Erie Triplex shipping date?

Sean, here ya go.  https://youtu.be/UT7OzOQJgpI?si=wN2ocab9r6NOHi9Y

My one complaint is the whistle steam is not as strong as I'd like.  I'm hoping that after the dual smoke unit allows more fluid to migrate to the whistle side that it'll get better.

The bummer is, mine has one class light out.  It's a broken wire right under the LED as I can squeeze the wire and it'll light.  Of course, if I attempt a fix and for some reason it doesn't work, then I wonder if Lionel will balk at fixing it under warranty.  I sure hate to have to ship this thing back to Lionel...

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

My one complaint is the whistle steam is not as strong as I'd like.  I'm hoping that after the dual smoke unit allows more fluid to migrate to the whistle side that it'll get better.

The bummer is, mine has one class light out.  It's a broken wire right under the LED as I can squeeze the wire and it'll light.  Of course, if I attempt a fix and for some reason it doesn't work, then I wonder if Lionel will balk at fixing it under warranty.  I sure hate to have to ship this thing back to Lionel...

My Whistle Smoke is weak also.   I tried a Challenger fix, by raising the front of the engine thinking some fluid might migrate to the Whistle.    However, no change.

Initially my whistle smoke was weak, also.

I did blow down the stack several times and that helped a great deal.

It does take a few whistle blows before it heats up enough to see the steam.

Every time I add fluid, I blow down the stacks several times.

I think now my whistle smoke is excellent.

I had the same issue with my new PRR M1 and I also now blow down the stack every time I add smoke fluid.

It now has excellent whistle steam.

Also, I always add the max smoke fluid (20 drops). It seems the newer Lionel locos can take the full amount and begin smoking right away after a filling. Maybe they have a larger fluid capacity? I don't know.

Older locos may not start smoking for a few minutes if they are overfilled.

Final comment, I use Lionel smoke fluid in my Lionel locos, as recommended to me by Dean Brasseur.

@Jeff2035 posted:

Initially my whistle smoke was weak, also.

I did blow down the stack several times and that helped a great deal.

It does take a few whistle blows before it heats up enough to see the steam.

Every time I add fluid, I blow down the stacks several times.

I think now my whistle smoke is excellent.

I had the same issue with my new PRR M1 and I also now blow down the stack every time I add smoke fluid.

It now has excellent whistle steam.

Also, I always add the max smoke fluid (20 drops). It seems the newer Lionel locos can take the full amount and begin smoking right away after a filling. Maybe they have a larger fluid capacity? I don't know.

Older locos may not start smoking for a few minutes if they are overfilled.

Final comment, I use Lionel smoke fluid in my Lionel locos, as recommended to me by Dean Brasseur.

Appreciate the info, thank you.     I’ll start my breathing exercises shortly.      

it’s been awhile since Dean .  

The suggestion from Dean on using Lionel smoke fluid in Lionel locomotives was in April of 2024.

He did say MTH fluid was also OK to use in Lionel locomotives.

@Jeff2035 posted:

The suggestion from Dean on using Lionel smoke fluid in Lionel locomotives was in April of 2024.

He did say MTH fluid was also OK to use in Lionel locomotives.

I believe Dean has been gone from Lionel since 2020.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

I believe Dean has been gone from Lionel since 2020.

I thought the same…..     maybe he came back?

@Alabama Joe posted:

I thought the same…..     maybe he came back?

I really doubt it, he sounded pretty sure of his decision when I talked to him at the time.

He is still doing some repair work.

I do not know what else he may be involved in.

An authorized Legacy repair person I know, who also knows Dean, referred me to Dean.

He currently has my Lionel PRR 0-8-8-0.

After looking at the insides of my smoke units he suggested I use the Lionel or MTH fluid.

Hopefully the whistle steam improves with time. My UP 9000 Class and my Atlantic always seem to have weak whistle steam on startup.

Thanks all for the pics and info, amazing model for sure. Anyone gotten one of the Virginian models yet? Leaning towards this particular paint scheme but want to see a picture of the  actual engine not just a CG image before I order. If someone could post a pic of Lionels 701 I would be very grateful.

@Byron I got the Virginian model but it hasn't come in yet. My supplier lags behind a week or two typically.

@Alabama Joe posted:

My Whistle Smoke is weak also.   I tried a Challenger fix, by raising the front of the engine thinking some fluid might migrate to the Whistle.    However, no change.

Reminder it has a 2 in 1 smoke unit at the front of the engine under the stack. So far it seems Lionel's method of just putting smoke in the stack to replenish both units works well enough. I did find on mine that the exit hole for the whistle steam was partically blocked by some black foam, but it still worked pretty good overall.

I was able to clear the partical blockage by carefully putting a thin tipped soldering iron in the hole, being careful not to go too deep and not to burn the paint around the hole, burning away some of that foam. However, I would recommend sending it back to lionel to have them fix that if yours has the exit hole partcially blocked.

I have indeed noticed the whistle steam smoke unit does take a while to warm up fully and needs to be operated multiple times to get stong output. Although my home layout uses a Z-750 and I remember hearing sine wave transformers will make the smoke units have less smoke output compared to chopped sine wave transformers (like Lionel's). I will report back on the weekend if the whistle steam smoke unit puts out more output on the Lionel transformers at my club.

Any word on the Triplex Super Set ?

Rob, seems like the Triplex super set is arriving in November of this year

Thanks!!

Definitely very weak whistle smoke.
The main smoke stack and the tender smoke are perfectly fine the moment the engine starts, but there is very little whistle smoke until about 5 to 10 minutes of run time.  Even then, it is not as strong as other engines.
Probably a design flaw in this particular engine.

I have found the main stack smoke unit needs a lot more smoke drops than Lionel states in the manual. I've been doing double what they recommend and it's been working out great for me.

If you have weak whistle smoke output, blow down the exit hole for the whistle steam 2-3 times and that should clear any fluid blockages from any condensate that can happen.

I have indeed noticed that you need to blow the whistle 2-3 times at the maximum level to get really strong smoke output from it. If you don't use it every 15 seconds or so, it will be very weak for the first whistle activation. But will fairly quickly increase in output.

I looked through the holes in the shell from the bottom and it seems they used plastic hose for fish tanks to get the smoke from the smoke unit to the whistle hole. So it creates quite a bit of restiction. So much so that if you have the main stack off and activate the whistle steam, you will also see some of the smoke from the whistle steam coming out of the stack.

@Byron here are some quick photos in no specific order:

I'm quite pleased with it. The red sets it apart compared to the rest of my roster. I like the whistle selection on this locomotive too. Couple different options. I'm digging it. I'm also pleased that it isn't exactly fast, like the real thing.

It was tricky to get it on the track, that's for sure. I was trying to be gentle but it's heavy and the tender is attached.

Taking it through a double slip switch is nerve wracking with so many wheels to keep an eye on haha

One day, I hope to stick a four wheel truck on the tender. But I'm leaving it all stock for now.

@BillYo414 posted:

@Byron here are some quick photos in no specific order:

I'm quite pleased with it. The red sets it apart compared to the rest of my roster. I like the whistle selection on this locomotive too. Couple different options. I'm digging it. I'm also pleased that it isn't exactly fast, like the real thing.

It was tricky to get it on the track, that's for sure. I was trying to be gentle but it's heavy and the tender is attached.

Taking it through a double slip switch is nerve wracking with so many wheels to keep an eye on haha

One day, I hope to stick a four wheel truck on the tender. But I'm leaving it all stock for now.

Looks amazing, thanks for posting the pics.
Byron