Rare lionel train...Odyssey Motor...

[sp90378]

 I was browsing ebay and happend to come across this train

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170422746078&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

 Looks like one of the prototypes that were made with the Odyssey Motor, which as we know was never put into production. I know only a few of these babies were ever made, and that there are only like 3 or 4 of these left, the one on ebay being one of them.

 

[kpolak]

Nice first post.  Advertising isn't allowed here.

Kurt

[overall]

Why did Lionel not bring the Odyssey Motor into production? Does anybody know?

George

[sp90378]

 Probally cost, but nobody knows for sure. Even their engineers who worked for Lionel didnt know why.

[sir james I]

It was a good idea, they just couldn't get it  to work right. Plus cost was a factor. They had to jump through hoops to get something new into production.

[sp90378]

 Actually im wrong. The system would work fine, but the thing that stopped it was the cost. I happen to know who developed the system that replaced it, and thats what he said.

[kehoesj]

I do know that the new Santa Fe FT model unit was advertised originally with the odyssey motor and that the price advertised was higher than usual - but when they came out, no price drop and no odyssey motor - which kind of frustrated me, that they did not adjust the original price point.  I am a faithful Lionel fan, but this was a disappointment.  It did have Command Control and latest version Railsounds.  This was back in 2000.

[sp90378]

 Yah,,and that clear cab one looks like the Santa Fe, except with the odyssey motor.

[Bob Keller]

While cost was a factor, Bob Grubba told me it was unreliability that killed it. They could get it to work fine in a hand-made sample, but that they had issues in reliability that couldn't be worked out for production. That may be wrong, but that's what he told me after-the-fact.

[sp90378]

I asked one of there engineers there about it (when they still had engineers developing new exciting things), and he said if he remembered right, the only thing that stopped it was the cost. He said it ran better and more smoothly than the new way that he developed.

[Deputy]

So what's the difference between an Odyssey motor and a loco equipped with the Odyssey system? I have two Lionel S2 Scale turbines that both feature the Odyssey system. AFAIK the Odyssey system simply compensates for uphill/downhill speeds and adjusts for different loads (more cars) allowing it to maintain a consistent same speed. What would an Odyssey motor do? 

[chuck]

The motor would have preserved some of the features of an open frame motor by keeping the field coils. This is from a cached copy of material google pulled down a while ago.

he Odyssey is an open-frame motor, so you can watch it work just like the Pullmor motor that we've all found so fascinating in the past. And talk about power and torque - we've pulled a long string of cars smoothly as slow as 2 mph in scale speed! And due to the unique operating design of this motor, even if you hit a rough spot when crawling along, the electronic brain automatically compensates and delivers enough additional power to get over the hump- and then adjust back to the original setting. If you haven't seen it, you wont believe it! It's a true Lionel. Developed exclusively for use and built in our own factory in Chesterfield this is the motor that will set the standard for generations in 0 gauge model railroading.

The cost of manufacturing the unit was higher than the older "PullMor" and it probably take forever to cover the R&D that went into it. The closed loop back speed control was preserved and the technology adapted to a permanent magnet style can motor. The Odyssey motors should have been stackable when you needed more power than a single unit could handle, aka a typical diesel could have had four electric motors.

[sp90378]

 Exactly, and actually the motor provided to be superior to the current speed control used, but cost was too high to produce. From what I have seen and head, it is superior as well, being way more smooth than the current speed control.

[Deputy]

Well considering the cost of new locos that are "loaded", Lionel appears to have made the right decision. With the value of the dollar dropping, a super-pricey loco isn't going to be much of a seller, except for the very wealthy. And the Odyssey II system seems to be reliable without the extra cost of a new motor design.