What I'm refering to is Lionel's practice of, without notifying owners, that the motors in certain locomotives have been changed from series 1 to series 2 versions?
Lionel did this to their early Polar Express rtr conventional locomotives and from an OGR post yesterday I discovered they also did it with their Docksider engine, 6-28687.
So, just how frequent a practice is this by Lionel, and other than looking up service schematics for the Lionel engines you own, how can you know whether any of your locomotive's motors have been similarly upgraded?
An OGR post of years back explained how it could be determined without removing a conventional PE loco's shell whether it has a series 1 or 2 motor, but is there also a way of identifying without removing it's shell, if a Docksider loco has a series 1 or 2 motor?
I'd like to know since I have a couple Dockside locos which pull equally and wondering whether they have the conventional series 1 small motor or the more robust series 2 motor.
Thanks for any and all input.