Lionel 2016 catalog

Which style of loco-phase II or phaseIII?

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Which style of loco-phase II or phaseIII?

I like phase 3

The most important thing to remember about the Lionel Catalog and the F40PH descriptions is to completely ignore the descriptions.  They are confusing and don't make any sense.  Phase I F40PHs have the fuel tank in the rear behind the air cylinders and are numbered 200-229.  Phase II F40PHs have the fuel tank in front of the air reservoirs and are numbered 230-328.  Phase IIIs have the fuel tank in front of the air reservoirs and have the Q fans over the radiator section and are numbered 329-409.  Whether or not they are painted in Amtrak phase I, II, III or whatever has nothing to do with what phase of F40 they are.  But it appears that is how Lionel discriminated between them even though all the F40s were eventually painted in phase III paint and none were never painted in phase I paint.

rdunniii posted:

The most important thing to remember about the Lionel Catalog and the F40PH descriptions is to completely ignore the descriptions.  They are confusing and don't make any sense.  Phase I F40PHs have the fuel tank in the rear behind the air cylinders and are numbered 200-229.  Phase II F40PHs have the fuel tank in front of the air reservoirs and are numbered 230-328.  Phase IIIs have the fuel tank in front of the air reservoirs and have the Q fans over the radiator section and are numbered 329-409.  Whether or not they are painted in Amtrak phase I, II, III or whatever has nothing to do with what phase of F40 they are.  But it appears that is how Lionel discriminated between them even though all the F40s were eventually painted in phase III paint and none were never painted in phase I paint.

Well a least they tried lol!

I agree with the above. The description of the details of the F40s in the new catalog makes little sense. Now think about it, the Lionel folks wanted to introduce a model of locomotive without having to have a new die made which would cost several hundred thousand dollars so what did they do, they are using the former K-Line die that was last used by K-Line in 2005 with upgraded and added details. The same can be said of the 21 inch passenger cars. They have been using other former K-Line dies during the last 5 years as well. I own a pair of Amtrak F40s that MTH sold in the 1990s. I replaced the battery in these and every other MTH proto 1 and 2 locomotive with the BCR from J&W Electronics about 10 years ago and to date all of them are operating fine. Of course if the Lionel folks were willing spend the money on new dies they could have a P42 Genesis Locomotive and Superliner cars. Now that would be a really new set for Lionel rather then a model of a locomotive that was introduced in 1976 and passenger cars from the 1950s. Maybe in the future they could even make models of the Viewliner sleepers, dining cars, and baggage cars to go with their current Amfleet cars but as they say, don't hold your breath too long.

Yes they should make genisis engines and superliners 

I originally thought they were simply redoing the K-Line units again too.  But, I'm not so sure now.  First of all, the K-Lines were all Phase III F40s which will require lots of little changes, including to the roof of the injection for the differing fans for Phase I and II.   And they stated they will do the correctly positioned fuel tank for the Phase I F40s (in phase II paint).  Also, the ones they are numbering for Phase III are Phase II in the pics (in Phase III paint) but they have stated the Phase II units will have the correct fans, even though they are not offering any Phase II F40s at this time.  In any case I will be happy if they are the K-Line shells because I need them for my SDP40F project and they are getting difficult to find and silly expensive for ones that are not in good condition.

They may or may not be k line i dont know but they still look good none the less 

Well fellas,

Have to break it to you, but the tooling for the F40PH locos is all new from the ground up! Much your dismay of not having any inside information from Lionel, you might think this was a rehit of tooling we no longer have access to, but that simply just isn't true. 

The F40PH's will be accurate reproductions of their prototypes. The Phase I and Phase II models will be accurately reproduced from the fuel tank arrangements to the body details. The Phase I models will feature Phase II paint. The Phase II models will feature Phase III paint. Finally the non-motorized Cabbage units will feature Phase III pain on older Phase I chassis/carbody's (per the prototype).

These locos will have kinematic pilots with pre-drilled holes for removing the 3-rail coil coupler and mounting scale couplers in their place. 

The lighting will be prototypically accurate as well as per each prototype. The cabbage units will have Legacy control, sounds and lighting. This was done to accurately reproduce operations with a powered F40 on the head end and a cabbage unit on the opposite end. 

Hope this helps the conversation!

Mike

Mike, can you confirm the sounds will include an authentic Nathan K5LA 5-chime horn?

Mikado posted:

Well fellas,

Have to break it to you, but the tooling for the F40PH locos is all new from the ground up! Much your dismay of not having any inside information from Lionel, you might think this was a rehit of tooling we no longer have access to, but that simply just isn't true. 

The F40PH's will be accurate reproductions of their prototypes. The Phase I and Phase II models will be accurately reproduced from the fuel tank arrangements to the body details. The Phase I models will feature Phase II paint. The Phase II models will feature Phase III paint. Finally the non-motorized Cabbage units will feature Phase III pain on older Phase I chassis/carbody's (per the prototype).

These locos will have kinematic pilots with pre-drilled holes for removing the 3-rail coil coupler and mounting scale couplers in their place. 

The lighting will be prototypically accurate as well as per each prototype. The cabbage units will have Legacy control, sounds and lighting. This was done to accurately reproduce operations with a powered F40 on the head end and a cabbage unit on the opposite end. 

Hope this helps the conversation!

Mike

Mike, the "cabbage" units sound great, but will the new "cabbage"  units have dialog? For example, dialog that I hear in Lionel legacy engines? Thank you for your time and posting an update, I appreciate it.

Nickstrains.

I find an odd satisfaction when Mike comes online to school the so called experts with so called inside information.

I hope they do have the k5la horn would be awesome 

Thanks Mike! I order both Amtrak Phase III units and a cabbage unit so I could have 3 units upfront - hopefully you guys will do a run with more numbers so I can get a 3rd powered unit. 

(oh and don't tell anyone but I also ordered both CSX units )

Er, The cabbage cars should not have ENGINE sounds, because they do not have an ENGINE.  OK, prime mover.  Crew talk, brake sounds OK.

Dominic Mazoch posted:

Er, The cabbage cars should not have ENGINE sounds, because they do not have an ENGINE.  OK, prime mover.  Crew talk, brake sounds OK.

Mabe they did it for people who cant afford 2 powered units