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My first Lionel LionChief Plus engine #2050

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KRM
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Posted by KRM on Tuesday, February 5, 2019 7:45 PM

 

Update: Now several weeks in and after much pain and fear over the smoke unit issues,,,the engine is running just fine. Maybe it was just how long it sat before getting run from when it was made. Mario who I got it from was more than fair with me on the issues that were Lionel's to bare but what do you do.

 So at this point I would like to say,,,,it is a fine looking and running engine and my grand-kids love it. Can't ask for much more than that. All you need to do is watch the video of Jordan running it!

 

 

KRM

Nothing better to do when it is cold. Run trains!!! Only took a minute for the five year old to get the hang of it. He has a much harder time with the transformer control. Laugh

 The good news is it has run perfect all day????

SJ, is the new catalog out already?? Or did you see it on line?

 

 

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Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL. Whistling

 

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Posted by rtraincollector on Sunday, January 20, 2019 10:26 PM

Copied from the other forum 

According to the catalog, page 76

"LC+ 2.0 - operate with bluetooth using Universal or LionChief App on your smart device OR via your TMCC/Legacy Cab or conventiona transformer" 

And SJ told me $499 for a Berk, $349 for a diesel. That's catalog price

So that doesn't sound that bad to me. 

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Posted by Michael6268 on Sunday, January 20, 2019 7:42 PM

It's coming out Wednesday the 23rd at 9 am. It's been released to the Hobby Shops and some passed them out. There's videos on YouTube if you want to see all the high-priced offerings!  Lionchief 2.0 Big Boys are interesting but way too high for the questionable quality....

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Posted by rtraincollector on Sunday, January 20, 2019 6:42 PM

I believe it is tomorrow

 

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KRM
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Posted by KRM on Sunday, January 20, 2019 5:54 PM

OH.  So it won't be long then.

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Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL. Whistling

 

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Posted by rtraincollector on Sunday, January 20, 2019 5:38 PM

not sure who but it was put out early by one of the dealers, and Lionel had it taken back down, even the pics that made it to OGR were taken down by OGR management at Lionels request. 

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Posted by sir james I on Sunday, January 20, 2019 5:37 PM

I saw it at a local hobby shop. 

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KRM
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Posted by KRM on Sunday, January 20, 2019 5:26 PM

Nothing better to do when it is cold. Run trains!!! Only took a minute for the five year old to get the hang of it. He has a much harder time with the transformer control. Laugh

 The good news is it has run perfect all day????

SJ, is the new catalog out already?? Or did you see it on line?

 

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Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL. Whistling

 

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Posted by sir james I on Sunday, January 20, 2019 2:41 PM

The new catalog has some engines called Lionchief 2 that are suppose to run on TMCC. 

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Posted by 8ntruck on Sunday, January 20, 2019 2:36 PM

On the subject of LionChief/Legacy/TMCC, one of the advertised selling points for both TMCC and Legacy was that they were able (with the right accessories) to run any Lionel train.  

I wonder if fiture LionChief development will also make the same claim?

A lot of us have investment in several control systems.  I would not be happy if one goes obsolete and unsupported without a replacement by the latest control system.  That would leave another large investment in equipment (Legacy, for example) not runable.

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Posted by rtraincollector on Sunday, January 20, 2019 11:27 AM

KRM
 
rtraincollector

that's unreal Kevin. Looks like your going to have to send it back to Mario's. Hate to see you have to do that. Maybe try once more on calling Lionel, I don't believe they will be taking Monday off like all the banks and the post office and other goverment offices.  

Yes RT,, weird??? He only has one left and I hope it is okay. Starting to think Lionel dumps their returns out to their dealers discounted at the end of warranty to get rid of them. Sad! 

You may be correct about that, But as SJ said there seem to be a few over on OGR talking about the same problem.

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KRM
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Posted by KRM on Saturday, January 19, 2019 7:53 PM

rtraincollector

that's unreal Kevin. Looks like your going to have to send it back to Mario's. Hate to see you have to do that. Maybe try once more on calling Lionel, I don't believe they will be taking Monday off like all the banks and the post office and other goverment offices. 

 

Yes RT,, weird??? He only has one left and I hope it is okay. Starting to think Lionel dumps their returns out to their dealers discounted at the end of warranty to get rid of them. Sad!

 

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Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL. Whistling

 

KRM
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Posted by KRM on Saturday, January 19, 2019 7:52 PM

bobhwalker

For the record, The LionChief RF signal delivery arrangement is technically superior to that of TMCC. LionChief can eventually contain all of the functionality of TMCC/Legacy without the coverage issues and that appears to be Lionel's long term plan.

 

 Best I can tell is the only long term plan Lionel has is,,Planned obsolescence!

