American Flyer 4501 Mikado

That is a nice engine. Lionel did a nice job with the green and gold on it. I have a number of the TMCC Mikados. They were made from 2004 through 2007. In 2008 the former K-Line Big Boy was released with S gauge running gear and the Legacy system.

The Mikados and the light Pacifics were all highly detailed and great looking. They were at best marginal in operation. The sounds are good but only two chuffs/revolution.

They have a DC motor with a brass flywheel, no electronic cruise control. The smoke unit is an old style Seuthe unit. It will smoke but not like a modern fan driven unit. Use the Lionel smoke fluid included in the box.

I had all of mine completely rebuilt. The motor was replaced, flywheel deleted, cruise control added, four chuffs/revolution,  an MTH fan driven smoke unit replaced the Seuthe and a half speed worm gear installed. They now run as well as any of the new Legacy engines. The sounds are great. These are the only small steamers Lionel ever made with TMCC or Legacy. The recent re-released of the light Pacifics with Legacy are a match, we are hoping for a run of Legacy Mikados.

I've never really been a fan of how most manufacturers make 4501 using the USRA light body because its actually incorrect how the real 4501 looks. I think the ancient Samhongsa-born Lionel model from the early 90's is the only one with the correct 4501 engine and tender body shape, at least in O gauge.

That being said, the S gauge Mikes are still impressive models. They have some of the absolute best RailSounds 5 boards Lionel ever made (I should know, having bought many before Lionel pitched them off their CS site), and the details are exquisite. The Seuthe smoke units and lack of Cruise are definitely they're weakest links, but I've seen many fix that relatively easily.

Here are a couple of Mikado and Pacific upgrade projects I have done.
It gives you Cruise and 4 puff fan driven smoke.

http://www.tuveson.com/nyc-mikado/nyc-mikado.html

http://www.tuveson.com/mikado-.../updating_mikado.htm

@Carl Tuveson posted:

Here are a couple of Mikado and Pacific upgrade projects I have done.
It gives you Cruise and 4 puff fan driven smoke.

http://www.tuveson.com/nyc-mikado/nyc-mikado.html

http://www.tuveson.com/mikado-.../updating_mikado.htm

Carl,

Glad to see you're still around. Do you still have that excellent layout up?

Still kicking..

Layout is still running.

@Mikado 4501 posted:

I've never really been a fan of how most manufacturers make 4501 using the USRA light body because its actually incorrect how the real 4501 looks. I think the ancient Samhongsa-born Lionel model from the early 90's is the only one with the correct 4501 engine and tender body shape, at least in O gauge.

That being said, the S gauge Mikes are still impressive models. They have some of the absolute best RailSounds 5 boards Lionel ever made (I should know, having bought many before Lionel pitched them off their CS site), and the details are exquisite. The Seuthe smoke units and lack of Cruise are definitely they're weakest links, but I've seen many fix that relatively easily.

I remember a piece you wrote on the forum awhile back detailing some of the details/features of the Samhongsa model. Had considered getting one but it would need almost everything replaced internally to be a good operator, Do you know of anyone who has done a full upgrade on one of them?

Sam,

I did upgrade mine around 2016 or so. It was my first major command upgrade.

As nostalgic as I was for RailSounds 1.0, I was not satisfied with being restricted to conventional operation with this model. Alex M was a big help with the smoke unit hook ups and mount. It has the full ERR Cruise package with GunrunnerJohn's Super Chuffer and Chuff Generator boards, as well as all LED lighting. As stated, this locomotive now uses the same RailSounds 5.0 board from your S scale 4501, so it now has the accurate whistle and correct CrewTalk dialog.

Sadly, Lionel doesn't offer any of these old boards on their parts site, so if I were to do this upgrade over again, I’d probably go for Blunami to get the best sound advantages and this locomotive makes a good candidate. It may also perform better with a larger Pittman motor installed, but despite it using the somewhat smaller RS385 Mabuchi motor, it's still a really good puller. Its gearbox is near bulletproof and has 4 traction tires.