Lionel Lionchief

[sir james I]

Right now the dealer is your quickest fix. I doubt any manufacturer can give you a one week turnaround right after Christmas.

[Buckeye Riveter]

Legrand

Buckeye,

After I contacted Lionel and was given a month turnaround time quote (for my sons big x-mas present), I contacted the company that sold me the train, modeltrainstuff.com. They were excellent. While they wouldn't do a cross ship, which I would have preferred, they did pull one from stock to have on hand when they received mine, and give me a pre-paid label to return the engine, tender, and remote to them, something Lionel would not do. I had it to UPS on the 26th and the day they received it (2 business days later) they I received notification that they had sent the replacement - the same business day. My son will have it by tomorrow, only 5 business days later, not 15 or 20, as Lionel quoted. These people definitely have my business from now on.

I am happy you had a better experience.  Lionel would not pay one dime of shipping either. 

[Legrand]

Buckeye,

After I contacted Lionel and was given a month turnaround time quote (for my sons big x-mas present), I contacted the company that sold me the train, modeltrainstuff.com. They were excellent. While they wouldn't do a cross ship, which I would have preferred, they did pull one from stock to have on hand when they received mine, and give me a pre-paid label to return the engine, tender, and remote to them, something Lionel would not do. I had it to UPS on the 26th and the day they received it (2 business days later) they I received notification that they had sent the replacement - the same business day. My son will have it by tomorrow, only 5 business days later, not 15 or 20, as Lionel quoted. These people definitely have my business from now on.

[Captaincog]

I ended up buying both and the Polar Express Berkshire does well at a crawl but not as well as a Legacy or DCS unit. Now the Polar Express has been run quite a bit and broken in where as the Pennsylvania does not seem to crawl as well but can pull at least 13 cars. I have not run the Pennsylvania near as much as the Polar Express so it might crawl as well when broken in and run for a while.

[Buckeye Riveter]

Legrand

Just as an FYI to others out there, I purchased a Lion Chief set, the Pennsylvania one, for my son for X-Mas. We set it up the following day, he played with it for 30-60 minutes, stopped it to add a little more smoke fluid and the remote just straight up died. I switched out the brand new batteries, with other Energizer brand new batteries and nothing. The LED on the remote would not light up again. It's already off on an RMA trip and the package hadn't even been open for more than 2 hours. I really hope this isn't a taste of things to come with this set. When I called them (Lionel) they said "it's new technology for them", like that was an excuse... I really don't want to be their Beta testers.

Make Lionel fix or replace your remote.  Don't take their excuses either. It was their poor design, lack of adequate testing and/or quality control that made the problem.  You provided Lionel with dollars for a product that should work well beyond the warranty.  Keep track of all your phone calls and emails with them. It took me 3 1/2 months to get my money back for a new under warranty engine with a defective paint job.   They asked for a copy of my receipt three times during the return process so keep a copy so you can make another copy and another copy and another copy.  I emailed copies, mailed copies and emailed copies again.  Two copies were in the box with the returned engine.

I was just getting ready to report them to our Attorney General for failing to live up to the terms of the warranty when I finally reached a customer service person and they said to send another copy of the receipt.  BTW, customer service seems to take long lunch breaks. 

Good luck!

[rrJon]

I'm considering on purchasing either the Polar or Penn set (when the price goes down), Can someone comment on the slow speed operation of these? Will they "crawl around" smoothly?

 

Thanks,

Jon

[Carmine]

lionel2986

As far as remotes failing, I can't imagine that it will be too difficult to bypass the speed control and install an "e" unit with a bypass switch. Mine is too new and hasn't given me any problems so I haven't opened it up. I'm sure someone will attempt this modification in the distant future once warranty's expire. I'm surprised Lionel didn't install a bypass switch with "e" unit from the factory. I can't imagine an E unit and switch add much to the production cost?

That would be an interesting modification and I'm willing to do that once the warranty expires.  However, the instructions say that the bell and whistle do NOT respond to the bell and whistle switches on conventional transformers.  Thus you would lose those features and the audio announcements.

Carmine

[lionel2986]

I too have this set, and the Polar Express set. One thing that I love about it is that it will work great with automatic blocking systems. A benefit to Lionchief is that when the locomotive enters a block and power is cut off, the locomotive will resume the speed it left off at once power is restored to the block. I believe TMCC locomotives will restart in neutral.

As far as remotes failing, I can't imagine that it will be too difficult to bypass the speed control and install an "e" unit with a bypass switch. Mine is too new and hasn't given me any problems so I haven't opened it up. I'm sure someone will attempt this modification in the distant future once warranty's expire. I'm surprised Lionel didn't install a bypass switch with "e" unit from the factory. I can't imagine an E unit and switch add much to the production cost?

[Carmine]

Legrand

We set it up the following day, he played with it for 30-60 minutes, stopped it to add a little more smoke fluid and the remote just straight up died.

