Just got an email from Charles Ro this guy is in and ready to ship - was wondering if anyone has picked up theirs and what they thought ?
Thx in advance
Joe S
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Mine should be here Monday
Mine should be here on Saturday, I will try and post photos/videos if it delivers.
Thanks Matt - anxious to see what Lionel did with the MTH tooling and how they "improved" things - apparently one of the changes cosmetically has been to the engine / tender gap which I guess was significant on the MTH version ??? - any pics / video would be appreciated
Talk to you soon
Joe S
Got her today, looks good! I wish Lionel had put the polished rods on these but overall I'm very pleased
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Mine should be here tomorrow, in the PRR fantasy colors.
Thank you everyone for the feedback - engine looks and sounds great - quick question - on the 5011 Santa Fe in some pics the black appears to be a gloss and in others a much less glossy satin / flat finish ??? - just curious - Thx
@dorfj2 posted:Thank you everyone for the feedback - engine looks and sounds great - quick question - on the 5011 Santa Fe in some pics the black appears to be a gloss and in others a much less glossy satin / flat finish ??? - just curious - Thx
The logical comparison is to use the MTH restoration Big Boy. As you can see from the photos the 5011 is more of a satin finish next to the glossy Big Boy.
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So....are these models more accurate than the Lionel 2-10-4s they previously issued in C&O and Pennsy livery?
I really like what I see above, especially the Santa Fe Version.
BP, these are SF 5011 Class 2-10-4s, whole different beast. Lionel has made a very viable PRR J1a 2-10-4 and a slightly less accurate C&O T1 based off their J1a.
For PRR modelers, many of the SF 5011 Class engines can be justified on a PRR layout since they were rented mules in 1956:
Has anyone checked to see if this model has a back driveable geartrain? I.E. if you roll the model do the drivers move? The MTH version had a chassis with a non-back driveable gearbox. I'm curious if Lionel left the gearbox alone or added their own back driveable gearbox design to the chassis. The MTH designed gearbox was bullet proof, so I'm hoping Lionel kept it.
@Lou1985 posted:I'm curious if Lionel left the gearbox alone or added their own back driveable gearbox design to the chassis. The MTH designed gearbox was bullet proof, so I'm hoping Lionel kept it.
Fwiw, In the early days of Legacy. Lionels back drivable gearbox was still achieved via the traditional worm and axle gear setup.
They started using those intermediate gears around 2011.
Maybe the gear reduction helps the Canon perform like a Pittman😉
There have been a few locos in between that have back driveability and no extra gears. I believe the Legacy ESE hudsons and VL Niagra to name a couple.
Hopefully folks will get lucky with these 2 -10-4's
@RickO posted:Fwiw, In the early days of Legacy. Lionels back drivable gearbox was still achieved via the traditional worm and axle gear setup.
They started using those intermediate gears around 2011.
Maybe the gear reduction helps the Canon perform like a Pittman😉
There have been a few locos in between that have back driveability and no extra gears. I believe the Legacy ESE hudsons and VL Niagra to name a couple.
Hopefully folks will get lucky with these 2 -10-4's
It’ll really be interesting to see what they’ve done to this chassis, as I’m sure it'll more than likely become SOP on former MTH large locomotives, …..
Pat
@Norm Charbonneau posted:BP, these are SF 5011 Class 2-10-4s, whole different beast. Lionel has made a very viable PRR J1a 2-10-4 and a slightly less accurate C&O T1 based off their J1a.
For PRR modelers, many of the SF 5011 Class engines can be justified on a PRR layout since they were rented mules in 1956:
I don’t think I’ve actually seen that first one. Lit class lights at 1:03! 
Heres some recommended reading for fans of the 5011 Class:
I sought these out when I did my 5022 project. The Tipton book has some good shots of the turntable skates the Pennsy made to accommodate these beasts.
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@BNSF-Matt posted:Mine came today as well. Very happy with the finished product. Great selection of whistles and probably one of the best bells available for steam.
I attached a video of all the whistles available if interested.
Nice assortment of whistles. Do they tell you which one is correct for the engine?
@RickO posted:Fwiw, In the early days of Legacy. Lionels back drivable gearbox was still achieved via the traditional worm and axle gear setup.
They started using those intermediate gears around 2011.
Maybe the gear reduction helps the Canon perform like a Pittman😉
There have been a few locos in between that have back driveability and no extra gears. I believe the Legacy ESE hudsons and VL Niagra to name a couple.
Hopefully folks will get lucky with these 2 -10-4's
If Lionel just changed the pitch on the worm wheel and worm shaft to make the gearbox back driveable that would be fine. The gearbox would still be rugged. It's those intermediate gears that worry me slightly.
Gearbox or not I'm pretty sure my MTH version I turned into a 5001 class with a rare earth magnet, 6mm ball bearing Pittman motor will drastically out pull the current Lionel version 😉.
@BobbyD posted:Nice assortment of whistles. Do they tell you which one is correct for the engine?
I'm not a whistle expert by any means, but I think the first default one is probably pretty close.
This is the only video (not mine) I could find with a sort of clear whistle sound.
Feast your ears on this: http://www.columbusrailroads.c...Bellevue%2010-56.mp3
Whatever that is at around 2:02 is not PRR haha.
Here’s the Santa Fe Blackbonnet. Very nice.
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Just came across this video:
The bell tone is fantastic and the HUGE tender acts like a bass chamber! As you can see in the 4th picture, the Texas tender absolutely dwarfs the cab forward and Big Boy tender.
