[Lee Willis]

 

[Norton]

I have been a fan since I was kid and saw the 0-4-0s in the Lionel catalogs. This plus a K-Line PRR A5.

Pete

 

[seayakbill]

Cool review Lee. I like those little guys also, have the K-Line Collector Club version with TMCC & Railsounds.

Bill

 

[seayakbill]

My K-Line version, changed it from the PRR to the Pacific Coast RR that used these little guys to pull log cars out of the woods.

Bill

 

[Spence]

I really like them. they are cute little engines. :thumbsup:

 

[Jeff T]

Lee, I caught your comment about the LionChief version and the smoke output. I've seen several videos of both newer LionChief engines and the smoke just pours out!!

Lionel finally catching up??

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Got a few of the little beasts. I have one conventional and two TMCC models. All of mine are the K-Line A-5, they have great detailing and are good runners. I've upgraded one to cruise (easy), and the second TMCC one will get cruise soon. Not sure what I'll do with the conventional one as I'm a 99.9% command runner.

 

[Lehigh74]

This one is MTH Premier. Nice little engine. I put in a low bid and no one else did. What really struck me is that it has whole lot of the valve action for such a small engine.

 

[beachhead2]

I know next to nothing about steam engines. But interesting as usual. I learned some things. Thank you, Lee. :thumbsup:

 

[gimme30]

I have nothing to contribute but I do want to say I enjoy your "favorite locos this week" threads. Even with my thick head I almost always learn something.
That first pic is great!

 

[BENZ TRAINZ]

just out of curiosity, with all the problems Lionel has with quality control WHY DO YOU ALL KEEP BUYING IT ???

 

[seayakbill]

just out of curiosity, with all the problems Lionel has with quality control WHY DO YOU ALL KEEP BUYING IT ???

I am sure a number of the Lionel faithful have asked themselves that very question. Its been a few years since I purchased a Lionel new BTO locomotive but I did take a chance and ordered the BTO Northern Pacific Terminal switcher that has never been done by any manufacture. It is due for delivery sometime this year, most likely 3rd or 4th quarter.

Hopefully, fingers crossed, that it will be A-OK, we shall see.

Bill

 

[Bill Webb]

Thanks Lee. Always very interesting.

 

[Lee Willis]

just out of curiosity, with all the problems Lionel has with quality control WHY DO YOU ALL KEEP BUYING IT ???

I can't speak for others, but for me, it is because often isn't a choice if i want a particular loco, and I've found I can repair about 80% of the loco problems I get myself. So I take the chance.

In the case of the A5s, even though MTH makes a very nice A5, I ended up with four Lionel A5s because I bought three back when Lionel didn't seem to have the quality problems it does now, and I bought the recent UP Greyhound LC+ loco because I wanted another LC+ A5.

A better example is a pre-order I have for the PC+ Lionmaster Big Boy. I had an excellent one that I wore about four years ago - it was my favorite steamer ever but ten years of running just reduced it to where I didn't think it could be repaired any more - everything was lose and worn. I could by MTH's semi-scale Big Boy - but I owned one in the past and the lionmaster was just a better-looking and running loco.

So I really wanted the LC+ Lionmaster Big Boy - my favorite loco with my favorite train control system. Its fairly expensive, and I consider it a risk that it will have something annoyingly wrong, or worse, with it, but I will take the chance.

Except for the price point, this seems to me to actually be identical in approach to what you do often, and I do occasionally, when we buy an old used loco on ebay or at a swap meet. We know it may have "issues," - in fact it is almost certain to, but we want it anyway and are confident we can fix it most of the time, and take the risk that we may not be able to because it is small.