This is another problem that Lionel didn't seem to think through.  If you lose the remote or it breaks, your set is inoperable until you get a new remote.  I wonder how much they cost.  At least you could fall back to conventional with TMCC/Legacy and even DCS.

And no, I don't have the newer iteration of Lionchief, called Plus that WILL allow you to switch to conventional mode.

Carmine Prestia

[Legrand]

Just as an FYI to others out there, I purchased a Lion Chief set, the Pennsylvania one, for my son for X-Mas. We set it up the following day, he played with it for 30-60 minutes, stopped it to add a little more smoke fluid and the remote just straight up died. I switched out the brand new batteries, with other Energizer brand new batteries and nothing. The LED on the remote would not light up again. It's already off on an RMA trip and the package hadn't even been open for more than 2 hours. I really hope this isn't a taste of things to come with this set. When I called them (Lionel) they said "it's new technology for them", like that was an excuse... I really don't want to be their Beta testers.

[sir james I]

This idea is posted on another forum. Instead of the 18 volt wall power plug use a transformer and let them run the train at a lower voltage.

S.J.

[RockIsland52]

Mgbbob.....I think your choice was a solid one.  We tend to get caught up in the details and doubt what we purchased when we would be far better off making our choice work for us.  

I have been letting my grandchildren run a starter set I gave to my son many moons ago.  The simplicity works well, so much so that the 4 year old is capable of operating it while her older sister has already refined her skills. Conventional operations work well for the very young.  

Your floor set up reduces the probability of a catastrophic train wreck.  And the little ones learn impulse control with the throttle when their operating fun is interrupted by theis having to put the cars back on the track.  I have a rerailer, but I don't let them use it.  They learn to slow down.    

JACK

[mgbbob]

I opened the Christmas present of the Lionchief set yesterday with the three grand kids in tow. I must say that I was very impressed.  We set up the small oval next to the tree.  My first experience with Fast track and in worked great.  The two 3 year old and the 8 year old took to the control like ducks to water.  A little more bell and horn that my old ears would prefer but they had a blast.

The train ran for a long time with no derailments except the occasional foot bumping a car.  Nothing broken.  The grand daughter is over this morning and the first thing she wanted to do is run the train.

Overall I think this is a product Lionel has really needed.  It may not be collector grade and I wish it had a few more features such a an illuminate caboose and a light on the tender.  Kids relate to remote controls.  The kids were inside the circle, then outside the circle, taking turns and even letting the adults play a bit.

I managed to get the set for $120 from Amazon which should be affordable considering the price of other toys.  It will be interesting to see how Lionel handles other Lionchief equipment coming out.  One thing where I believe Lionel needs to improve is how the information get out to the consumers. 

[Carmine]

mgbbob

Ordered a new Lionel Lionchief Pennys set for Christman (great wife said it is my xmas present).  I haven't opened it up yet but getting the layout ready for Xmas

[...]

Anyone have one running yet?

My grandson and I set up a Polar Express Lionchief set yesterday.  It looks very nice, runs very well, and the sounds are accurate to the movie.  That said, I've very disappointed in the control system and the remote itself.

I can understand the desirability of a discrete control for a locomotive that you want to run with other similar locomotives or that you want to take somewhere else, say a club.  However, this means that if you buy more than one set/locomotive you'll have an equal number of remotes.

The remote itself is troubling because my grandson (4.5 YOA) has operated my trains from a conventional transformer control, TMCC, and MTH DCS.  He requires a little coaching but gets the speed control down pretty well.  This remote has the locomotive going pretty fast at the second detent.  He thinks it is too fast and rotates the control backward PAST stop and almost immediately the train is going too fast in reverse.  The detent for stop is not positive enough.  Very poor design.

I guess we will have to limit this train to running under the tree at Christmas.  That's OK but I really wish Lionel would have made the control functions and usability more clear.

Now I see that there is a line of Lionchief PLUS locomotives coming out that have more remote functions and are switchable to conventional control.  Our set does not have that.

Carmine

[anjdevil2]

Yes, I did a short review....somewhere on this forum.  I have the Polar Express LionChief set.  Got it just in time for the Fire Dept.'s Santa Parade.  It truly is plug and play.  The sounds are amazing and the operation is really good.  The controls are easy to use (my Girlfriend's 5 y/o ran it for a bit) and got a lot of comments.  All good.  It is NOT Legacy/TMCC compatable as it is a dedicated control.  But for the money - there is a LOT of value in this set.

http://cs.trains.com/ctt/f/95/t/225072.aspx?sort=ASC&pi350=3

[mgbbob]

Ordered a new Lionel Lionchief Pennys set for Christman (great wife said it is my xmas present).  I haven't opened it up yet but getting the layout ready for Xmas fun.  The price on Amazon went from my original purchase price of $199 down to $119.  I received rebates from Amazon on all the price reductions.  I ask the wife if I could purchase a second one since I saved so much money.  ...........didn't work.

Anyone have one running yet?