I'm thinking about buying one of these engines and couldn't find many opinions. I know it is an oldet engine without the fancy stuff. But that will be okay.
Does anyone out there have one and is it a durable, reliable engine?
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The engine is TMCC equipped with LCRU2 with AC Pullmor motor in the engine and Railsounds 2.5 in the tender. Kind of fancy for its day. All three of these parts are available from Lionel. Sound wasn't near the quality of todays Locos. The Pullmor motor should last forever with a little care. I think here were a few of these Pullmors from around or before that time frame that had sloppy bearings and ran poorly. I think the bearings could be swapped out for correct fitting ones. More I think about it I believe the poor performing Pullmors were from back when they came out with the Lackawanna and Rock Island 4-8-4' s.
Minus the TMCC and Railsounds 2.5 it is mechanically identical to a Postwar 746 J, which is itself identical to a 736 Berkshire. It should run fairly well. It has a puffer smoke unit, so it won't smoke nearly as much as a unit with fan driven smoke.
When these came out they took awhile to break in. Don't be surprised if after you lubricate the locomotive that it takes quite awhile to run more slowly and smooth out.
Forest posted:I think here were a few of these Pullmors from around or before that time frame that had sloppy bearings and ran poorly. I think the bearings could be swapped out for correct fitting ones. More I think about it I believe the poor performing Pullmors were from back when they came out with the Lackawanna and Rock Island 4-8-4' s.
The Rock Island/Lackawanna were from 1987/88, a long time ago, and were pretty much unique in having this bearing problem. The 18071 Southern Pacific was from 1998, much later, and didn't have those issues.
Lou1985 posted:When these came out they took awhile to break in. Don't be surprised if after you lubricate the locomotive that it takes quite awhile to run more slowly and smooth out.
Lou's right, that was generally the concensus. The 18071 was initially stiff in operation, and had to be run for a fair amount of time to get broken in, after which it ran fine. Actually, most all Pullmor motors took awhile to break in, and as been said for a long time, the longer you run them, the smoother they get. The 18071 seemed to be particularly stiff according to many, but does smooth out after some run time.
breezinup posted:Forest posted:I think here were a few of these Pullmors from around or before that time frame that had sloppy bearings and ran poorly. I think the bearings could be swapped out for correct fitting ones. More I think about it I believe the poor performing Pullmors were from back when they came out with the Lackawanna and Rock Island 4-8-4' s.
The Rock Island/Lackawanna were from 1987/88, a long time ago, and were pretty much unique in having this bearing problem. The 18071 Southern Pacific was from 1998, much later, and didn't have those issues.
Thank you for clearing that up for me.