Just got my Legacy ATSF 2-10-4 #5011. Pretty pleased with the model, but I was wondering if anyone also had this observation:
To the rear above the pistons and at the top of the start of the running gear, there appears to be a significant gap between the boiler and the wheels through which you could see straight through. I did my best to make out the details on photos of the prototype online, and there does not appear to be such a large gap. Instead, the boiler appears to slope downward towards the wheels as it does on most steam engines.
The strangest part is that on the model above the rear drivers and start of the firebox, the boiler visibly slopes downward as it should. For some reason, Lionel did not also do that for the front of the boiler where specified above, and instead left a noticeable gap where the boiler would normally slope down.
Has anyone also made this observation? Would anyone have an idea as to why the model was constructed this way? It does not affect its functionality, nor does it take away from all the other great features - I'm mostly just curious about the gap.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Tony E.
"The youthful never outgrow playtime - their toys just get more expensive" 😂
@Tony E. posted:Just got my Legacy ATSF 2-10-4 #5011. Pretty pleased with the model, but I was wondering if anyone also had this observation:
To the rear above the pistons and at the top of the start of the running gear, there appears to be a significant gap between the boiler and the wheels through which you could see straight through. I did my best to make out the details on photos of the prototype online, and there does not appear to be such a large gap. Instead, the boiler appears to slope downward towards the wheels as it does on most steam engines.
The strangest part is that on the model above the rear drivers and start of the firebox, the boiler visibly slopes downward as it should. For some reason, Lionel did not also do that for the front of the boiler where specified above, and instead left a noticeable gap where the boiler would normally slope down.
Has anyone also made this observation? Would anyone have an idea as to why the model was constructed this way? It does not affect its functionality, nor does it take away from all the other great features - I'm mostly just curious about the gap.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Tony E.
"The youthful never outgrow playtime - their toys just get more expensive" 😂
Prepare for a long winded response.
So the real Santa Fe 5011 class 2-10-4 was built at the same time as the 2900 class 4-8-4. Both were built by Baldwin in the 1943-1944 time frame. They were both visually almost identical. The shared the same tenders, with the visual differences (besides wheel arrangements) being the 5011 class being 2 feet longer and having a wider boiler.
The Lionel model is tooling purchased from MTH. The tooling started life around 1995 in the form of the Santa Fe 2900 class 4-8-4. In the early 2000s MTH tooled up a 2-10-4 chassis to sit under the 2900 class 4-8-4 chassis (since the two locomotives are so visually identical) creating the 5011 class on the cheap, since it only required new tooling for the chassis. Since the MTH (now Lionel) model uses the 2900 class boiler, the 2-10-4 5011 class chassis under it can look a bit odd at different angles vs. the real life locomotive. The boiler is narrower, so it doesn't extend down as close to the driver's as it should. The 2-10-4 is also about 1/2" shorter then it should be as well.
The only fully accurate Santa Fe 5011 class 2-10-4 in 3 rail was made by 3rd Rail in the early 2000s. It is mechanically inferior to the MTH (now Lionel) model and does not run nearly as well. That being said I own three MTH Santa Fe 2-10-4s and two MTH Santa Fe 2900 class 4-8-4s. The visual inaccuracies of the MTH (now Lionel) 5011 class don't bother me enough to cause grief.
@Lou1985 posted:Prepare for a long winded response.
So the real Santa Fe 5011 class 2-10-4 was built at the same time as the 2900 class 4-8-4. Both were built by Baldwin in the 1943-1944 time frame. They were both visually almost identical. The shared the same tenders, with the visual differences (besides wheel arrangements) being the 5011 class being 2 feet longer and having a wider boiler.
The Lionel model is tooling purchased from MTH. The tooling started life around 1995 in the form of the Santa Fe 2900 class 4-8-4. In the early 2000s MTH tooled up a 2-10-4 chassis to sit under the 2900 class 4-8-4 chassis (since the two locomotives are so visually identical) creating the 5011 class on the cheap, since it only required new tooling for the chassis. Since the MTH (now Lionel) model uses the 2900 class boiler, the 2-10-4 5011 class chassis under it can look a bit odd at different angles vs. the real life locomotive. The boiler is narrower, so it doesn't extend down as close to the driver's as it should. The 2-10-4 is also about 1/2" shorter then it should be as well.
The only fully accurate Santa Fe 5011 class 2-10-4 in 3 rail was made by 3rd Rail in the early 2000s. It is mechanically inferior to the MTH (now Lionel) model and does not run nearly as well. That being said I own three MTH Santa Fe 2-10-4s and two MTH Santa Fe 2900 class 4-8-4s. The visual inaccuracies of the MTH (now Lionel) 5011 class don't bother me enough to cause grief.
Fantastic insight, thank you so much. This is my first model of an O scale ATSF 2-10-4, so there is still a lot that I have to learn. Definitely a still a nice model with great features; makes a nice addition to my mostly ATSF steam fleet.
@Tony E. posted:Fantastic insight, thank you so much. This is my first model of an O scale ATSF 2-10-4, so there is still a lot that I have to learn. Definitely a still a nice model with great features; makes a nice addition to my mostly ATSF steam fleet.
Here's how close they are visually.
5011 class 2-10-4:
2900 class 4-8-4:
Anyone who has bought one of these, do you have any thoughts on a fix for the too-wide handrail on the pilot? MTH got that right, and the Lionel is pretty wide/won't sit down straight.
Well...I've been on the fence for a while about this locomotive. But, the more videos I watched, the more impressed with these 2-10-4s and their size I became.
I just picked up a 5011 from Mr. Muffins, who is running a President's Day sale.
I highly suggest everyone check out the current sale that Mr. Muffin has in place. Some very good prices are in place between now and Tuesday. 
