Lionel 2026190 UP 'flat spot' PS-1 Boxcar First Look

I don't remember if I had order any of the sound boxcars or not. Good to know though John.

always good to tell customers the features of you products.

So the real thing, is to hear them now. For me, it's how to make them 2 rail.

John! You forgot about the trucks and couplers.

Interesting. Did you happen to see the Great Northern car? That was the only one I was considering and wasn't really in it for the sounds except for the cost of course!

What's really going on at Lionel? I'm starting to get concerned.

@RickO posted:

John! You forgot about the trucks and couplers.

Well, they don't have big thumbtacks if that's what you mean.  They look OK to me, they're the hidden tab ones.  I guess I was focused on the sound capabilities.

Thank you for the overview of this nicely made box car. I like the sound cars as they ad a little personality to the layout as trains are slowly going to their pretend destinations. One day, do a short video for forum members to hear. That’s a beautiful box car. Happy Railroading Everyone

John where did you pick it up? I've been wanting to buy one for a while. I was going to look for one at York, but that's not going to happen.

@Randy_B posted:

Interesting. Did you happen to see the Great Northern car? That was the only one I was considering and wasn't really in it for the sounds except for the cost of course!

What's really going on at Lionel? I'm starting to get concerned.

I sent my GN car back. It didnt help that the sounds didnt work, but the lettering was flaking off all over the plastic sheet in the clamshell. Somewhat unfortunate as it seemed like a nice car, but I wasnt going to chance the whole run of GN cars not having well adhered lettering. I think Petersen Supply made all of the GN circus cars with Atlas boxcars at one point, maybe try and find that version.

Thanks for the info on the GN car - I really appreciate it. I guess I will scratch that one off the list too.

I reviewed it last week.

After finding out what the switches did, I was impressed!

Waiting on the Penn Central in the next batch.

@DennyM posted:

John where did you pick it up? I've been wanting to buy one for a while. I was going to look for one at York, but that's not going to happen.

Henning's Trains of course.

Silly me

I took a peek inside and got a nice surprise.  They used the full RS-Lite sound board in this car, not the conventional one that is missing a couple of features.  The one feature that this one has is the battery provision.  I had the car cut out the sounds a couple of times, so I added my YLB battery, problem solved!

The trucks were mentioned previously, these cars have the removable couplers and the Kadee mounts are in the box, so you can easily convert to scale couplers with nothing but the actual Kadee couplers, a nice touch.

Paint ok on my GN car.  No flaking but the right bottom of the N is cut off on the door.

My two bay hoppers were also made in Vietnam.  Those lobster claw couplers.  have you tested them out like my Milk car review?

Can't we get a video of the sounds shared here?

I hate to hear comments over the sounds and not able to hear them!

A video would be helpful to compare with the previous PS-1's Lionel produced.

I also received my Great Northern boxcar - paint is ok.  The "cutoff N" is properly painted on the door, but is covered by the separately-applied tack board.

@superwarp1 posted:

My two bay hoppers were also made in Vietnam.  Those lobster claw couplers.  have you tested them out like my Milk car review?

I just did a functional test dragging two track cleaners behind it to see if they'd work.  They couple very easily and didn't come uncoupled until I activated the tab.  I don't have a uncoupling track yet, so I didn't test that function.

@Engineer-Joe posted:

Can't we get a video of the sounds shared here?

I hate to hear comments over the sounds and not able to hear them!

Here are three videos, first the "minimum" setting, then the max without flat spot, and finally, the flat spot sounds.  I can clearly see that turning down the volume would be a good idea if you have several of these!   The two MAX settings are really busy!

Thank you John!

I actually like it. Real trains are noisy. Some users only want the engine sounds. I think having several cars, with the volume turned down, adds realism to the trains. I need to buy these among the others now.

I think I have three generations of sound cars now, and I also have the Vision Line PFE Reefer sets (two), so I should be able to make a LOT of noise soon!   All of these will get command control so I can turn them on/off from the remote at will, I suspect that continuous sounds from all of these might be overpowering after an hour or so.

Moving production to Vietnam has been a trend for a few years now.  HO and N has several products produced there.  They are much more business friendly in many cases compared to China these days and the labor is cheaper.  Like any new factory, there is a little learning curve.

I like the concept.  I'm not huge on sounds, but as Engineer-Joe stated turning down the locomotive volume and having the actual train sound as a whole is pretty interesting.  I wonder if the Lionel two rail wheel set work with this.  It did not with my N5b Cabin, but that car may not be compatible with the Lionel conversion kit.

The only issue I see is getting the hall effect sensor working on the truck to signal motion, other than that it just needs power.  Pretty sure it could be AC or DC, the first thing that is encountered on the sound board is a bridge rectifier.

They are different, and I think spread out in a train with the other Lionel sound cars would be interesting addition. Thanks for the videos!

Awaiting my pickup notice that my UP PS-1 car has come in.

Thank you to all. Good information.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

The only issue I see is getting the hall effect sensor working on the truck to signal motion, other than that it just needs power.  Pretty sure it could be AC or DC, the first thing that is encountered on the sound board is a bridge rectifier.

I converted the set of Visionline tank cars with sound to 2 rail. I enjoy their sounds on my 2 rail layout. I power with AC.

That just leaves the hall effect sensor.  It may respond to a small magnet on the wheel, I can't really say, never tried it.

Thanks John for pointing me to the video, I'm not sure running the car by hand fully captures the WOW factor.  I'm hoping one of the cohorts can up load a quick video of the car behind a diesel at about 20 scale mph.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

That just leaves the hall effect sensor.  It may respond to a small magnet on the wheel, I can't really say, never tried it.

R U talking to me?

I must not have made it clear? I used the stock magnet on my 2 rail conversion and have the hall sensor working.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

...... I suspect that continuous sounds from all of these might be overpowering after an hour or so.

Personally, I think 10 minutes or so!

Using Eric Siegel's terminology he uses in his reviews, the BFIMO (Best Feature In My Opinion) of these cars : the volume control!   

Gun runner John pointed me to the video (thank you), I was on a different string about the flat spots.  My comment was to anyone on the thread that has one of the newly released cars if they could shoot a short video of the car being pulled at a medium low speed by a diesel.  It was hard to tell with the handmotive what the sound was really like.  Thanks!

It's really up to the dealers and suppliers to post a sales video on the products, not us.

@SIRT posted:

It's really up to the dealers and suppliers to post a sales video on the products, not us.

But a lot of them don't so we are all we have.  Train World is probably one of the better at posting videos.

Just asking the group - as a band of brothers - not as a demand, sorry if it came across that way.

If someone felt like it great.  If not, no problem.

@DETROIT posted:

Just asking the group - as a band of brothers - not as a demand, sorry if it came across that way.

If someone felt like it great.  If not, no problem.

It did not come across that way.  A legitimate request.  I know GRJ is in the process of building so he may have not had the ability to do a run by in a consist.

Yep, I just powered my maintenance entry track with a pair of clip-leads to do the quick test.   One of these days soon I'll be able to do a proper run!

GRJ - Thank You!!!

John, the last video with the supposed flat spots sounds like just a bunch of noise to me. It would be helpful if the video was made in a train rolling along.