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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by BoRockhard Bangert1, I have no way of privately contacting you so I'll do it here. You mentioned after 10 hours of running, the Lionel has gear box problems. What kind of problems? The pins getting loose? Are the gear teeth extremely worn down? Is the whole gear train much looser than when the unit was new? Please fill in the blanks buddy. [/quote] The front engine has a lot of play in the gears now. The whole gear train is much looser, but the engine actually run fairly well. It has not failed in any way, but I believe the engine will have gear box problems in the future. I cannot say if the gears are actually worn as it has not been taken apart since it was new, but something is going on with the front gearbox. It had a slight hitch in the running and I looked at the box when I first got it. The running on the staionary rollers really improved the running qualities and the way I use it, the running qualities is more important than long life. I have many Challengers and got this one just to verify what Lionel was selling. The detail is well below what I expected, but it is a good engine to use on a club layout. A friend of mine was running his Lionel and it dropped to the floor and it still ran as good as it did before the drop. I have to admit the metal casting are fairly well built. My engine came with several problems and it should have been sent back, but I did not send it back. Lionel would have replaced it, but I choose just to display it instead of shipping it back. I believe under normal running, you would not have many problems with the engine and some of the dealers are listing them for 239. I have just moved to Northern California and have everything in boxes or I would get it out and check the gearbox to verify what is going on. I do remember that I did not lubricate it before the running in, and that might be a clue to everyone to check the lubrication first. I have read that all BLI engines need lubrication before they are run and Lionel might be the same. I normally run all engines on the rollers for a short time to see if they run well before the lubrication phase, but did not do that for the Lionel., since it had several other problems. The Trix Big Boys running qualities have really impressed me and I probably should not compare it to the Lionel engines. However, The Trix sound is a single channel unit and is subpar to even the Lionel sound module. My new Trix Big Boy has to stop the bell ringing to blow the whistle and then the bell starts up after the whistle blows about six or seven times. The Loksound system is toy like and does not allow you to give whistle signals. The puffing on the Big Boy is eight or chuffs per rev, but does not go in and out of sync like the Lionel. The Soundtrax sound unit is the only one to go for the Big Boys if you want sound.
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