I recently received the 6-30211 BNSF GP38 Diesel Maxi Stack Freight Set from the folks at Trainworld and finally had a chance to unpack and run the set.
Overall I really like this set which I will expand upon below. I did have some issues with the set which I will also cover. Since I purchased the set primarily to keep my Lionel Maxi Stack collection complete so the GP38, caboose, transformer and Fastrack were (extra cost) bonuses.
First off the Maxi Stack cars are pretty standard with selective compression of the well cars and the containers (48’ containers are more like 33’ scale long & 7’ scale wide) allowing operation on tighter curves (claimed O-27) and lower clearances (4” railhead to container top = 16’ 1:1 scale). The containers also like previous Lionel releases come as upper / lower pairs with all the non-prototypical notches to allow their use with the Mi-Jack container crane accessory. I believe these are new container paint schemes.
The big pleasant surprise in this set is the GP38 locomotive, conventional control with RailSounds, which has really excellent slow speed operation (using CW-80). The locomotive is plastic body on stamped metal frame with can motors _in_ the dual axle trucks. This is the first Lionel locomotive that I’ve gotten that “free-wheels” so it can be moved with the power off by hand while on the track (not sure if that’s intended to be a feature) I was able to get the train to continuously circulate around the loop at a calculated 8.7 scale mph (or was it 78mph J), which appeared to be quite slow.
The caboose has so-so molded in details, but with that great (GN inspired) BNSF paint scheme it is an addition to the set (when was the last time you saw a caboose on a stack train?). The CW-80 transformer and FasTrack are standard items that may become surplus. The “Getting Started With Lionel Trains” DVD was a nice touch and would appear to be a fairly complete introduction if this were a first train set.
OK, that was the good what about my utterly unreasonable complaints?
Number one; a Ready To Run train set should be ready to run out of the box with no trips to the store to purchase tools required. This set does not supply a 3/16” nut driver required for assembly of the maxi stack cars, it should. If you have any of the earlier Lionel dual well maxi stack cars you may be asking what assembly? Well (I believe to cut costs) Lionel packaged the maxi stack cars in much more compact boxes that require the cars to be split at the middle shared truck (using the 3/16” nut driver/ socket). Too bad one of the “shoulder screw A” felt like it had been cross threaded, so I am not ever putting it back in the original box.
Other complaints are minor, such as either provide more track or just skip the track and transformer (maybe then Lionel could afford to put in “real” maxi stack car boxes). Maybe swap the caboose for a dummy GP38 (for a more prototypical appearance).
Bottom line this set is worthy of consideration (just stop by the HW store for a 3/16” nut driver) and the “low end” conventional control GP38 is surprisingly good locomotive.
