A tale of two Daylights - comparison

C. Sam,

Your GS-2 is beautiful!  I have the Lionel #6-11127 Scale Legacy GS-4.  It first came out in the 2008, Volume 1 catalog.  I pre-ordered it.  It took a year to arrive.  I don't have any side-by-side pics, nor do I know the differences between the GS-2 and GS-4, but here's some pics of mine.  They are beautiful engines!  My dad actually took the Daylight to Los Angeles, from San Francisco a couple of times.  Matt

Boin106    I wish that was mine - Ha!

Don't have one but would love to.

 

Yours certainly is handsome too. What a beautiful locomotive...

A truly beautiful locomotive, I would love to have one.

 

dave

GS- 2 has 73" drivers, an open cab, a single headlight, and a tender with a platform and rear facing ladder.  The GS-4 has dual headlights, 80" drivers, an all- wearher cab ( hence no tender platform), and rear ladders mounted on the sides of the tender.  Also the curvature of the water tank at the top is greater.

 

These are actually two very different locomotives.  They look the same because of the skirts and colors.

 

So what I want to know is when do the non- legacy Daylights hit eBay, and at what price?

Already there. Albeit a bit pricey yet.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LIONEL...;hash=item20ce2fcbac

Gs2 tmcc should be around the 500 mark I think. 

I believe the previous Lionel GS-4 had 4 chuffs and RS-5. The previous GS-2 had 2 chuffs and RS-4. In my book the former is Legacy lite and will perform fine as is. The latter, which may have the same level of detail as a current Legacy version will not sound or perform as well. Upgrading to 4 chuffs in sound and smoke unit can be done but its not a trivial task and has to be considered when appraising older engines. MHO

 

Pete

Matt, you kids today. This is a GS-2s and these are GS-3s. The next is a GS-4 and the last are GS's you can ride.  Don

Don,

You old guys get cranky and onery!  By the way...I think I just rode several times on the last GS.  I gonna buy tickets to go again.  Maybe I can "train" to be the engineer!  Forget the 2472.  You should do a documentary on the GS's that kids can ride on!  Matt

Nice pics of the Lionel GS-4.

Thanks for posting.

 

Rod

Yes, the GS-2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were all different in many ways. The GS-6 was essentially

a wartime copy of the GS-2, dimensionally. The GS-4 and 5 (there were 2 - roller

bearings were the only difference) were larger than the 2 and 6 (bigger drivers,

for example), and the GS-3 had the larger drivers of the 4 and 5, but the looks of

the 2. The 3 is seldom discussed - odd.

 

Now, no one EVER asks about the GS-1; there certainly was a GS-1. It was SP's first

4-8-4, I believe; built by Baldwin instead of Lima, it was never streamlined in any way

and was a rather slim-boilered, lanky thing. Very handsome, and lasted until

the end of steam, I think. They were used all the way to the Louisiana (T&P) lines.

 

The GS-1 should be modeled (along with the L&N M-1 Berk, the NC&StL 4-8-4 Dixie, and

the...here we go again).

I agree:

 

The GS-1 were built by Baldwin while the GS-2 through the GS-6 were all built by Lima.  The GS-3,GS-4 and GS-5 all had 80" drivers while the GS-1,GS-2 and GS-6 all had 73.5" drivers.  There were cylinder diameter differences between all the GS class' as well as boiler pressures.  Not to mention cab differences, smoke box doors, lighting and so on.  To see a variety of GS's check the pics out on this site...

 

http://www.yesteryeardepot.com/spdylght.htm

 

Chris

Another difference between the GS4 and GS2 is that the main connecting rods are noticeably different.  The GS2s had relatively narrow, straight-edge connecting rods, while the GS4/GS5 had heavier duty siderods that tapered outward from the piston box to the driving wheels so it was narrow at the piston box end and much wider at the driving wheels.

 

Lionel, for whatever reason (either lack of research or an attempt to save on tooling $$) decided to recycle the connecting rods from their GS2 model to their GS4.  To some it may not be noticeable or bothersome, but it stands out like a sore thumb to me and doesn't look right.  Pity actually, as I think otherwise Lionel did an exceptional job on the GS4.

I have the older GS2 and the GS64. The are amazing in sound and performance.  They have railsounds 5.0. Which sound fantastic.  The whistles have multiple tones and the chuffs can be upgraded to 4 with some work. If you can find them for under 600.00. Grab them. You will not be disappointed!

>>Pity actually, as I think otherwise Lionel did an exceptional job on the GS4.<<

 

I recall something about the Daylight logo on the walkway of the GS4 facing in the wrong direction...

Joe 

Yes, look at the photos of the GS-4 above from each side and you can spot the goof.

Side rods and main rods are not a big deal to Lionel.  The FEF uses the GS-2 rods, apparently.  I agree that the GS-4 Mains are distinctive, but the FEF side rods are truly different.

 

Logo?  Glad I am a 2- railer - such inaccuracies do not particularly bother us.  Beaides, I have lots of leftover decals.  I really wouldn't notice unless I had a photo in front of the model.  The Lionel model looks pretty much spectacular!  Hope it has a round boiler?

Lots of good info here fellas - Thanks!

 

What then are the primary differences between the new release and the previous Legacy model please?

I can see the single/dual headlights but missed the side rods...

Not sure what you are trying to compare? The new Daylight release is a GS-2 which has not been offered in Legacy till now. The GS-4 is a different locomotive and was produced in Legacy at least 3 years ago. All these models have a different sounding whistle and all sound great to me. The other differences have already been discussed above. To me, the Legacy GS-2 sounds at idle may have a little more going on than I remember in the Legacy GS-4 but I haven't put them side by side yet. 

Here are a few pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wrong side rods and Daylight logo kept me from buying the GS-4.  I love my scale GS-2.  I also have all seven matching cars which look great behind it.

I am happy they changed the Cab number. So you can have both on the layout.

Hmm maybe I should change from the black one to the daylight version?

Naw I'll get both!

I will probably be on the market for one of these soon and was doing some research when I came upon this thread. I was surprised by the fact that Lionel did not offer the 4449 in scale. I figured like the MR 261, N&W 611, and UP 844, the 4449 would have been the obvious choice since it's the surviving example. 

 

In any event, I'm leaning toward the original 2004 GS-2 in my tradition of collecting the original TMCC releases that for my purposes are the same as the Legacy versions but far cheaper. I also like the fact that #4410 was the first GS-2, and it apparently doesn't have the same cosmetic goofs as the 2008 Legacy GS-4.