We finally have a glimpse of the Lionchief Tier 4 Set after a year in the waits!
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I can’t say I admire the hand rails, but the sound and dispatch voice are top notch!
The Portland Rose posted:I can’t say I admire the hand rails, but the sound and dispatch voice are top notch!
Well its still a production sample, things are BOUND to change!
The handrails are a non starter, they are just too big.
Dave
The front one is both too big and too small. It’s very very toylike
Matt Makens posted:The front one is both too big and too small. It’s very very toylike
Thats...kinda the point, aint it? It is the toy-line of trains after all. I like it!
The Portland Rose posted:I can’t say I admire the hand rails, but the sound and dispatch voice are top notch!
Love the crew talk. Wish this was in legacy engines.
The hand rails must be made that way to take into account rough handing and derailments.
Andrew
New version of the Girl's Train. 
Handrails like this have served starter sets well since the PW days of GP7/9's, Operating critters, and 70 Tonners.
Jon 
The dounds are cute, might get old quick but a good tickler for visitors to a layout.
How many times does the Tower Com and Crew Talk button have to be pushed to activate the sounds?
Andrew
TheRWBYRailfan posted:Matt Makens posted:The front one is both too big and too small. It’s very very toylike
Thats...kinda the point, aint it? It is the toy-line of trains after all. I like it!
Is it? if it was then why do MTH RailKing locos look soooooooo much more like models than trains. Its over all look is not great, more like a cheap Chinese toy and less like a the $300 plus train that it is
"more like a cheap Chinese toy and less like a the $300 plus train that it is"
MTH Railking are scale-like model railroad products. And they are Chinese and relatively value priced. Nice appearance and PS3 equipped for those who like that system.
Lionel traditional line are toys. They are priced accordingly. You can buy an entire set of Lionel traditional line trains with a LionChief loco, remote, rolling stock and track for the price of a Railking loco, and obviously this is reflected in the detail and overall features/robustness of the product. The intended consumer is different. And you get command control from the getgo, with no additional purchases needed (e.g., DCS of some flavor).
If you look at the current Lionel catalog, you can find separate sale LionChief locos with included remote that Charles Ro sells for $167 or so. That's almost 50% less than the sort-of-equivalent, superior detail and features MTH product, thus one would expect some compromises in complexity and features, no? Different audiences.
For example, I have no need of and do not want PS3 and nor need greater detail, so I'm content with the LionChief loco and remote for under $200 (in my case a BN RS-3, if I recall correctly).
You cant buy that ET44 from Lionel for less than around $325. Right in the same price range as a RailKing diesel and RailKing makes a nicer product with more features and better looking. MTH is much more bang for your buck
"MTH is much more bang for your buck"
(1)Perhaps true if you operate in conventional mode, where no additional equipment is needed
(2) Perhaps true if you operate in command mode and prefer PS3
(3) Perhaps true you operate in command mode and already have DCS
(4) Perhaps true if you prefer scale details to toy train appearance and attendant robust handrails 
Otherwise I think you are overstating the case. I strongly prefer LC and LC+ to PS3 and DCS. To the extent that I have not bought an MTH locomotive since they moved to PS2 almost 20 years ago. I think there are others who have the same preferences. Everyone's mileage differs, sometimes substantially.
I think it looks pretty good for a LionChief trainset. I have one on pre-order.
I agree the handrails are a detraction, but consistent with other LC diesels. I love the sounds and crewtalk! But the rough start and stop bother me. I might try to wire a pair of a diode and thermistors (for both forward and reverse polarity) in order to lower the start speed, this works nicely for Williams locos, I would think it would help with this LC loco.
I wonder if the new catalog's LC+2.0 locos will have improvements, I like my scale SD60M LC+, it would be nice if there were some upgrades besides the command system.
