LionChief kits for conventional locomotives?

I haven't heard any talk about that happening. That would be good but I kind of doubt Lionel will make a kit available.  I have been thinking about buying a LionChief plus GP-7 and putting a MPC era body on it. I don't think the tooling has changed all that much on a lower end GP-7 over the years but I'm not 100% sure.

I really doubt that Lionel is very interested in marketing a kit to convert older locos to LionChief format, especially if those locos were made by another manufacturer. I think a different company, such as ERR would be more likely to make a Radio Controlled conversion kit similar to LionChief, but wait, maybe such products already exist (if you are willing to do most of the work yourself, and the drive uses DC can motors). Check out the Stanton R/C System from Northwest Shortline, or the Del Tang transmitter/receiver products out of the UK, both should be searchable using Google.

Bill in FtL

Agree with the others that there's almost no chance Lionel will make a LC or LC+ conversion kit. They want to sell new engines.

I'm also planning on switching bodies, both the GP and RS3. Looking at them, it appears that the frames/chassis' are identical to the earlier versions, which makes sense. It would seem certain it's just the electronics they have changed - highly doubtful Lionel would spend the large amount of money necessary to retool their traditional diesel bodies and chassis' for the LionChief line.

From the horse's mouth:

(look down in the comments where I ask the question)

http://lionelllc.wordpress.com...stmas-lionchief-set/

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lionelllc <small>(07:44:52)</small> :

I have a LC + RS3 on order and I would also like to switch out bodies with conventional (if possible).

If anyone does this, please post a how-to!

What would be terrific is if someone who is familiar with 2.4 GHz radio control systems took apart a LionChief loco and analyzed whether one could use an inexpensive R/C setup to mimic the LionChief system.  I doubt Lionel has made any sophisticated custom made boards for this given the inexpensive off the shelf stuff that's available in the radio control segment of the airplane, boat and car hobbies.  Might require some knowhow and creative repurposing of existing modules, which I don't have .

I've been comparing My LionChief + Hudson shell to the MPC era Mighty Sound of Steam Southern Crescent and Chicago & Alton. The length and height are the same but the mounting screws are in different locations. I'm wondering if I could add new mounting lugs to the mpc shells or if I'd be better off just waiting to see if Lionel will offer these engines in the future.

I think the MPC Hudson shells might be easier to modify for a conversion than the small Atlantics that came with the MPC Milwaukee Special and Broadway Limited.

That's an interesting idea re: the steamers. There are some beautiful MPC era ones (with passenger cars) that would be terrific if they had LC+. From my perspective, I'd go ahead and add lugs or whatever rather than wait, unless you think you'll live forever. There's no telling how long, if ever, it will be before LC versions of these engines are made.

Honestly, I want to see an easy kit to convert Lionchief sets to conventional control, or make all sets available as either Lionchief or Lionchief+

I doubt if we will see any such upgrade kits for LionChief.  These are entry level trains and will most likely stay that way.  You can look forward to an expanding line of LionChief + engines and possibly sets in the future so I would suggest going this route if you want conventional operations of your trains.  Just my opinion but I think this is the way the line is going.

Steve, Lady and Tex

I think they should drop LionChief entirely and just stick to LionChief Plus. For that matter drop conventional locomotives too. Offer either Legacy or LC+. Conventional fans could still run both.