I bought one of these - the red Strasburg RR version - this past weekend from the gracious Miss Edna at Todd's Train Depot in Wendell, NC. I am well pleased with my purchase. For such a tiny engine, it will pull a line of semi-scale cars (five or six) at a nice clip, though it has more trouble obviously with metal or Standard O heavier stuff. The die-cast finish is nice and the red and green lights are well done. Best of all, this thing absolutely smokes like crazy - not the weak puffs of some of my Lionel engines but a steady, solid stream of smoke. The only deficiency is lack of a horn or bell, though the latter is modeled on the engine.
I notice K-Line by Lionel is continuing these, and rightly so. For $90, which is what I paid for mine, you can't beat this little engine with a stick.
Careful, though. After about a year my reversing unit went out and I have not been able to find a replacement, even from Lionel.
John Gottcent
watch your handrails, if you lean the engine forward, they can slide out. They are great little engines though. I have a bunch and really enjoy them.
dennis
TCA#09-63805
Yes, I already noticed the handrails thing!
Still think the smoke unit is one of the coolest things about them. That and the lights. Apparently some of these things are still at work on American railroads.
I am waiting for a TMCC conversion small enough to fit in these babies.
Have two but seldom run them.
jefelectric wrote: I am waiting for a TMCC conversion small enough to fit in these babies. Have two but seldom run them.
That would be small indeed.
Those little Plymouths are neat little engines, but the real ones are even neater! If Lionel wanted to put a sound unit in it, I got the perfect sound clip!
The museum I volenteer at has a 1943 Plymouth ML-8, a nearly identical version to the K line model except it has inside frames. It is still powered by it's original 250hp Le Roi RX1V 8 cylinder gasoline/butane/propane engine, connected to a Le Roi 4 speed manual transmission. (If you have reverser troubles with the model, you should try handling this puppy!) The engine is well travelled and a little weary, and has a little backfiring problem. It used to have a big backfiring problem when the following movie clips were taken, back when it could provide the sound effects for a hollywood gunfight. Our engine is a little jackass of a mule (said with much affection) and can move quite a load in 1st gear, although it won't top 4mph in it. we've actually been able to push 6 passenger cars, including a few heavyweights with that little engine. 2nd gear is sufficient for most of our work, although one must be carefull of stalling the engine. 3rd gear is what we use for moving the engine light, or occasionally for moving a single car. 4th gear is a high speed gear which we've never been able to use, because we don't have enough track to try it out. If we could get the backfiring solved, the engine would sound really great. When we load it up with a heavy cut, he'll really dig in and give a sound that I think is closest to a B-17 on takeoff. (yes, I refered to it as 'he', it's is named after one George Holt, who was the chief mechanic of the museum right up until the day he died. And any locomotive with his manors certanitly couldn't be feminin!)
The videos, courtasy of Mark Redman, can be found hear:http://www.arizonarails.com/museum_mtg_2005.html
Other information on this very interesting locomotive can be found on the museum's website:http://www.azrymuseum.org/Projects/Plymouth/Plymouth.htm
I hope you all enjoy your little mules!Matthew Imbrogno-Mechanical volenteer, Arizona Railway Museumwww.azrymuseum.org
^ Great stuff, thank you very much!
I confess that when I bought the engine I thought it was a fantasy, akin to my ACL "GP9" and the BEEPS. Seeing the real Plymouth Switcher in action is quite something!
The Plymouths are great little engines. I have a Pennsy and Western Pacific, and use them "up at the mine".
My son is attending Modoc Railroad Academy right now, they have a Plymouth there, apparently it runs (I didn't get to hear it) but they told me since it has one distributor for each bank of cylinders it is a bear to get the timing set right.
If you ever get to Homer, Alaska they also have a Plymouth there, they told me it was found on the beach along Cook Inlet north of town, and no one knows where it came from or how it got there...... hard to believe it floated ashore!
Tim
I keep mine in back of my house by the shed.
pbjwilson wrote: I keep mine in back of my house by the shed.
Oh, I like the way that coupler can slide over to negotiate tight curves !! Should come in handy if you put it in the garage !!
Thanks, John
jefelectric,
If you plan on putting TMCC into one you may not get all of it into the switcher shell as the shell is very small, may have to put some of it into one of the cars behind the switcher with a tether hook-up. Even with taking out the K-Line circuit board TMCC may not fit inside, I have a plymouth switcher set and don't plan on adding any electronics to it.
Lee F.
In short, a Plymouth Switcher is exactly as difficult to work with as a V-12 Jaguar XKE (shudder).
I just picked up two sets (Engine & six cars) at Boscovs a couple days ago for $75 a set! I checked them both out and they run great. My Boscovs only had the Reading sets, but that works for me.
Dennis
Bought mine from K-Line and paid about $100.00 for it, now you can get the set for only $75.00? Changed the coupler out on one of the cars to Lionel type knuckle coupler and put a Lionel bobber caboose #6-9068 behind it and the caboose is quite a bit larger than the K-Line set.
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