FlyerChief Berks Shipping

After a weekend of replacing glue with soldering on my PE set I am looking forward to a more quality product! After two trips back to Lionel my PE set has been running non stop (thanks to my 4YO) and is doing really well. I hope that the advanced features and higher price equate to a nicer product in these Berks.  

I was impressed with with paint and quality in appearance of the Southern Berk that Lionel had on display at trainfest. It's no legacy piece for sure, but still not bad when compared to what had been produced on the diesel end for flyer up till the U33Cs.  

It is surprising to me that it appears to be a partial shipment, according to Charlie's list, not all the road names will be in this delivery.  

Re-post of the Southern Berk. 

On a side note about my thoughts twords the FC/LC system and remote, I like it a lot more than I thought I would.  My initial thoughts were "why?? I have legacy". But the simple up and running time of the PE set, and the comfort level I have of handing a FC remote to my son over say...my legacy remote is really nice.  I'm actually really kind of looking forward to see where this goes.  I wonder if a LC mikado is not far behind? It will not take the place over nicer legacy pieces for me in the long run.    

Ben

maybe charlie didnt order the southern road name the only one i saw in southern was from charles ro hope it gets here soon

The Lionel shipping schedule (such as it is) shows December 2015 for all 5 Berks.  The Southern's and Erie's may be in the next batch.

Partial shipments from Lionel is not an unusual occurrence.

Rusty

got a email from charlie ro and he is holding to 1/10/16 on my southern berk

Charles Ro is dinging my CC for my Pere Marquette Berk as of yesterday.....

my southern shipped yesterday

I got a message from Charles Ro that my loco is in transit.  I ordered the  C&O version.  Let's see if it's the right one.  Hey, Merry Christmas guys!

My NKP is to be here Christmas Eve....Like Santa Ordered it that way!!

Here they come. My LHS gets his stock from a distributor, so I doubt they'll be here before Christmas. At least I have the Polar Express. 

According to FedEx, my Erie Berk was delivered to my house this morning!

Merry Christmas to all you guys who ordered the Berks!

I only bought the PE set and after several miss starts it is now running fine and smokes like the dickens. Yesterday I finished relighting all the PE passenger cars with LED strips after the needed components were delivered from China. The even, flicker-free constant lighting looks great and was worth the effort.

I had ordered the NKP Berk but cancelled it some time ago. Only so many $$ to go around ya know.

You guys will like your new engines. The best part is when the engine is warmed up and the smoke is pouring out slow the engine down to notch 1. You will see the engine crawl along and shoot out a plume of fan driven smoke timed to the chuff sounds. REALLY IMPRESSIVE!! 

Again, Merry Christmas to all my friends on the S gauge forum!

Mark

Received my NPR NKP today!

pictures of NPR NKP

Somebody who has received theirs please write and tell us about them.  Especially their differences from the Polar Express and if they run well.

Thanks

I took it down to the layout and gave it a whirl, it works as advertised, smoke was great,rear coupler worked, I only ran it around the layout two times, the only thing I have not figured out yet is there is a coupler button on the horn button and the bell button, I do not understand what the coupler button on the bell button is for, could not find reference for it in the manual. Also I noticed a silver rod with a Magnet on one end do not know what that is for yet.

toy1 posted:

pictures of NPR NKP

Looks good.  Can't wait for mine to arrive.

Rusty

toy1 posted:

I took it down to the layout and gave it a whirl, it works as advertised, smoke was great,rear coupler worked, I only ran it around the layout two times, the only thing I have not figured out yet is there is a coupler button on the horn button and the bell button, I do not understand what the coupler button on the bell button is for, could not find reference for it in the manual. Also I noticed a silver rod with a Magnet on one end do not know what that is for yet.

I'm going to take a stab in the dark here. I believe that the coupler icon on the bell button would be used to open the FRONT coupler on a diesel engine.

Lionel Chief + engines have this set up:

Most likely Lionel is using the same remote/buttons for all of their engines to save $$.

Some engines won't have the front coupler operation so that part of the button is inactive.

I found a picture of the magnet/rod you speak of but can't find an explanation of it's purpose on any Lionel Manuals for Lion Chief engines.

Maybe to manually uncouple an engine???

Someone will chime in with an explanation.

Mark

My Erie Berk is DOA out of the box. It moved about 2 inches and stopped. The gearing seems to be the problem as I can hear the motor spinning but there is no movement. Also, the drive wheels spin freely by hand. Back it goes I guess.

just got the southern in, hope it works going to check it out

Could we see an end photo of that rod?

Did they have extra traction tires in the box?

Yes it did have extra traction tires in the box.

