Good, Inexpensice TMCC Steam?

It would help to know if you are looking for a scale or semi-scale/traditional size locomotive, and if you want freight, passenger, or switcher. Also, what is a tight budget? $200, 250, 300? Less?

My budget is 250 max. Id prefer semi scale or scale sized, with the loco being a 2-6-0 or bigger (don't care of freight or passenger). Thanks!

I would suggest you look for a first run Camelback.  Scale size, short wheel base, and one was posted on the forum for about $250 a few weeks ago.

 

Fred

I have seen K-Line scale switch engines sell for well under $250 and some diesels as well. I have one of these in PRR paint that has been upgraded to ERR cruise.

 

 

Pete

I bought a Lionel PRR semi-scale Mikado with TMCC about 4 years ago...new for about $250. Looks good, runs great, sounds great.

Have you looked through the buy-sell board?

 

Doug

If you want an easy upgrade to cruise control, make sure the locomotive has the newer modular TMCC package.  That allows you to just replace the DCDR board with the ERR Cruise Commander M for less than $100 and half an hour's work.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Any chance of product #s for the two engines suggested? And BTW, I have been browsing in the For Sale forum to no avail

K-line has long been out of production. The 0-4-0 and 0-6-0s came in many different road names each with its own number plus the 0-4-0 came both TMCC and conventional.

You can browse the old catalogs get numbers for the ones you might be interested here:

 

http://www.legacykline.com/app...?useraction=catalogs

 

Pete

Bought this about 8 months ago . It's a Lionel Jr. Mikado with TMCC but doesn't have cruise. It does have Railsounds 5.0 As far as value for what you get these are some of the best little engines Lionel has ever made IMO.
$254 brand new

I re-lettered it for N&W it was a Pennsylvania.

David

David, I second your vote for the Lionel Jr. Mikado. I have 9631 also and really like it. Excellent puller, too. Mine doesn't smoke as well as some I've seen on Youtube, but I'll work on that.

 

Anyone have experience with the C&O Pacific/Hudson duo? (Not the Steamlined Yellowbelly Hudson, the black one) Looks to me like they could be good values as well. Both have been for sale recently on here at good prices.

 

B&OBill

I have the the C&O 6-38070 Pacific, it's a nice locomotive.  No cruise, but for $150 shipped to me, I can't complain.  For $85 I can add the ERR Cruise Commander M to this one and have a nice performing locomotive for less than $250.  It's a pretty good looking set with nice detail.

 

I also thought of the Lionel small Mikado as a good choice. I have a Pennsy version, like Joe above. While it's not scale, it can be considered semi-scale. For the money, it's hard to beat. It has an impressive level of detail, good drive action, and as has been mentioned, R/S 5, which includes crew talk, etc. I added ERR cruise control to it, and it's a great running engine.

Sounds like these jr mikados are very good. If anyone has one or knows someone who has one for sale please email me. Thanks!

RS5 implies multiple crew talk scenarios, is this really RS5?

Yep, it has multiple crew talk and tower com But I just checked the site and the end of the box and it doesn't say railsounds 5 it just says railsounds so my mistake .
I will say this. I'd buy another. It's a heck of a  good runner it's on the layout now hooked to 16 scale freight cars and a caboose .

It was listed for $369 but I found it for $254.

B&O Bill,
unless you want to replace the smoker with a motor driven one don't even bother about trying to "Fix" the one you have... not even worth taking the shell off for. I did all the little tips and tricks to get it to do better but it is what it is.

Just look at the smoke leaking out the sides this way. Where can you get a TMCC steam engine in the 250 dollar range that has steam chest effects?

David

Yes, these Mikados have RailSounds 5. This following is from the manual (and you can view it at the Lionel site) for the Pennsy version I have, no. 11100, but the same manual would be used for all of these Mikados. The RailSounds 5.0 logo is also on the cover.

