how many folks like the old diecast frame 622 switchers

i like them a lot, got a few but the Katy set did not grab me. C&O,B&O,PRR,RDG,ATSF,SP then you're talking.

I have the old Santa Fe and Seaboard. I loved them as a kid but never got one. The Santa Fe was the first Lionel engine (1949) with magnetraction. They never said a word in the catalog about the feature not knowing if it would go over or not. Don

I too am a big fan. Post War 622 SF, 623 SF, Modern Lionel 622 NYC, Williams 6220 Seaboard and 624 C&O and NYC Cigar Band.

 

Pete

Lionel's NW2 was an exceptional model both visually and mechanically when it was first released. It was accurately detailed, well proportioned and ran as dependably as its EMD prototype. The NW2's subsequent downgrading during the later years of postwar era production was most unfortunate.

 

I still have the 6220. It holds its own among models of contemporary production on my railroad very nicely.

 

Bob 

I have a Postwar 622 ATSF and love it, even the noisy ringing bell.

They're beasts with a growl!

I am also a big fan of the Santa Fe 622 and 623. They are great examples of the design, craftsmanship and yankee ingenuity that made Lionel great in the postwar era.

I have a 623 I saved from the junk pile at a show. Its a smooth running nice engine. I would buy more 622 types.

Rob

HI, These locos are very good. The design of the motor & gears are quite good. Long lasting & trouble free. They are very smooth & quiet also. Due to the heft of the frame, they are also decent pullers, 10 post war cars. As a side note, these motors are very similar to the 2023 Alco locos, which run well also.

   Slightly off subject, I also have a Williams NW2. They have 2  smaller can motors (as compared to GP9 or F3 motors). They run quite well & are better pullers. Williams have magnetic thumb tack couplers where the old Lionel has coil couplers. Coil couplers is the only thing I don't like about the old ones. You need a USC or 6019 track to open the couplers.

  Very best, Don Johnson

Love the Santa Fe bell ringers 622 & 6220, also have a few that I had redone for the Reading,as that is my favorite road.

I have 2: One postwar, and one modern. Both are some of my favorite classic Lionel locomotives.

 

The postwar one, the Seaboard 6250, is so quiet and smooth, and of course a great runner. It's the slightly scarcer version with wide rubber stamping. I took TM's advice of putting in a whistle relay inside it and gave it Teledyne Uncoupling which is really fun!

 

 

The modern version, the Southern Pacific 18503 made by Lionel Trains Inc. in 1990, is a little noisier with the bell in it and doesn't have the coil couplers, but is still smooth and has just as good Magnetraction. Looks real good with its matching searchlight caboose with smoke. I might take TM's advice again and add an Electrocoupler kit to it.

Lionel's original NW-2's were superb engines.  Nice to look at and great pullers.  I have the Seaboard 6250, the C&O 624 and the Santa Fe'623 and 6220.  These engines are incredibly reliable and do they ever pump out ozone.  I also have the modern era Western Maryland and Southern Pacific versions along with the TMCC Seaboard model.  These are just as reliable and pull worthy as the originals.

I regularly run my 623.  No complaints about it's operation

Love them, I have 2 myself and only if Lionel would make them that same way again.

Maybe some day.

David

My Lionel 623 has always been a stump-pulling favorite.

I'll join the posse and say I, too, like it.  I have an old one that is pretty worn ( alot of growl) but still a good runner.  To me the big advantage is the die-cast frame - I'm pretty much a fan of anything with a die-cast chassis/frame.  I like the heft just because . . . plus it makes them a good puller and a smooth runner.

If you own one that has the bar magnets glued to the top of the trucks keep an eye out for the wheels rubbing the magnets. This can really drag it down.

Rob

Agree with all the favorable comments here.  My 6220 is a great locomotive.  In fact, it was the first Lionel locomotive I bought when I got back into postwar Lionel in the Seventies, and it still looks and runs great.  When Lionel cheapened the 62X series, it I saw it as one of the earliest signs of their eventual decline.

 

The same is true of the cast-frame Alcos, but that's another story.

How do those 622's work out with the dimensions - are they closer to scale so they make other "traditional" O-gauge look small?

hello guys and gals.........

 

Williams makes die-cast frame version too but with double can motors, 8 wheel drive.  I am waiting for trainworld to have one on sale for 99 dollars on the cab #623 black Santa Fe version # 21698.

 

the woman who loves the S.F.5011

Tiffany

 

They are somewhere in the middle, since they are relatively scale sized, but the detail is generally minimal.

My 624.
More of a shelf queen now, the last 20 years it been on a shelf. One of these days I'll mess around with it.

I have 3 of them and really like them.  I converted the 623 back in the 70's to operate the coil couplers via a whistle relay, and that one gets used regularly.  The teledyne style uncoupler let me uncouple anywhere on the layout - many years before command control.  One 624 is used occasionally and when I get around to it all convert that one too.  The other 624 was found in a junk box and the body was trashed.  I put a MPC body on it and have some other work to do on it.  I'd much rather have one of these than the Williams repo.

I always thought they had the best motor Lionel ever built.