Not my cup of tea. I took a hard pass on all the new LC+2.0 because of the non-scale looks, not the control electronics. I went with the Legacy oil train, which is totally me. That's a grown up set, and priced like it too. I did save $180 off the catalog price by pre-ordering.
First came prototypical engine number specific crewtalk.
Next came generic, stripped down crewtalk.
Now we have gender ambiguous crewtalk. Or was that an 8-year old girl?
Ken-Oscale posted:I think it looks pretty good for a LionChief trainset. I have one on pre-order.
I agree the handrails are a detraction, but consistent with other LC diesels. I love the sounds and crewtalk! But the rough start and stop bother me. I might try to wire a pair of a diode and thermistors (for both forward and reverse polarity) in order to lower the start speed, this works nicely for Williams locos, I would think it would help with this LC loco.
I wonder if the new catalog's LC+2.0 locos will have improvements, I like my scale SD60M LC+, it would be nice if there were some upgrades besides the command system.
There are many new features for the LC+2.0 engines. First off, the steamers will have the CORRECT 4 chuffs per revolution as opposed to the previous 2 or 1 chuff RPM and are Legacy Compatible.
The only drawback is that I do not like the idea that the new LC+2.0 engines don't come with their own remote. It can be ran with a transformer, the Lionchief Universal Remote, the Lionchief App, a TMCC Remote or a Legacy remote.
Everything is showcased on Page 74 of the 2019 Catalog.
TheRWBYRailfan posted:Ken-Oscale posted:I think it looks pretty good for a LionChief trainset. I have one on pre-order.
I agree the handrails are a detraction, but consistent with other LC diesels. I love the sounds and crewtalk! But the rough start and stop bother me. I might try to wire a pair of a diode and thermistors (for both forward and reverse polarity) in order to lower the start speed, this works nicely for Williams locos, I would think it would help with this LC loco.
I wonder if the new catalog's LC+2.0 locos will have improvements, I like my scale SD60M LC+, it would be nice if there were some upgrades besides the command system.
There are many new features for the LC+2.0 engines. First off, the steamers will have the CORRECT 4 chuffs per revolution as opposed to the previous 2 or 1 chuff RPM and are Legacy Compatible.
The only drawback is that I do not like the idea that the new LC+2.0 engines don't come with their own remote. It can be ran with a transformer, the Lionchief Universal Remote, the Lionchief App, a TMCC Remote or a Legacy remote.
Everything is showcased on Page 74 of the 2019 Catalog.
I said: "I wonder if the new catalog's LC+2.0 locos will have improvements, I like my scale SD60M LC+, it would be nice if there were some upgrades besides the command system." I did NOT miss the details in the catalog.
Ken-Oscale posted:TheRWBYRailfan posted:Ken-Oscale posted:I think it looks pretty good for a LionChief trainset. I have one on pre-order.
I agree the handrails are a detraction, but consistent with other LC diesels. I love the sounds and crewtalk! But the rough start and stop bother me. I might try to wire a pair of a diode and thermistors (for both forward and reverse polarity) in order to lower the start speed, this works nicely for Williams locos, I would think it would help with this LC loco.
I wonder if the new catalog's LC+2.0 locos will have improvements, I like my scale SD60M LC+, it would be nice if there were some upgrades besides the command system.
There are many new features for the LC+2.0 engines. First off, the steamers will have the CORRECT 4 chuffs per revolution as opposed to the previous 2 or 1 chuff RPM and are Legacy Compatible.
The only drawback is that I do not like the idea that the new LC+2.0 engines don't come with their own remote. It can be ran with a transformer, the Lionchief Universal Remote, the Lionchief App, a TMCC Remote or a Legacy remote.
Everything is showcased on Page 74 of the 2019 Catalog.
I said: "I wonder if the new catalog's LC+2.0 locos will have improvements, I like my scale SD60M LC+, it would be nice if there were some upgrades besides the command system." I did NOT miss the details in the catalog.
Oof, my bad for mis-interpreting that ^^;