RAN MY SOUTHERN BERKSHIRE RAN AND SMOKES WELL, DOES SLIP STARTING ON OLD FLYER THAT IS RUFF AND IF YOU ACCELERATE OVER OLD FLYER SWITCHES LEAD TRUCK WILL DERAIL AT A STEADY STEAD NO PROBLEMS. THIS IS LIONELS FINEST STEAM ENGINE TO DATE WELL DONE LIONEL. 

Finest steam engine to date? This thing compares to the Y3 or Mikado?  Interesting...

Tom Stoltz

in Maine

I think the Y3 wins, hands down. 

A more informed opinion to follow after my Berk arrives.

Rusty

It's Christmas Eve Eve and I got my C&O Berk this morning.  A few observations: The instruction manual says that you should lubricate the contact rollers.  Hey, Lionel, this is S not O!  Second, the manual refers to two LEDs that don't need servicing while in another place, it says there's no light in the tender.  Must have lost something in translation.  Third, the little rod that some folks referred to as a magnet is different looking in mine, and the manual refers to it as a 3/16 nut driver that removes the side rods if traction tire replacement is needed.  At least this model has extra traction tires, not like the PE set.  But I'm afraid that by the time they need to be replaced, they'll be too hard and dry to use. 

Running observations later.

The thing looks GOOD ! ! !

(one hour later)

Well, looks aren't everything.  It doesn't run.  I followed the directions to a T and all I could manage was it running a foot down the track, and it dies.  The "motor lockout" feature seems to have tripped.  Sometimes it will go full throttle when I just crack it to step one, then die a foot farther down the track.  It doesn't matter if it's transformer controlled or remote controlled.  Yup, new batteries.  Yup, correct remote.  Yup, it's been lubricated sparingly.  Yup, a few drops of smoke fluid to prevent element burn out.  Yup, all switches under the cab are thrown correctly. 

By the way, the reverse light in the tender doesn't light.  At least one part of the instruction manual is correct.

This thing is going back as soon as I can manage it.  But I think the dealers will be swamped with returns.  This thing is a piece of junk.  I will NEVER buy another Lionel engine again!  These new Berks were supposed to have been assembled at a different place than the PE set, but it doesn't look like it.  I thought I had problems with me PE set, but at least it runs... for now.  I'm just waiting for it to crap out too. The new Berkshire joins a long line of Flyonel things that don't work or were sent from their factory incorrectly assembled.  My Commemorative Docksider had the whole pick up assembly poorly assembled, but I found it easier to repair it myself since it cost less than a hundred dollars.  My U33 has no sound any more, but it's too late to send it back.  An early EP5 which was supposed to have sound has it intermittently.  But at least it runs.  I won't even go into trucks on rolling stock that have had side frames fall off and were horribly out of gauge. 

It has been a running joke that I refer to modern electronic things in trains as "sparky stuff" (a term mechanical engineers use against electrical engineers).  But I never trusted any of it, and I now have good reason not to have that mistrust reinforced.  Make it more complicated, and there's more likelihood of something not working.  "More to go wrong" as my dad used to say.

Well, this is a mixed bag so far.  Some people are happy and some aren't.  Time will tell overall.

I looked in the catalog.  The Berks were not promised to have a tender light.  The PE was promised and it was there.  We just never read the ads completely and make assumptions.

The Charles Ro advertisement here shows 3 of the four road names sold out and two with just a few unsold.  The demand has been high if Charley is all but sold out.

Mine will be here soon.

Bill,

I hope yours is better than mine.  But then anything would be. 

And I never expected a tender light.  I DO read the ads from Lionel and never make assumptions.  Such things are immaterial if the unit doesn't run.   Yes, I knew that the piping was cast in and I knew that it was a slightly more detailed version of the PE, plus I didn't expect that there would be much different from the PE other than the boiler front being road specific.  The paint and lettering is top notch, but again, immaterial.  My expectations were low and I wasn't disappointed.  That's one thing Lionel never fails to do.  I though, what are the odds that another of their products that I bought would be faulty?  Well, quite good as it turned out.  I was willing to give them one last chance on this locomotive.  They blew it.   As far as I'm concerned Lionel can get along without me from now on.

Jerry, you miss read me.  My comments were't directed at you.  I was talking about what was being said in general.  I am sorry if you were offended.

My feelings remain the same.  Only a few people have commented and so many of these have been sold.  I can only hope, for the hobby, that the great majority work fine and buyers are pleased.

Jerry, I feel the same way. My PE engine has issues, my Erie Berk is DOA and I shudder to think what I'll find when I fire up my D&H Alcos for the first time this weekend. I have enough stuff to keep me happy and don't need to bang my head against the wall any longer.

Roundhouse Bill posted:

Jerry, you miss read me.  My comments were't directed at you.  I was talking about what was being said in general.  I am sorry if you were offended.

