Rating Lionel's "Modern Era" Hudsons

[krapug1]

Lionel (under various owners) has been making new versions of the famous 773, since it came out with the 8406 (783) in late 84/early 85.

What are your opinions on these engines??

.....and for that matter how do you feel about the PW 773's, they still seem to command respectable prices, but are they worth it???


Thanks

Ken

[laz 57]

KEN,

  I recently bought the Lionel century Club Hudson 773.  All I can say is GREAT engine.  From the sound especially the whistle to the magnetraction to the two GIZ in the cab, all was GREAT.  MARTY E, who is on the forum here had a video of his and he got me hooked.  Check out hsi video,see how it sounds and great smoker too.

laz57

[laz 57]

Here's MARTYs Web Page, check it out...

http://www.martye.com/

laz57

[palallin]

Just about 1991, CTT ran an article on the MPC versions and the 1-700E.  I'm not at home, so I can't check the issue date, but it was a decent article.

[sir james I]

I don't care much for the 783, mine had a magnet rubbing the driver, took it to Lionel and it was fixed and fine tuned but it is not a good puller at all. HOWEVER the Hudsons after that began to get better and better.I never had a postwar 773($$$) but the newer ones are excellent in performance.

[Anonymous]

  I own the CC773 and I think it is a wonderfull engine especially for the price I paid. I got nib for roughly $450. I am a postwar man myself and can only get the thing to whistle and chug, sometimes the bell as for as sounds as I have a pwZW, but they are great. The engine looks sharp, Higher quality paint job than the origonal, do have some qualms with the lettering of NYC on tender. Has firebox glow which is special to me as my grandfather loved adding this feature on his 2055 type locos. It has a couple extra details not found on the origonal such as a grab rail on the boiler front. Runs like silk and has the pullmore motor. It is a pack a day smoker to boot.

    While the 783 is more like the postwar 773 in many regards, the cc773 is a beautiful engine and is an engine for opperators. It has it all, and at the end it is a 773, one of the finest engines Lionel ever made. The prewar 700e had all Lionel had to offer in the prewar era, The 1950 773 was the best loco of the postwar period and the CC773 follows that tradition. If you have the funds and wan't an engine that, imho, would be the best engine on any layout, the cc773 is the way to go. 

[lionelsoni]

I have the mid-sixties 773 with a metal-whistle 2426W tender from a 726, which predates the 1950 773, instead of the 736W tender that came with it.

The locomotive, which I have modified for O27 curves and turnouts, is geared low to run very smoothly and slowly, but therefore needs lots of voltage (I use a type-Z transformer) to get decent speed with the heavy train of 8 Madisons that it usually pulls.  The wheels of the trailing truck have small flanges inherited from the 700E, which make backing up problematic.

[dwiemer]

I don't have one of these, but they are nice looking.  you may want to check out the TM video on the Lionel Hudson, the later part of the video has a nice segment on the different modern versons of the Hudson.  They have "experts" who tell the differences and point out weakness and niceties of each type.

dennis

[Anonymous]

  One difference I noticed on my cc773 from the origonal is a pro and a con. The wheels are held to the axle by screws. Easier to get off but looks kind of tacky. Also, the boiler front does not open.

[iguanaman3]

Also, the boiler front does not open.

Are you sure?  That is quite strange. Lionel and it's successors made that 700E/726 style opening boiler front for 50 years and they changed it for the CC edition? I'd pick up an opening one and put it on!

Neil

 

 

[Anonymous]

Also, the boiler front does not open.

Are you sure?  That is quite strange. Lionel and it's successors made that 700E/726 style opening boiler front for 50 years and they changed it for the CC edition? I'd pick up an opening one and put it on!

Neil

  

    Not so easy Neil. Thought the same thing myself. The screw for the boiler front goes on the bottom on the CC edition. Don't know why the design was changed.

 

[Jim Rotella]

Lionel used this same one-piece boiler front on its PWC 773. Not sure why they went to this boiler front on the two latest Hudsons. Might be because they're not using the conventional globe type bulbs found on the earlier semi-scale Hudsons. Those bulbs snapped into the inside of the smoke box door.

