Marty E, posted on the Forum a worth watching you tube video this morning on an HO manufacture, Scale Trains. I ended up watching the entire 20 minutes of it. These things happen in other scales to. But this company takes care of it. Seeing the lengths they went to make things correct for their customers was a amazing. To the point of offering a replacement engine totally free and letting you keep the one you purchased. Just goes to show when you have competition for hobby dollars. The customer is the winner.
The whole Friendship Train experience from Lionel has been a mixed bag, to put it politely. The good: the passenger cars are awesome and the paint schemes on the PS-1 boxcars are fantastic. The bad: the boxcar trucks and couplers are complete junk. No sugar coating it. They are irredeemably poor designs - feels like cost cutting gone way bad.
The final kick to the mangos is that it appears Lionel has now abandoned the line and we’re all stuck with incomplete sets. Assuming Lionel would’ve fixed the truck/coupler problem, it’s a bummer they quit the line. But, maybe it’s a blessing if the trucks and couplers would’ve just been more of the previous design. I have a ton of PS-1 boxcars I bought at good prices through the years and would’ve cannabinolized trucks from them for the first run Friendship cars to make it all work.
All and all, I was excited about the Friendship set (and the promised future releases) when it was first announced, but have been mostly disappointed since the rubber hit the road with so many problems.
I got stuck with two of the milk cars from the same vintage as a result of a long forgotten preorder (these were the cars that were 3 years in the making after a failed attempt to make them somewhere in Eastern Europe or wherever - I don’t remember). I didn’t even take them out of the box. I priced them at a $30 per car loss and dragged them to a couple shows - no takers so far.
The only new Lionel car I’ve bought since then was the Vision PS-1 (also on preorder before I got the other stuff). It’s nice, but I don’t know if other non-Vision cars got the fix. I quit buying any more Lionel cars out of frustration. Maybe one day I’ll be surprised when a fix is announced for the Friendship cars, but I’m definitely not holding my breath.
It still remains a mystery to me how the trucks went from best in class to complete junk - all in the name of progress.
A direct quote from Lionel's web site:
"Our mission is to develop, manufacture, market and service the best electric toy trains and accessories in the world within a competitive environment. Lead the toy train industry with innovative engineering, flawless manufacturing and superior customer service."
"......FLAWLESS MANUFACTURING AND SUPERIOR CUSTOMER SERVICE."
RAY
I forgot to mention, I love Lionel and want nothing more for them to be successful. But the issue with DEFECTIVE couplers has me disappointed.
RAY
@Ray of sunshine posted:A direct quote from Lionel's web site:
"Our mission is to develop, manufacture, market and service the best electric toy trains and accessories in the world within a competitive environment. Lead the toy train industry with innovative engineering, flawless manufacturing and superior customer service."
"......FLAWLESS MANUFACTURING AND SUPERIOR CUSTOMER SERVICE."
RAY
Mission not accomplished.
Replacement couplers have been available from Lionel. Here’s a good video on how to install them: https://youtu.be/yTMTmwBIuGU
Great video. I’ll get the replacements and give it a try. However, I remain skeptical. My issue was the Friendship trucks derail constantly when coupled to other cars without articulated couplers. Since the Friendship trucks won’t articulate with one another, they get pulled off the rails. The new design doesn’t seem to address this, but it’s worth a shot, especially since Eric said they helped in the video.
One final thought: even swapped out, the video just highlights how much it’s still a completely cheapened plastic junk design compared to the truck design it replaced.
I got burned on 3 8k tank cars and one PRR Milk car before I realized what was going on. I haven't bought any new Lionel rolling stock since then and not sure if I will.
@Keith L posted:Replacement couplers have been available from Lionel. Here’s a good video on how to install them: https://youtu.be/yTMTmwBIuGU
Nice video, but one thing is missing.
WHAT IS THE PART NUMBER FOR THE NEW COUPLERS???
I second it, what's the part number? 
@gunrunnerjohn posted:I second it, what's the part number?
Since this was my video, thought I’d jump in 😁
You have to reach out to Lionel customer service to get them. They’re not available on the parts site. The number listed on my paperwork is CS-48-2026750-550-p. But that part isn’t available on the parts site for purchase, and who knows if that’s even the right number or just a code they shipped them under.
@Rider Sandman posted:One final thought: even swapped out, the video just highlights how much it’s still a completely cheapened plastic junk design compared to the truck design it replaced.
IMO they’re still nowhere near as good as the original milk car trucks. It’s worth the effort to get them operable, but they really only do just that. I will say though I haven’t had any derailments (other than the one shown) since shooting that video.
I think I'm up to four of these newer milk cars. Received a couple for Christmas. Still rather convert to kadee. This just a cheap patch job by Lionel. No thankyou.
