on my layout.  I just discovered a feature I didn't know it had. After running it exclusively with PW transformers, I just picked up a new MRC model to run my few newer engines.  With this transformer, the docksider's headlights are constant-voltage (they reach maximum brightness at less than 50% throttle), and it really smokes it up.  What a great little engine.  For my money, one of Lionel's best of any era.

[Anonymous]

My fourth Dockside is scheduled to arrive tomorrow--C&O version with a matching caboose.  I'm not sure you can find a better value in a small, very affordable, die-cast locomotive than these neat little Docksides (aside, perhaps, from the K-Line Plymouths, but those aren't steam locomotives).