Walter,
I have to speak up. As far as we know there are only a handful of folks who've had this problem, let's just say 12 hypothetically, based on previous postings.
How bad is the problem? The answer is "We can't tell". Why? Because we don't know how many were made we can't tell with the failure rate is.
None of those who were satisfied with their purchase have commented, neither on this forum nor in this thread, because they have nothing to complain about. You're missing the bigger picture as a result.
If Lionel made 1,200 and there were 12 bad ones the failure rate would be 12/1200 which is 1%.
This is actually a very acceptable rate for this kind of business-- unless maybe is you're one of the folks that receives a bad one. Even if it were 36 it's only three times that (3%), which is till not bad.
Now if this were automotive, 1% is very bad. Ford Motor Co. makes about 750,000 F-150 pickup trucks a year. If 1% were bad last year, for some particular reason, they would have made 7,500 bad ones. Ouch!
High volume production, as in automotive, makes quality control much, much easier to accomplish. The GS4's are not made in high volume. They're essentially handcrafted, and therein lies the challenge.
Have some patience. Realize what the nature of the business is, and that on this forum you've only heard from those who received a bad one and taken issue with it, whatever the failure was.
Mike