 I think there is a hint of where they are going in the 2017 Signature Catalog. If you look on page 18 they have the full scale SD60M Legacy, then flip to page 20 and they have the same SD60M full scale with LionChief Plus. I think that was a test to see how many were ordered. Time will tell.

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Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL. Whistling

 

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Posted by rtraincollector on Saturday, January 19, 2019 7:47 PM

that's unreal Kevin. Looks like your going to have to send it back to Mario's. Hate to see you have to do that. Maybe try once more on calling Lionel, I don't believe they will be taking Monday off like all the banks and the post office and other goverment offices. 

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Posted by bobhwalker on Saturday, January 19, 2019 7:33 PM

For the record, The LionChief RF signal delivery arrangement is technically superior to that of TMCC. LionChief can eventually contain all of the functionality of TMCC/Legacy without the coverage issues and that appears to be Lionel's long term plan.

KRM
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Posted by KRM on Saturday, January 19, 2019 7:04 PM

Back to the GP 20 issue, I will try to post two videos of the problem. It came right back tonight when I started it up. Please Note also that when it has this nasty sound it does not seem to produce smoke even thoug I know there is plenty of fluid in the system.

 In the second video I only added a drop or two of fluid but have found that it does not matter sometimes it starts up fine and other times it does not???? Bang Head

 I am stumped??

Going to just run the heck out of it the next two days and see where we end up before I send it back to Mario's trains. I hate to put it on him, but your only as good as your worst supplier. JMHO and he is not alone. At least he is trying to work with me on this, makes me wonder about what others would do???

Video # 1

 

Video # 2

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Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL. Whistling

 

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Posted by rtraincollector on Saturday, January 19, 2019 6:26 PM

Michael6268

 

Get used to lionchief / lionchief plus. It's here to stay. and judging from the 2019 catalog that just came out, it looks like Legacy is going to be a thing of the past in the near future.  Moving towards lionchief plus 2.0.

 

When they finally figure out how to run more than 3 trains with one controller ( which I'm sure they have but are not putting it out) then you may get folks like me interested. With my remote I can have up to 98 engines set to it under the engine command and I think another 9 under track (TR ) command. I would not like to try and keep up with that many but I can and have had 10 + commands set for different engines and different set ups, ( MU ). Right now I have to mark 3 engines that are the same, so I know which one is which lol. But that's easy. The only other fault I see with Lionchief/+ is that you can have a B&O GP-9 and a PRR GP-9 and they have the same signal to be run. so you can't really run them at the same time, as what your trying to tell one your actually telling both. I guess in a MU situation it would be okay. 

 

Don't get me wrong TMCC has it faults but to me they went technology backwards with Lionchief/+ 

But again enjoy what you have, as each has there own way to run there trains, and what works for them. To me thou lionchief/+ is great for kids to learn with or for someone that wants a train for around the tree, or even say someone with confind space. 

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KRM
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Posted by KRM on Saturday, January 19, 2019 5:15 PM

Michael6268

Get used to lionchief / lionchief plus. It's here to stay. and judging from the 2019 catalog that just came out, it looks like Legacy is going to be a thing of the past in the near future.  Moving towards lionchief plus 2.0.

 

 

At Caterpillar we called that,,
Planned obsolescence, or built-in obsolescence.
Drives new sales of new products. The customers are the losers.
Everything new has to become old!
Why nothing should last a day past Warranty. Planned!
 
 From Wikipedia,
 
Planned obsolescence, or built-in obsolescence, in industrial design and economics is a policy of planning or designing a product with an artificially limited useful life, so it will become obsolete (that is, unfashionable or no longer functional) after a certain period of time.[1] The rationale behind the strategy is to generate long-term sales volume by reducing the time between repeat purchases (referred to as "shortening the replacement cycle").

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Posted by rtraincollector on Saturday, January 19, 2019 4:30 PM

I already figured that out. Thats why I have a large collection of pre-war and post war. I haveny bought amything new since about 2010 and don't have any plans to. and when and if my command items have a problem, thats why ERR is around. 

Like I said thou Enjoy what you have. If you like it, that's all that is important. 

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Posted by Michael6268 on Saturday, January 19, 2019 3:45 PM

Get used to lionchief / lionchief plus. It's here to stay. and judging from the 2019 catalog that just came out, it looks like Legacy is going to be a thing of the past in the near future.  Moving towards lionchief plus 2.0.

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Posted by rtraincollector on Saturday, January 19, 2019 1:48 PM

unless it keeps doing it, ie returns, I would just keep it and hope it needed break it self in. I sure hope that is all.

