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Lionel GS-2

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  • Member since
    January 2007
  • 3 posts
Lionel GS-2
Posted by Aircool on Monday, March 5, 2007 11:55 AM

Hi All,

I finally took the plunge and purchased a Lionel 2004 GS-2 "DayLight" engine.  This is my first modern engine as I have several pre and post war O guage Lionel engines.  I had a chance to "play" with it this weekend a bit and it is amazing!  My 5 year old son and I have wanted one since they came out a few years ago.  I haven't told him of my purchase as I am going to build a train shelf around his room and suprise him with it once the shelf is complete.  It will only be on loan to him until our basement layout is complete.  My 2 year old daughter likes running the trains too, so I guess we have found a great family hobby.  We are definitely headed down that slippery slope! 

With that said, anyone know where a good place to locate the matching 18" aluminum passenger set that goes with the GS-2?  They are practically non-existent with prices to match when you find them.  Is this something that someone may have at York in April?  Hopefully Lionel will do another run of the aluminum cars in the near future. 

Thanks,

Steve

  • Member since
    March 2006
  • 130 posts
Posted by Train Memories on Monday, March 5, 2007 4:42 PM

Big Smile [:D]Big Smile [:D] I too have the Lionel GS-2 that I bought when they came out. My goodness this engine sure is great! I'm very happy with it. The only thing I wish it had is the 4 chuffs per wheel revolution. But other than that it's great. As for the aluminum passenger cars Steve, I think that time has pass. I 've been looking for them in my dreams. there're just gone. The new heavy wieghts are coming out with the new GS-4s. I suppose we could pull them with our   GS-2s, but they are not the aluminums.        Reuben

 

  • Member since
    September 2004
  • From: Middle o' Nowhere, MO
  • 1,108 posts
Posted by palallin on Monday, March 5, 2007 4:49 PM
The Daylight paint scheme has been at a premium ever since MPC did the first engine 'way back when.  At one time--I don't know if it's still true--but the MPC GS + Aluminum cars + the matching F3s was THE most costly modern era train to get.  I suppoes that premium has carried over intot he later issues.
  • Member since
    December 2005
  • From: 28 Sager Place Irvington, NJ 07111
  • 265 posts
Posted by LS1Heli on Monday, March 5, 2007 7:24 PM

Congrats! That is a fine engine..LHS as one for sale. As for the cars..sooner or later they will show up on eBay.

Or you can get the Lionel part #s and type them into yahoo or google. Like Lionel *****

Get some remote control for that thing too!

  • Member since
    January 2007
  • 3 posts
Posted by Aircool on Monday, March 5, 2007 8:48 PM
Thanks guys.  I do have a Cab 1 and am just learning the TMCC system.  Pretty easy though, I had all up and running in about 10 minutes.   I tried all of the search engines I could think of for the passenger set.  I am lining up a TCA membership so I can go to the meet in York this year, so maybe?  I thought I had located a set at a hobby shop in PA but when I called he said they sold out a year ago.  I will keep looking as I am of the glass half full type.  Eventually I will find them.  In the meantime I am going to find some of the other engines I would like to have.  Let's see, a GG1, Pennsy T-1, Berkshire, Hudson, some vintage Madison/Irvington passenger cars, etc.  Yes, another victim of the train hobby!  We could be doing worse things with our time.   
  • Member since
    August 2006
  • From: The Sunny South
  • 430 posts
Posted by Cheese on Thursday, March 8, 2007 11:36 AM

Hey,

Check out Williams Trains. They have Streamliners (Scale and the 60' Postwar Super Speedliners) in just about every road imaginable.

There are even add on packs so you can go from 4 to 6 cars, or you can even but 2 4 packs and 2 pack and take off the Obs. car and have a 9 car set or 8 if you take off the extra baggage car.

As for myself, I'm not a scale fan and I'd rather have the GS-2 that Lionel made in 1991 I beleive that was made off the N&W J shell, and the 1999 GS-4 4449, since it has railsounds and all the other modern stuff that the first 4449 from the 80's dosen't have.

Enjoy you engine.

Cheese

Nick! :)

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, March 8, 2007 12:47 PM
 Cheese wrote:

 

As for myself, I'm not a scale fan and I'd rather have the GS-2 that Lionel made in 1991 I beleive that was made off the N&W J shell, and the 1999 GS-4 4449, since it has railsounds and all the other modern stuff that the first 4449 from the 80's dosen't have.

Enjoy you engine.

Cheese

Obviously the GS-2 from 1991 won't have TMCC but the 1999 GS-4 does.  I have the 1999 #18071 version and it too is a modified N&W J.  How do I put this nicely?  I'd rather have the J!  The 18071 has so many quality issues and cosmetic inaccuracies that it would have been best left as a J.  At least a traditional J looks like the real thing given the obvious compomises.  In all fairness I haven't been able to run my GS-4 under TMCC but it doesn't perform well conventionally.  I doubt I've put 1 hour running time on it.

Bruce Webster

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