Legacy #990 differences?

They should be out in about a month if you can wait I would recommend that. Prices on the secondary market are through the roof. Original versions need to be upgraded by Lionel in Ohio so there are some differences in the production over the years.

The charging issue has been reported to have been taken care of in later production runs.  That is the only change I am aware of.

BTW: Don't use the built in charging system turn it off and use an external charger instead and put electrical tape over the contacts on both the remote and the base.

I had the charging system repaired about a year ago and it's worked great ever since. However it does get a bit warm and some like using an external charger or non-rechargeable batteries

The only thing to worry about would be a 990 set that still has version 1.0 on it. If there is not a silver dot in the battery area you would have to have it sent back to Lionel to update the first time. Other than that they are all the same

Thanks for the replies. It seems that 2006 volume 2 and 2007 volume 1 were the first catalogs to show the product.

So, is 2007 when it was first produced?

The impatience is just me. I want to have all of the electrical in order and tested before moving on to the next phase of my project. I have my trains, my power, my track, I am ready to start my build, so I want to get this last piece in on my test loop before building.

Very early models had to be sent back to Lionel for a "software switch" to be set before 1.2 could be loaded.  You will be easily safe with any run using V1.2 and above.

Thanks, Marty. That helps.