What do you think of the Southern Pacific GS-4 trains available or being released?

[trestrainfan]

I really like the Southern Pacific Daylight GS-4. Nice styling and colorful paint scheme. Although it is backordered, Williams makes this train. This fall, both Lionel and K-Line are also coming out with TMCC equipped Southern Pacific DayLight GS-4 trains. The Lionel one is out of my price range, but I'll include it as others may benefit from adding it into the discussion.

There is a wide range of prices and features between the different manufacturers. What are some of your thoughts on these products? Please try and keep your comments constructive.

For the Williams product, I would want to upgrade it with TMCC and possibly sound, probably using electric RR products, so the price and feature gap closes up some. Also, Williams has both the luxury lines and semi-scale Madison passenger cars in the Southern Pacific paint scheme. What is the correct passenger car type to use with the Daylight train?

Thanks for your opinions.

[phillyreading]

Sounds like a nice engine but is Lionel really keeping to the promised shipping date?  Lionel keeps missing the target for shipping by months!!  So either be patient or buy one already made that is for sale again.

K-Line made one those engines a few years back and maybe you can find one for sale.

Usually Williams puts a sound system in thier locomotives, but NO digital control.

Lee F.

[norcal_pacwest]

The choice, as always, is personal and boils down to several factors - the style you prefer, as you mention the budget, and of course the size of your layout.

I have a smallish 5 x10 layout with O-54 and O-36 curves with O-36 switches, so I prefer to operate engines that can traverse the entire layout. Plus, I just cannot justify the lofty price of the Lionel - although in my opinion it has to be one of the best gs-2/4 locos to be produced flaws and all. If you have not done so just check out the video from Lionels website of the similar gs-2 - the whistle is just fantastic - http://www.lionel.com/CentralStation/Findex.cfm

I compromised and bought the k-line gs4 used on eBay for $300, a screaming deal ( I lucked out and was the only bidder ). It was from 2005 and included the contraband cruise control, which is not included on this years release. It is a highly detailed semi-scale engine, although at a little over 25 inches long it is fairly close to scale length for the gs-4 and certainly longer than the Williams .

The cab is great with opening roof hatches, opening access doors and simulated firebox light. The paint is very muted (typical k-line) and well applied. Details include builder plates, chains, separatly applied tender ladders , grab irons, brass bell below deck and a delicate front deck. The trucks on the tender are also very detailed to the point that the truck manufacturers name is stamped on - buckeye !

Performance wise, it does very well on o-36 curves, and specifies a minimum of O-31.  It is very smooth in conventional mode with the cruise control, although as typical with k-line steam locos it is a bit jerky starting from neutral. It also pulls very well, although it may not be quite as strong as the williams. Soundwise it has the generic 4-8-4 Railsounds 4.0 package with a decent speaker and the smoke unit works well although nothing like an MTH.

Speaking of MTH, they recently offered the gs-4 in their imperial railking line. It is in between the williams and k-line in length and probably offers detailing just a tad under the k-line. The street price of approx $350 at places like justrains.com is hard to beat given the deail and PS 2.0. Even if you do not use DCS you can still take advantage of the great MTH cruise control along with the other operating features of PS 2.0.

I would recommend the k-line if you are interested in detail and close to scale size , especially for the great cab and tender. If you want the best operation along with decent detail the MTH railking is the one. Finally if you want a good basic model for a low price the Williams is the best choice.

Hope that helps, and good luck.

 

PS

Due to the shorter than scale height, the k-line gs-4 does not match up as well as I would like with my k-line daylight streamline cars, and the color between the two is also off. It appears that the latest MTH releas of the railking daylight cars would match well in height and color. I would not recommend the heavyweights - the gs-4s pulled streamlines so this is a glaring inaccuracy ( I have no idea why Lionel chose to offer heavyweights this time). 

You can get the new k-line GS-4 with TMCC or with a non TMCC horn/whistle package.

[trestrainfan]

Thanks for the great information!

I'm leaning towards getting the K-Line GS-4 that is coming out this fall.

[Anonymous]

I'd like to offer my 2cents since I just recieved my Railking Daylight. (Sorry no pics, will post later k?) I had the old railking daylight which was lots of fun just as a toy engine. Terrible detail but awesome features such as the super MTH smoke unit and PS2. It was fun but didn't have the detail nor the correct sounds.

As soon as I opened my new Daylight, I said "WOW THIS IS A RAILKING?" Anyway the detail is GREAT! It doesn't have opening hatches or a working mars light, and the only other complaint is the open cab which is incorrect for the GS engines. BUT, as soon as I put it on the track and blew the whistle I was in love! I was so excited to hear the actual daylight whistle! I grew up in Portland, Oregon playing-chasing-riding on the Daylight. It brought tons of memories of hearing the whistle blow. The passenger sounds are really nice on this engine too. It has nice details such as chains on the trucks of the tender, a light in the firebox, nice colors, directional lights, lanterns on the tender, etc. It looks great with the railking cars but the Williams or Lionel alluminum cars look best behind it.

My dad has the origional brass Williams and I've always compared any reproduction to that engine and the new Railking really looks great.

As for the K Line, I'd love to pick up an older semi-scale loco in the American Freedom train colors. I think it's a beautiful color combo, (of course) but most especially on this engine.

Anyway, I hope this helps. I'll try to get some pics and maybe even a video tomorrow.

[CB&Q]

 

   I have the lionel GS-2 with railsounds and am waiting on delivery of lionels latest GS-4 as to cost you get what you pay for. that said I wanted the lionel version as its not numbered for the last of her kind. also I like to see how the new legacy system and locos operate so will find out hopefully in september as thats the new ship date. so manny choices anymore and wallets are only so deep so have to choose carefully. wonder what MTH sounds will be like hope we can get a live comparison of each manufactureres engines in action. I love the GS-2 it has nice sounds and runs very well for its time period of electronics.  

[Anonymous]

Here are some pics of my new Railking Daylight. I'm very please with how nice it looks. I know they're not the best pics, but hopefully you get the idea. Don't forget to check the video. Link at the bottom.









Now compare that Railking to the old Railking. Huge difference.



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http://youtube.com/watch?v=cgLztjN0jAQ

[thor]

just check out the video from Lionels website of the similar gs-2 - the whistle is just fantastic -

Boy! I'll say it is. Do you think that sound is being done with the new TMCC-2 quilling feature? Because if it is, I have to get that someday. Thats the most realistic whistle sound I've ever heard.

[Anonymous]

See what you think of this whistle.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SzhXBIXddXY

[Anonymous]

WOW!

I just watched the two videos of the toy and the real one...Nice whistle!!

[norcal_pacwest]

Your new railking gs-4 is great looking! The imperial version is a nicely done traditional. I guess it is hard to go wrong with any of the daylights from MTH/Lionel/Williams or K-line - they all look great.