Biggest Bang for the Buck

If you want new,  and scale NYC large steam. The MTH Niagara and Mohawk's are still available. 

Depends on what your price range is....

You could likely find a few of the Legacy streamlined NYC Hudsons Lionel made a year or two back.

A real high-end option would be hunting down one of the Lionel "Water Level Freight" sets that included a Legacy 2-8-4 Mohawk, and a few beautiful scale freight cars.

I've seen a few of the Lionel Legacy NYC 4-6-0s still available on some of the large dealer websites. This would be my choice personally.

There are a few LC+ Lionel NYC locos available as well which may be a good option as you can't get the full Legacy feature set in conventional.

As a conventional operator, I would highly suggest avoiding MTH PS3 steamers. There is a software issue that causes very violent stops when throttling down and using the direction button. I've shredded traction tires, derailed trains and finally dumped all PS3 steamers, but one (converted from PS3 to conventional a la Williams) after a few accidental "hard stops" caused the gears to start skipping "teeth". MTH executives said they are aware of the issue but not willing to fix it due to the fact that, according to them "no one runs conventional, they all run DCS"....

If you are looking for support (do you mean a warranty? )Running conventional isn't that complex, pretty much would be the same as any post war engine (I realize some advanced features are available in conventional mode on some otherwise command control enabled engines). If you mean warranty support,that would require buying a new engine more than likely.  One thing to be careful of is to make sure the engine you are buying from a dealer is not "New Old Stock", ie an engine that never sold but could be several years old, both MTH and Lionel have limited shelf life on their product warranties, if buying something, especially online, find out when the engine was made (and if they claim they can't tell or won't tell, don't buy it from them) and compare that to the warranty restrictions. You may find a place that does repairs that will back the sale if something goes wrong, but the safest bet is to buy something backed by the manufacturer. 

IME most of the scale engines you would find for NYC will run on O72 curves, while larger curves always make for a better appearance, even the scale Hudsons and such will run on O72, so that shouldn't be a problem. If price isn't an issue, probably any Lionel or MTH in their scale offerings would fit your needs.  

Any NYC engine will run on 072. The Niagara is biggest made by any manufacturer so far. NYC had larger engines but none modeled so far.

There have been so many made over the years you have a lot to choose from. Buy new or find a used one for a 1/3rd of new. Personally I will buy three previously owned rather than a single brand new one. Up to you.

Pete

I might have an inexpensive solution for a large scale NYC steam locomotive;

I had bought Lionel's 6-18064, L3A Mohawk when they first came out. I heard of all their problems, so I never ran it, but did take a look at it twice. Once when it first arrived and once again when some railroad friends came over.

About a year or so ago, I got an opportunity to see if it would run. A fellow Lionel friend (Larry deabler) relatively near my house who has done some repairs for me was doing some custom electro-coupler work for me. I had it with me and asked Larry if he would check if it would run. He put it on the track and no doing, nothing. So he took it apart down to the motor and saw that the grease had hardened. Changed the grease and back onto the track... She worked fine. I put it back in the box and it has stayed there since.

I have no layout with wide enough curves to accommodate the scale Mohawk. If I keep it, it will be of no benefit to anyone. If you are willing to pay the shipping and insurance (the value you wish) and $25 for my trouble to get it to a UPS store, that scale Mohawk can be yours. Let me know if you wish. In original Lionel box and shipping box. BTW, I had asked Larry if he wanted it. He said no.

TM Terry posted:

I might have an inexpensive solution for a large scale NYC steam locomotive;

I had bought Lionel's 6-18064, L3A Mohawk when they first came out. I heard of all their problems, so I never ran it, but did take a look at it twice. Once when it first arrived and once again when some railroad friends came over.

About a year or so ago, I got an opportunity to see if it would run. A fellow Lionel friend (Larry deabler) relatively near my house who has done some repairs for me was doing some custom electro-coupler work for me. I had it with me and asked Larry if he would check if it would run. He put it on the track and no doing, nothing. So he took it apart down to the motor and saw that the grease had hardened. Changed the grease and back onto the track... She worked fine. I put it back in the box and it has stayed there since.

I have no layout with wide enough curves to accommodate the scale Mohawk. If I keep it, it will be of no benefit to anyone. If you are willing to pay the shipping and insurance (the value you wish) and $25 for my trouble to get it to a UPS store, that scale Mohawk can be yours. Let me know if you wish. In original Lionel box and shipping box. BTW, I had asked Larry if he wanted it. He said no.

Please send me your address and I'll mail you a check.

And be SAFE!

Mike, we hope commerce is back in full swing by Tuesday. Irma is going slower than experts thought. Local government is being super conservative. Hopefully the UPS store by my house is open by Tuesday.

Just sent you an email.

clem k posted:

If you want new,  and scale NYC large steam. The MTH Niagara and Mohawk's are still available. 

If dollars count MTH is certainly the way to go ( and I am a Lionel guy). I have also run MTH locos conventionally and smoke and low speed performance is nearly as good as when under DCS.

Heres a link to Mr Muffins. Theres a new niagara, a niagara with reefers, as well as several of the new scale mohawks, those with the 20- prefix. Shipping is free at Muffins.

FWIW the niagara with reefers is several hundred dollars cheaper than a comparable locomotive alone from Lionel.

Obviously these are new so you'll have a warranty.

https://mrmuffinstrains.com/pa...?page=1&q=mohawk

TM Terry posted:

Just sent you an email.

Sent you a reply. You have the correct email. Thanks. 

SJC posted:

Depends on what your price range is....

You could likely find a few of the Legacy streamlined NYC Hudsons Lionel made a year or two back.

A real high-end option would be hunting down one of the Lionel "Water Level Freight" sets that included a Legacy 2-8-4 Mohawk, and a few beautiful scale freight cars.

I've seen a few of the Lionel Legacy NYC 4-6-0s still available on some of the large dealer websites. This would be my choice personally.

There are a few LC+ Lionel NYC locos available as well which may be a good option as you can't get the full Legacy feature set in conventional.

As a conventional operator, I would highly suggest avoiding MTH PS3 steamers. There is a software issue that causes very violent stops when throttling down and using the direction button. I've shredded traction tires, derailed trains and finally dumped all PS3 steamers, but one (converted from PS3 to conventional a la Williams) after a few accidental "hard stops" caused the gears to start skipping "teeth". MTH executives said they are aware of the issue but not willing to fix it due to the fact that, according to them "no one runs conventional, they all run DCS"....

Thanks... Actually a PS3 would have been my first choice. This is the first I have heard of it. I'll do some research and get my LHS techies take on this. Much appreciated.