Toy train operating and collecting

 I've been watching quite a few of these on ebay and, of course, price varies a lot.  Finally watched one on youtube.  Seems the flight is very high and very short.

just wondering how you like yours.  Do they fly pretty well?  How bad is the auto-rotation of the helicopter body?  If mounted on a layout 36 -42" off the floor, do they hit the ceiling?  Tails seem to break easily, how about the rotors?

thanx,

wyomingscout

 They shoot straight up in the air spinning wildly, smash into the ceiling, crash back to the layout, and usually result in knocking over some scenery that has to be re-glued in place.

And i love it!

Jon 

Sometimes the helicopter takes off unexpectedly:

IMHO, the Satelite cars work much better than the helicopter cars.  Don't get me wrong, I like helicopter cars, and own several. I just don't use the launcher.

I am with CW on the 3519 satelite cars. I have broken more satelite tops than I care to admit. My 3419 helicopter car has never worked properly. I have tried several repro copters, and they only lift off the car a few inches before falling. I have replaced the tail stand, winding spool, spring, and spring tube. The problem persists. The dark blue 3419 does look good behind the dark green 3519 though.

 Thanks for the info guys.  You've pretty well convinced me to shop for a different item.  Perhaps the missile launcher, or the non-operating helicopter car.

BTW, saw a really neat RC helicopter at Radio Shack.  Actually, two of them with trim to eliminate the auto-rotation of the body.  The smaller one looks to be about the size of the 3419 & the larger one maybe 1:43, or so.  I'd probably like one of them, but my grandson would be happy with the non-operating Lionel car.

Thanks again,

wyomingscout

Bob,

Your, selection to show of the chopper car, is one of the great Coke Christmas art Ads.

Thanks,

Ralph 

Wyomingscout, if it makes any difference here's another idea. I've found a couple of 3419's at shows that were in good operating condition, but missing the helicopter and the mounting piece. The repro helicopters are around $20.00, so I took a different approach.

I adapted the mount of the wind-up spinning unit to take these turbo blades I found at a dollar store. I got this to work so I went back to the dollar store and got a bunch of them. There were 3 blades in every package.

I find these work rather well. Now my versions of the 3419 are the manual types: they don't work over a UC track. So when the blades are launched, it is at the edge of the layout, where the launched turbo blades tend to fly away from the layout. Yes, they do go up and hit the ceiling, but with the turbo blades there's no trouble in that ands no damage to the turbo blades.

When you have visitors, especially kids, they love it. And when the turbo blades hit the ceiling, their reaction to that is "Cool!! Let me try it!"

I have two of them-one with a big spindle and one with a small spindle. I find that, using the same helicopter, the small spindle one launches the helicopter several feet into the air-sometimes it hits the ceiling, and sometimes not.

Flight time is, as you mentioned, only a couple of seconds, as the helicopter will pretty much fly until the blades stop and then freefall back down. I've not broken a tail fin yet, but the windshield has popped out of my repro helicopter several times(superglue fixed it once and for all).

The big spindle one I have will only launch the helicopter a couple of inches, The spring doesn't unwind nearly as fast, so the blades are spinning much more slowly at launch than with the small one. I think that this is an issue particular to the car I have, although I haven't been able to come up with a solution.

Overall, though, they're really fun cars and definitely worth the investment. If you get one with a nice original helicopter, I'd definitely suggest investing in a repro($15-20) to launch. The repros work very well, and you won't risk a bad landing messing up your valuable original. 

 Briane1027 & Ben10ben,

Yeah, I guess I'll keep looking for one.  As others have intimated, a kid can always play with it without launching if all else fails.  How do you know the difference between the small & large spindle car?  Maybe the four rotor chopper car comes with the large spindle?

Which chopper is better, the two rotor, or four rotor?  I think the four rotor is not Post War, correct?

wyomingscout

The early 3419 cars had the large winding spool (spindle), and they used the double rotor copter. The later 3419 have the smaller winding spool, and they use the single rotor copter.

My helicopter car is one of my favorites.  Broke the rotor some time before 1965.  We went to the hobby shop and found a Top Flite nylon model airplane prop of a matching diameter.  It pressed right on the shaft.  Worked that way for 40 + years until this summer when I bought a re-pop helocopter. 

Yup, it has a broken landing skid and tail rotor - but what good is it if you have a mint one just sitting on the shelf to look at.

Actually, the original with the model airplane prop flies better than the re-pop.  Mine would just touch the basement celing when launched from the top of the ping pong table. 

You can adjust the altitude by how tight you wind the spring too.

 My opinion is that this a must have Lionel operating car!

So, then based on green97probe & ben10ben comments and assuming a repro chopper, the best combinations are:

    1. Large spindle w/ double rotor chopper, or

    2. Small spindle w/ single rotor chopper

right?

wyomingscout