Amtrak TMCC HHP-8 Electric Locomotive

Welcome to the forum Matt.  Great question.  Hopefully someone will chime in with the answer.  I may have to purchase one if it has electic type sounds (snapping while idle in the station, etc)  I'm willing to bet that it's just a better sounding horn and bell with the addition of crew talk.  Maybe Jon from Lionel will reply with the info.

Matt,

Good questions.  I have the set and always wondered how well the stand-alone HPP8 sounded.  I would like to how well it ran pulling cars since it has 2 motors vs. 1.  The one from my set struggles to pull my MTH amtrak amfleet cars.  It does well with the Lionel ones.  

Welcome Matt,  I would also like to hear from someone on how they are. What's really bad here is that I should be able to tell how they are. I have all of them, even a 2nd set of the cars for the extra engine. But like 95% of what I have has never been on track, except for the HHP-8 set engine and that was only to test it on a 20" of track and it has just the horn & bell. It did not stay on the track for long because I had it at work at the time and it took the back seat to my Vision Penna. CC2. which came about the same time as the Amtrak set. I'm hoping to have some room at home for a small layout in a few months.

Hey Matt,

This is not going to help much but here is a video of the HHP8.  It is running next to a NYC Sharknose and the HHP8 sounds are not clear.  I like the sounds but can't compare it to the one in the set.  IMO the sounds are not as good as the newer Legacy diesels.    It aslo has cruise control which I don't believe was listed in the catalog as a feature.  I would make you a new video but with a small extension being added I have no Legacy or power to any of my track.

Link to Lionel product page - > http://www.lionel.com/Products/Finder/ProductDetail.cfm?ProductNumber=6-38402&expandBranch=0&Keywords=hhp%2D8&CategoryID=0&RailLineID=&CatalogId=

That's odd...I just pulled out my HHP8 (6-18323)  from the set, and it has twin motors. 

---PCJ

The HHP-8 from the set does indeed have twin motors.  Small hobby type motors, like the RMT Beep has.  The railsounds HHP-8 #664? has bigger more powerful twin motors.   I have pulled 9 Lionel Amfleet cars with my set HHP-8 #656.  It can pull all of them.  It's not happy, but it can do it.  I have two spare motors in my parts supply for when that day comes.

Thank you to everyone who chimed in on this. The description on the Lionel website is very lacking and without a PDF manual to look at I was lost. I was really thinking about picking it up and running an engine on both ends linked up which would seem pretty cool.

So it looks like it has the odyssey system as well.

Greg, as far as sounds go do you know if there is any crew talk and also is there a distinct electrical hum sound.

I have the HHP-8 (6-38402) cab #664 and I love this engine. It is a very good puller.  The sounds are great, it has Railsounds 5, complete package with tower com and crew talk response. It also has the ERR cruise control which responds  well to Legacy when programed as R100.

You won't be disappointed if you purchase one.

Great! thank you rb2hogger that's what I needed to know.

Good Luck.  I hope you get it at a good price like I did. I bought mine at York, Oct. 2011, for half of MSRP. $200.00 new in the box from a Lionel dealer. He was dealing.

Wow $200 new, that is an unreal price. I have been searching the web and the cheapest I have seen it is $349.

I do have one other quick question, from some pictures I saw it seems to only have a lighted cab on the front - does the car facing cab not light up at all?

It does not light-up when the engine goes into reverse. Front cab stays lite. Headlight and marker lights change based on direction of travel. I just ran mine to check it out.

question for rb2hogger - What do I need to do to program as R100 using Legacy ?

When programmed as a TMCC loco I've noticed very slow reponse to get the engine up to speed, as it takes a few turns of the throttle, is this typical ?