Thanks for the heads up. I had noted a previous post regarding this and was a bit worried.
I believe I was a lucky one, I just checked mine out and it seems fine (or at least it didn't suffer from an immediate problem... I ran it around my living room carpet central Christmas loop probably 20 times or so, and did a few laps in reverse).
I did note there wasn't any visible grease on the gears on the drive wheels, so I added some. Not too cool for a starter set to not have some grease applied at the factory... how many families buy a tube of grease when they leave the store with their set for around the tree? Not too many, I'm guessing.
It does suffer from a limited speed selection. I probably never put it past the 3rd or 4th notch in forward and it was whipping around the loop pretty quick. My first Lionchief engine, so I don't know of they are all like that, or if it's specific to the General.
While I don't know if it may be the problem people have been experiencing, I did note while adding the grease that there are 2 wires that look like they might be candidates for suffering from a pinch point where they enter the inside of the shell from under the engine. That might be a first place to examine if anyone wants to look into the problem on their own before returning it.
Hope everyone with a problem gets it worked out by their dealer or Lionel.
It is a neat looking set. It was the video thread that Alex posted back when it came out that made me decide to get one. It might have been nice if the caboose was lighted, but that's not a deal breaker (I don't think it was offered as lighted).
Merry Christmas!
-Dave