Does look like a nice engine. I'm just not completely sold on the Lionchief/Lionchief+ system as I like the TMCC & Legacy systems But I do see there use thou. I have about 10+ tmcc/Legacy engines and I think what it would take to run them, if they where lionchief/+ yes they make a controller that can operate up to 3 engines I believe but to switch engines out I would have to have 4 controllers or 10 individual controllers if I used the ones that came with it. But then each there own, I stick to mine where I just need one controller.

Either way enjoy it, I'm sure it will be great with the grandkids.

 

 

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Posted by KRM on Saturday, January 19, 2019 1:28 PM

I agree RT, there is nothing funny about what is going on with those Gov workers..

Now back to the engine,,,Get this,,, Of all the weird stuff,,,,,,,,, So I put the engine on without the sound with the smoke unit on and the fan sounded normal. Less than one lap and it started that squeal. So I shut it off and got my camera to do a video to show Mario what it was doing. I went back downstairs and started it back up and as with the first time it sounded like a normal fan running but never did the squeal again. Anyway I ran it for an hour straight and it was fine. I will try to reproduce it again tomorrow. Hope it just broke it's self in and will be okay? What do you think I should do?  Sure hate to return it if it is working fine??? Beats me what is going on??  Bang Head Bang Head Bang Head

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Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL. Whistling

 

KRM
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Posted by KRM on Saturday, January 19, 2019 10:09 AM

8ntruck

I've got two or three hours of running time on my LionChief+ Hudson.  I've also noticed a rhythmic squeek at low speeds.  Giving the loco a lube job didn't seem to help.  It comes and goes. 

I'm wondering if it is in the sound package?

 

 I thought the same thing till I turned off the sound and it did not go away. Give yours a try and ket me know 8N.

Thanks.

 On a good note:

Mario said he would swap out that engine after a few e-mails explaining that Lionel won't warranty their own product because it is 3 years old yet new. So good for him! And lucky he had one left.

SJ, I was thinking the same thing but you can't get a screwdriver on the shell screws on one end without removing the truck and I did not want to open a brand new train and maybe screw up any chance of Warranty if they did change their mind.

It has a high pitch squeal / squeak as you ramp up the engine to speed. That would be with the sound off and the smoke unit on. It is quiet with the smoke unit off and is so loud it overcomes the sound system when it is on.  Sometimes the squeak / squeal will come in and out as if something is loose in the smoke unit or inside it?.
 So I will run it some more and see how it goes. If it does not get better then I will send it back Monday.

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Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL. Whistling

 

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Posted by rlbarnard on Saturday, January 19, 2019 10:00 AM

Hi,

I think we have suffered a derailment on the subject (which was LionChief).

Have a good day, everybody,

Dick

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Posted by rtraincollector on Friday, January 18, 2019 10:37 PM

KRM

It wasn't meant as a troll. Just a little humor but I can see you can not take it as a joke, As if you would of read I immediately replied "on the serious side I really feel for them" To me there being used as pawns. And to me both sides are wrong. The real losers here are the Federal workers. ( by the way I was once ) So I do understand what there going thru. 

 

 

rtraincollector

The whole goverment shut down is polical it was meant as a joke but as normal it went over your head. 

As for those really not getting paid I feel for them, 

 

 

 

 I think we are on the same page? If that can be.

"The whole goverment shut down is polical it was meant as a joke"

 There is nothing that is a joke in the goverment shut down. Please,,, Please don't reply to anything I post if there is no reason other than to troll me. Troll someone else. Zip it!

 

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Posted by 8ntruck on Friday, January 18, 2019 9:59 PM

I've got two or three hours of running time on my LionChief+ Hudson.  I've also noticed a rhythmic squeek at low speeds.  Giving the loco a lube job didn't seem to help.  It comes and goes. 

I'm wondering if it is in the sound package?

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Posted by sir james I on Friday, January 18, 2019 9:54 PM

There is a thread on OGR about no one answering the phone. Some get no answer some say they just keep calling till someone does. The squeal sounds like the fan motoer needs a drop of oil. 

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KRM
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Posted by KRM on Friday, January 18, 2019 8:46 PM

rtraincollector

The whole goverment shut down is polical it was meant as a joke but as normal it went over your head. 

As for those really not getting paid I feel for them, 

 

 I think we are on the same page? If that can be.

"The whole goverment shut down is polical it was meant as a joke"

 There is nothing that is a joke in the goverment shut down. Please,,, Please don't reply to anything I post if there is no reason other than to troll me. Troll someone else. Zip it!

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Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL. Whistling

 

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Posted by rtraincollector on Friday, January 18, 2019 8:28 PM

The whole goverment shut down is polical it was meant as a joke but as normal it went over your head. 

As for those really not getting paid I feel for them, 

Life's hard, even harder if your stupid  John Wayne

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