My feelings remain the same.  Only a few people have commented and so many of these have been sold.  I can only hope, for the hobby, that the great majority work fine and buyers are pleased.

No problems, Bill.

If so many were sold, and mine was one of the few that are bad, aren't I the lucky one?  But it's happened too many times to me to be anything but the junk they sell.  But they won't sell me anything ever again.

Well, my 765 worked as it should out of the box & I was very surprised ! However, 8 hrs  & maybe 1/2 hr run time my smoke quit !!!!! I will try again in the morning but will not expect it to work . I fixed the Mikados , BB , & Challenger.  Sd  70's ect. I will NOT FIX THIS DAMM THING. It will have to go back. I agree with Jerry about giving them 1 last try . I guess we shouldn't be surprised !!

Can they really get it this wrong or do they truly not care and are playing us for fools? And how many time does the scenario have to replay before we understand?

I don’t know if I should care because I will be gutting the electronics out of the thing and replacing the couplers with Kadees. However it is hard to imagine a company surviving while having so many bad products. SHS and AM have proven that it is possible to produce a quality S gauge products. I don’t think you can place all the blame on the Chinese manufacturers,  quality control begins at home…

Tom Stoltz

in Maine

Roundhouse Bill posted:

 

My feelings remain the same.  Only a few people have commented and so many of these have been sold.  I can only hope, for the hobby, that the great majority work fine and buyers are pleased.

Seeing the Berks just came out and not everyone has one in their hot little hands yet,  (I expect mine to show up at my LHS after New Years,) the true success/fail rate won't be known for some time.

My Berk will get a quick turn on my LHS's test track before it even leaves the store.  (I watched three Y3's in a row go up in smoke there, including the one set aside for me.  Fortunately, he had another N&W in stock that worked fine.)

Now, with the exception of a bad micro-switch on my B&O Mikado and my U33C missing striping on one side, I've had otherwise pretty good luck with my Flyer purchases, so here's hoping.

Rusty

Well it looks like this might be a sad Christmas for some of us AF Berkshire owners. To those who have received defective engines I strongly suggest you complain LOUDLY  to Lionel and then return the engines (or set) for either a refund or repair. Reports are that repair turnaround times are short and repairs are successful. I hope you can get satisfaction from Lionel if your new engine is DOA.

As to the lighting of the passenger cars which has been discussed many times on this forum I still believe that the "glue" used on the wires to "secure" them to the electrical contacts is and was a half-hearted attempt by Lionel to fix a poorly executed soldering job done by Chinese manufacturers. Remember the reports of the passenger cars having" issues with the trucks" before they were initially delivered? Most likely the wiring was the problem. I have examined the identical heavyweight cars I have on my Chicago & Alton set and NONE of the cars have ever had electrical problems or needed "glue" to reinforce the wiring. And more to the point NONE of the cars had to have the lightbulb GLUED INTO THE SOCKET like all those on the PE cars. Why can't Lionel just A. Tell the truth and B. Make it right for the customer FREE OF CHARGE?

Here's one of what I expect to be many poor quality reviews of the new PE set "borrowed" from an online AMAZON review:

Customer Reviews

My NKP Berk arrived this morning. Just lubed it up, put it on the track, added the batteries and smoke oil. It runs, so far, flawlessly and smokes like a choo choo. I hope the rest of you folks are as blessed as I am.

Ray

Bought two PE sets was going to set one up this evening, Now I may just wait!

Merry Christmas

Gunny

Well I pulled my NKP outta the box.  I think Lionel did as well as they could with details that are all cast into the disast molds.  It does look pretty good.  No Y3 or Mikado for sure, but that is reflected in the price point.  The coal load does look a tad more detailed to me than the PE set, it helps that the coal load does not have a gloss paint on it like the PE set does   The cast in handrail does suck, but when the light in not shining directly down on it it looks like a handrail that is casting a shadow almost.  

I have not run it yet and I am afraid to at this point.  After reading the posts so far I'm worried it will be one more thing that I have to go through the hassle of sending back. Today, the same day my NKP Berk showed up, my PE set had the smoke fan motor go out. So it will make a third trip back. 

I will run it in a bit latter and report back. It is obvious in looking at the tender on it that there is no LED in there for backing.  Kind of surprised, as this seems like I would have not been a big deal to do for Lionel.  I also would have liked to have an engineer and fireman in there.  

I also took a look at the Amazon review that someone had mentioned (about the PE set).  There was only one review on the s gauge set, however there were about 300 reviews on the O gauge PE set with lionchief.  In looking at those reviews, it was apparent that there is about a 25% failure rate on these sets.  No joke, take a look!  How crazy is that.  

Ben