LL Berkshire drivers, why when what is with the NEW driver I hear about

[Anonymous]

why the change? what kind of change is it? New drivers or just the old ones painted differently., When will LL make replacements for those of us who bought the 1st run. . With money we didnt have.
Dave Jakubiec

[Anonymous]

I was also wondering why Life Like chose such an interesting color for the 2-8-4s drivers. I think it's because the plated silver wheels last longer.

[aweinstock]

Hi,
The old drivers did not have proper tires and the wheel counterweights were flat rather than raised as in the prototype. This has all been corrected and the wheels are beautifully prototypical in appearance now. I understand that LL will do the replacement for you. Apparently they will pull the old ones and press on the new. The new run of the LL Berkshire comes with these improved drivers.
Regards,
AW

[Anonymous]

Aweinstock,
Thank you for the update. I did get another response from *** yager at ORegon rail supply. and he also mentioned that LL ,, "MAY" offer replacements, how, is what they have to figure out. weather to send the whole driver assembly with rods or just the drivers.. AND as also pointed out. WHY didnt they do it right the 1st time.. gota love this hobby.

[nfmisso]

QUOTE: WHY didnt they do it right the 1st time..

The orginal P2K Berk drivers are very European appearing. Guessing here; the factory had some the correct diameter from a previous project and used them......

[orsonroy]

Patch,

Go with what *** at ORS tells ya. He was instrumental in geting P2K to make the Berks (he provided the erection drawings and lots of photos), and he's the one pushing for a special run of replacement drivers. If anyone gets 'em, it'll be him (and maybe ONLY him), so make sure he puts you on the list!

[Anonymous]

I see that the Walthers price is down to $280.00 .

Don't know if this was the first or second run with the proper wheels?

[orsonroy]

Chuck,

You'll probably have to call Walthers for road names and numbers to figure that out. Mail-order outlets have a tendency to lump all releases together (Trainworld is good for that), so it's up to you to figure out exactly which is which.

And I've seen the P2K Berks going for as little as $200 on Ebay (first release).

Don't overlook the first release engines out of hand. If you can pick up one for $200 or less, go for it. I plan on adding .005 plastic tires and counterweights to the first release engines I currently own, if I can't get my hands on enough (or any) replacement drivers. A bit of paint and some simple modeling skills will fix the look of the drivers (of course, for full retail, you shouldn't HAVE to fix a plastic engine, but I superdetail and personalize everyting in my fleet, making it just one more task)

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by orsonroy

Chuck,

You'll probably have to call Walthers for road names and numbers to figure that out.

Thanks Ray for the suggestion of Names & Numbers.

I see on the LL site they list the Names/Numbers for the May 04 release.
I have been looking at the first release for three months.
Time to get serious.

[Anonymous]

Ok, let me get this stright. So the new realeases of the 2-8-4s have non silver drivers or silver drivers?

[Anonymous]

So do you have to send in your locomotive to Life-like and they will put on new drivers? Anyone done this yet? Also, the second release looks pretty good. Here are two links below for those who have not seen it yet.

http://www.traintrack.net/Engines/Engines_045.htm

http://www.internettrains.com/lihestco.html

[Anonymous]

I suspect that the May 04 release has the proper colored wheels and traintracks listing($285.00) is for the October 03 run of silver wheels
Internettrains $310.00 covers the May 04 release and the $292.00 price covers the Otober 03 run
of silver wheels.

LL# is 1-800-638-1470

www.firsthobby.com has both runs in stock for $250.00

[orsonroy]

QUOTE: Originally posted by 4884bigboy

Ok, let me get this stright. So the new realeases of the 2-8-4s have non silver drivers or silver drivers?

The new releases have "different" drivers. Somebody posted pics of the two different driver styles on the HO steam Yahoo Group. The original drivers have no detail, too fine spokes, and that shiny gunmetal finish. The new drivers still have the same metal finish, but less metal is visible. The drivers appear to have flat black plastic counterweights, as well as real tire relief detail.

[orsonroy]

QUOTE: Originally posted by SouPacGuy

So do you have to send in your locomotive to Life-like and they will put on new drivers? Anyone done this yet? Also, the second release looks pretty good. Here are two links below for those who have not seen it yet.

http://www.traintrack.net/Engines/Engines_045.htm

http://www.internettrains.com/lihestco.html

Life Like still hasn't officially said that they WILL be offering replacement drivers yet. *** Yager is trying to either get LL to offer the service themselves, or contract with them for a quantity of replacement driver sets (he is getting several sets of the Berk tender trucks). Either way, we'll have to pay for the new drivers, and for shipping to have LL replace the drivers for us, if they decide to go that route. No one knows for sure at this point.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have a picture they can post to show the replacement drivers?

Thank you

[orsonroy]

Photos of the new and old driver sets are posted in the HO Steam YahooGroup:

http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/hosteam/lst?.dir=/Drivers&.src=gr&.order=&.view=t&.done=http%3a//briefcase.yahoo.com/

You have to be a Yahoo member and a member of the group to access the photos (it's free, so no big deal)