 

2-8-2 Mikado

Steam Locomotive

Owner’s Manual

71-1100-250

10/06

 

Features of the locomotive

• TrainMaster Command Control equipped—able to run in the TrainMaster

Command Control environment or in the conventional environment with a

standard transformer

• RailSounds 5.0 sound system with CrewTalk communication, TowerCom

announcements, and DynaChuff synchronized chuffing

• Powerful maintenance-free motor with momentum flywheel

• Two traction tires

• Operating headlight

• Puffing smoke unit

• ElectroCoupler on rear of tender

9631 has RS5.0 great little engine

 

Gunny

Cool, I didn't realize it was that new.    Obviously, some of them did not have RS5.0, since I have had them in the past with just RS4.0.

Thanks Gunny I knew I saw it somewhere . Wasn't in the ad at Lionel an wasn't on the box end but it was in the owners manual.

David

Interesting they bury that in the Owner's manual, you'd think they'd be shouting that from the rooftops.

Well, it's featured on the cover of the manual, not just buried inside.  

But you'd think it would be on the box label as well.

 

Sometimes Lionel adds things to items that you don't know about until you get it. Pretty neat when that happens - like a surprise present!

 

 

Here's 9631, the video. My Jr. Mikado takes 23 cars up and over **** Gate bridge on the National Capital Trackedrs layout at this year's Dale City, VA Boy Scout Show. Any "rocking" is the camera. Ignore that pair of J's....LOL  Listen as the engineer of the P&LE reports a loss of control. 

 

B&OB

What if I increased my budget to $350, then what would be some good suggestions?

This is an older listing and don't know if you can get a hold of this guy but this would be a good choice. The 4-4-2 with legacy is listed at $395 but he may take $350 who knows. You can't beat the legacy sounds
It's down the page a ways and he has a pic of it.
Click your mouse on his screen name and it'll bring up his profile with his e mail.
This is the listing:

https://ogrforum.com/d...ent/2415514336677414

David

I was looking at that until I realized he doesn't take PayPal . Great l

Well, one suggestion would be to decide that on the front end next time, before all these folks spend a lot of their time answering your original question (with a $250 max.), for nothing.

 

Not trying to be rude, just a suggestion for next time.

I took their opinions very seriously, and I am browsing for a jr mikado as we speak. I just received some
extra money so I just wanted to see if I could find anything better.  I should have thought about that previously and I apologize if I've offended anyone. Sorry if this is a little choppy as I'm going of my phone here.

Thanks and have a nice day!

A while back, I did some research and I found a list of a bunch if not all Lionel Steam with either command control or command ready.

 

I'll insert them here, already in ebay search format if you want to setup searches.

 

I've seen some go for $180, $200 and up.

 

The 18xxx series are earlier models.

 

 

lionel (18082,18083,18084,18085,18086,18087,18088,18097,18098,18099,18680,18684,21956,21988,28000)

lionel (28004,28005,28006,28017,28020,28025,28031,28033,28035,28037,28039,28095,28743,28745,28747)

lionel (28749,28751,28753,28755,28757,28759,52175,52189,52219,52225)

The # on the box for my Mikado Jr. is 6-11100

Another vote for the TMCC Mikado JR.  I have the PRR #9639 (same as the 9631 shown previously, but from a set) that I bought as a set breakup item on Ebay.  It's sounds are great for the price and they do have RS5 as previously mentioned (I think one of the Christmas ones had Trainsounds, so be careful about what you're getting).  I added some decoration to the front of mine and did some detail painting that I think helped it's looks some.  It's a real strong puller too.  I pulled a pretty good sized train with mine on my clubs layout for over an hour once and it was barely warm when we swapped engines.  I want to say I got mine for around $250, but I think that was back in 2007 or 2008 so I can't quite remember  About the only thing that would make it better is cruise control which mine might be getting in the future.  Other than that it's one of my favorite engines.

 

 

And a video (it's in a couple other videos of mine so if you'd like, feel free to check them out)

 

It's shown at about 1:10 in this video

I'd like to take a second to thank everyone who has posted in this thread, it's nice to know that there are good hearted people out there and are willing to help! I have one more question about the Jr Mike. Are you able to upgrade the sound chip to one with a different whistle? Thanks so much guys!

you could but that would mean even more money. The reason these engines are a good value is you get really good sound and a good running engine for not a lot of money.
If you start changing sound boards all that extra expense will defeat the purpose of buying a low end engine with TMCC.

If your going to do that ,you may as well save your money a while longer and buy one with a whistle you like. Coarse then you'll be talking $600 and above.

David