 Jim

[arkady]

sir james I

I don't care much for the 783, mine had a magnet rubbing the driver, took it to Lionel and it was fixed and fine tuned but it is not a good puller at all. HOWEVER the Hudsons after that began to get better and better.I never had a postwar 773($$$) but the newer ones are excellent in performance.

I came across this old thread accidentally, but thought I'd add something useful to it.

I have a 783.  I bought it last year (2013), NIB.  At first, I was disappointed in it because it was sluggish to the point of nonresponsiveness.  So I searched the net for all information I could find from people who'd worked on them.  I also downloaded the 700E user manual (not assembly manual) and studied it. 

With all that in mind, I disassembled the locomotive.  It had been lubed by the dealer when I bought it, but it was with some kind of white lubricant, not the molybdenum grease specifically recommended by Lionel.  So I bought a tube of moly grease and applied it liberally to the main worm drive and the axle lube holes in the bottom.

That helped, but didn't wholly cure the sluggishness problem.  One other thing Lionel recommended for a balky 700E drive train was to shim the drive shaft with thin Lionel washers.  I ordered some from Jeff Kane and installed them.

This was better, but I still wasn't getting the kind of performance I expected.  I knew from my readings on the net that dragging MagneTraction magnets were often a problem with the 783, so I looked carefully.  Sure enough, both of the front and rear magnets were dragging on their wheelsets.  It took a little experimentation, but I was able to fix the problem, and the drivers were turning freely at last.  The moral is: if one magnet is dragging, there's a better than even chance that both of them are.

Finally, I put the 783 on the track and had the satisfaction of seeing it make its way around a loop without hindrance.  I gave it a long break-in run (several, actually), and it just kept on improving, much to my delight.  It's running right now, pulling a string of hoppers, even as I type.

A final note:

One thing that had always bothered me about the original 773 -- and now the 783 -- was the lack of valve gear.  So, although it had nothing to do with performance, I set about to correct that lack.  I couldn't find a dealer that was a single source for 700E valve gear, but I was able to piece together a set from parts bought at several suppliers.  It also required a new steam chest with cast valve guides, of course, but that, at least, was fairly easy to find and was a drop-in replacement.

At this point, my real problem wasn't assembling the valve gear per se, but rather in knowing how the various subassemblies were to be installed in relation to each other.  I had to go back to the internet, looking for close-up shots of 700E valve gear, until I had a pretty good idea how it was supposed to look.  I'm making it sound quick and easy, but it wasn't.  There was a lot of irritating trial and error involved, not to mention a large dose of practiced profanity.  But in the end, I did get it installed.  I lubed up the various pivot points, and set the 783 on its second break-in run.

To make an already-long story shorter, my 783 is now easily the best runner of any locomotive I've got.  Slow-speed performance is outstanding, and it pulls anything I put behind it, with clockwork smoothness. 

The point of all this is that the 783 has a bad reputation for poor assembly, and mine certainly wasn't an exception.  But if you're willing to tackle the craftsman job of correcting its problems, it will repay you with great looks and superior performance for a long time to come.

[cwburfle]

Thank you for writing about your experience. Lots of good information summarized in one place!

[mgraziani]

I realize that this is an old thread but we purchased a a Postwar Celebration Series Super O freight set that featured the 773 Hudson. We sold the rest of the set but kept the loco. The set was made in 2005 and was unopened.

It is based on the 1950 773 and has the valve guide and large Lionel Lines tender.

Pulmor motor, TMCC, Railsounds 5, IR tender connection and Fan driven smoke complete the current package.

I must say that I'm blown away by how smooth this loco runs. I'm assuming that the gearing and large drivers have a lot to do with it. We have Legacy locos so we know what slow and smooth should look like.  The sound is great (4 chuffs) and the fan driven unit smokes like crazy. Almost too much. 

We run it with a trio of the burgundy Madisons and it is really makes a statement.