Fitting a battery in Lionel Genset

I have the up genset and you are right about its being a tight fit. But in saying that I have never had a problem with the sound cutting out. I don't put batteries in any of my legacy or tmcc engines.

The lid on that compartment is on so tight on my genset that I have never even tried to put a battery in there.  The nice thing about the genset is it has four pickups, and rarely if ever had a problem with losing power.

I had to work at it a little bit to get the nose lid off. I bet yours has the same problem mine did. The magnet plate sticks to the magnets better than it sticks to the lid. The glue lionel used to hold the magnets on seems to be pretty weak stuff (I had to glue the magnet onto the rear end hatch too). There would seem to be space under the cab to get the battery down there, however there's a board under there as well, and the battery is longer than the nose of the loco. I guess its just going to go without, unless someone out there makes a stubby 9V battery.

I was really a skeptic about dropping a small fortune on this thing, especially since I could have walked out of the same store with a pair of MTH ones, but the slow speed functionality of this thing is truly impressive, and at least for a one time thing, seems to be worth it in a round about way.

I have never seen another locomotive that has the low speed ability of the Lionel genset.  The detailing is really top-notch as well, though a little delicate.  I had to glue one of the magnets for the cab roof on, so I know what you mean about the magnets.

 

After prying on the nose lid, I figured I'd damage something trying to get it off, and I haven't seen the need for the battery anyway, one less thing to keep track of.

I too do not bother with batteries in the legagcy locos.  The vision up genset, I agree, is just amazing, a cut above even the other legacy locos with odessey II in my opinion.

I think part of the genset's secret is it's geared a lot lower than other locomotives.  It's top speed is a lot slower than other locomotives, something that I don't mind at all.  I rarely run anything remotely close to top speed, the closest thing is passenger trains.

The legacy switchers actually have two speed ranges. When solo the are geared low. When lashed up the switch to normal speeds. Not sure if there is a way to force it into the higher range when not Lashed up

I didn't realize that, but it's somewhat of a moot point.  It's high speed is plenty fast for me, and it's low speed performance is outstanding.

 

I was also impressed with the pulling power given it's a single motor locomotive. 

quote:

Not sure if there is a way to force it into the higher range when not Lashed up

 

Press info and change the engine type from DSW (switcher) to DSL (diesel).

Do all Legacy Gensets share this low speed ability? Or just the Vision Line Gensets?

 

If they do all share this low speed capability, what is the difference between Vision and non-Vision Gensets? Indivdual operating smoke stacks?

 

Thanks

 Jim 

I have the BNSF non-vision version. The biggest difference seems to be the individual smoke units. It runs and sounds the same.

I put a battery in mine, and it does fit, but it is tight (and confusing). You have to put it partially under the cab so that it angles (45 degrees or so) up to the front of the nose. It can not fit "flat" and there is no reason it can not be angled...

Batteries are absolutely unnecessary in Lionel-architecture Command Control (Legacy,

TMCC, licenced).

 

They are "good" for only one thing - keeping the sound going in Conventional mode when the voltage gets below 8 or so volts. They do not run the motors, and do not "help" over dead spots. And why you would buy a Legacy Genset and run it conventionally?

 

These batteries will eventually die and leak (not as soon as an old PW D-cell,

but still); they are not re-chargeable nor stable like the batteries in PS1, 2, 3.

 

Don't do it; don't need it.

 

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A friend has a Vision Genset; slow speed is superb.

I have a loco that can pretty well match it: I upgraded a Samhongsa (Williams)

brass USRA Mikado from the 1990's with ERR Cruise Commander. The gearing in

those Mikes is good, anyway. I do believe that it can creep as steadily and slowly as

the Genset (we'll have to have a "race"). Very impressive - like the Genset. 

 

 

 

They are also used for "Shut Down Sounds" if you do not want to shut down with the remote.

 

MTH batteries leak too, they are far from "stable". I have seen it several times with my MTH engines.

Actually, while they are unnecessary, they actually do maintain the sounds for brief power interruptions in command mode.  I've personally witnessed this with several Legacy locomotives.  I don't have batteries in most of my stuff, but a couple benefit from the batteries.

The vision line unit only has one motor, is the non-vision one the same?

Its the same, the rear truck is powered because of the cab interior. It looks to me like its all the same tooling, sans the 3 smoke units. Maybe there's a hatch or 2 on it that don't open, but the little hatches on the front and back open, as do the battery boxes and compartments under the cab.

I've never seen the non-vision one, so I was curious.  How do they control the smoke to the individual stacks?

there's no "control" it just blows out all 3 of them.

Kinda' what I thought, I love the way that the vision line one works.  It is very realistic, even to the point of alternating the "engine" that starts after an idle shutdown.

I believe most of the recent switchers do, but you can test it to see

That was my line of thinking with my U.S. Army Genset, so I never even tried to get the hatch off.  If an engine doesn't really need a battery, it's not something I'm going to add.

 

I haven't added batteries to any of my Lionel locomotives, even though some could benefit from the addition as far as sound cut-off is concerned.