Lionel E8 & E9 locomotives. Some rivet counters will be happy.

Could this be an instance of Lionel managingTRYING to please the un-pleaseable?  Pat B.

It's not a matter of pleasing the unpleasable.

It's just the catalog illustrations were horrendous and TOTALLY innacurate.

Those pre-production E8's look pretty nice.

Rusty

It could just be an (another) instance where Lionel got their hands on K Line tooling

For a retail of $929.99 I would expect motors and sound in both units. I was wondering if that was a typo in the catalog, but it looks like it was correct. Powered A gets motors/sound, dummy not so much.

Those engines look fantastic!  I would I fix the pilot?  Surely this could be done.  If someone has already done so on older TMCC E units I would love to read how and see pictures.

thanks

These engines look great.  Now that Lionel is making an E9, I guess I can hope their next run will include the E9 used for the Preamble Express.  Maybe also include the matching 4 cars for the complete train.  One can dream.

Ron

Aside from this somewhat snarky comment, I don't know why most hobbiest, rivet-counter or not, would not want their models to have the appropriate headlights, horns and roof mounted equipment?

At $929 a pair (with only one powered) it will be interesting to see how well they sell, especially since this would be only $20 less than a comparable 3rd Rail E7 set, that came out 1+ year ago.

I'm surprised that there are no "B" units, as I would think most B&O fans would prefer an AB set instead of an AA set.

Jim 

I'm looking forward to getting mine, whenever they arrive.  the schedule kept slipping.  Maybe now that Lionel knows what they look like they can deliver them!

Folks who might be interested in these engines, might want to double check the curve sizes on their layouts.  The E units are pretty long and any passenger cars under 18" would look kinda funny.  So while, Lionel advertises the E's to run on O-31 curves, most of the Lionel's 18" aluminum passenger cars require O-54 curves.

Jim

I'm not bitter at all. I'm generally a little ray of sunshine.  It was just that when I received an email with the blog details today, I remembered how many people were in an uproar over the artists impressions in the catalogue. I do admit that the catalogue art could be better, but I always take that as just an impression, and I haven't been disappointed yet. 

And.... I liked my beautiful Dash-9 so much that I bought another one to go with it. 

I would guess that fixing the pilot would be fairly simple, and similar to the E6s.

laidoffsick,

Do you have E6s that you fixed the pilot on?  Did you post pics and instructions?  I would really like to learn how to do this.

Wow the Southern Pacific versions are nice!

It could just be an (another) instance where Lionel got their hands on K Line tooling

I will reserve judgement on that since these units seem to be nicer than the k-line tooling. One of the "dead Giveaways" of the K-line e8 tooling was the overpronounced number board gaskets which are NOT present in these Lionel pre production pics!....

Lionel:

K-Line....

Thanks to Scrapiron Scher's recent post, I have ordered one of these and should be ready to count when they arrive

They do look nice.

Originally Posted by N.Q.D.Y.:

Today's blog entry by Lionel should make the rivet counters happy. These models will have appropriate headlights, horns, pilots and roof mounted equipment for the differing prototypes.  Could this be an instance of Lionel managing to please the un-pleaseable? 

Aside from this somewhat snarky comment, I don't know why most hobbiest, rivet-counter or not, would not want their models to have the appropriate headlights, horns and roof mounted equipment? 

 

Correct so why does the PRR "Dip Scheme" have a Trainphone Antenna? Trainphone was abandoned proir to the final ugly dip schemes and removed.

Never knew that they had a blog. I just signed up. Thanks for the info.

Spence,

Don't know if the blog is the same as their emails, but I signed up for their emails a long time ago and they put out a pretty good article about freight cars every Friday. I find them interesting anyway.

To paraphrase an old saying, you can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but you ain't gonna please all of the people all of the time.

I didn't post instructions but you can see pix in this THREAD

The pilot and the coupler are usually attached to the truck with a couple screws. Sometimes the coupler is held on with an e-clip, spring, and t rod. Getting those out sometimes requires removing the shell, depends on how far the truck will pivot. Then it's just a matter of fitting a spacer (I use styrene), glueing that on and then build a pad to mount the Kadee coupler.

I'm sure these E8/9s will be the same. I tried to email you but you don't list an email address in your profile.

The SP model shown above is missing the grab irons on the sides of the nose just ahead of the cab and above the cab side windows; see sister engine #6051

Nicole, thanks for the information on the diesels. I also did not know about the blog, I just signed up.

I am somewhat surprised no one has yet commented on what price they can purchase them. The Big Boy sure brought numerous price quotes.  

Pretty nice, and they even come in Milwaukee Road. However, the price is a deal breaker for me. I can't think of any diesel that I'd pay that kind of money for an AA with only one unit powered, and diesels in UP yellow are at the bottom of the priority list for the Chicago, Milwaukee and Southwestern. My yellow K-Line passenger cars will just have to struggle along behind a yellow Lionel Bi-Polar (also overpriced) and a nice custom painted set of Weaver E-9's that I picked up off eBay for pocket change. The Lionel units do look great if you have deep pockets and the E9 is your thing. 

"no one has yet commented on what price they can purchase them."

Be interesting to see if the "street price" from the usual big retailers is 25-30% off of MSRP, as is the Big Boy.  That would bring it down to more like $650-700.  Still not inexpensive, but a lot less than $929 .

Definitely not K-line tooling. I'm looking at my K-line SP Daylight E-8 front end right

now, and the tools are not the same. All the fingerprints are different.

Also, the new Lionel loco, from the front, looks too "tall". Stretched out vertically.

Really.

Maybe not. Don't care; I'm happy with my K-line NYC (green) and SP E-8's.

Secret: I bought these Daylight E-8's (at York! My only trip there.) with the thought

of repainting them in PC or black Conrail. That long, black and plain E-8 is just a real

beastly-looking thing, as far as GM diesels go. But, though I find the Daylight colors

a little gaudy for my taste (my GS4 is black, too), they certainly are well done and

striking. Haven't done it yet... 

And the first of the un-pleaseables steps forward!

anyone know where the "dummy" wheel is positioned on the trucks?

FWIW, Lionels last run of E7's had all of the wheels flanged.

K-Line did more than one SP E-8?  Hmmm, SP only had 1 E8 in their roster though  (#6018).  Any cab number less than that would have been E-7s and any higher than that and be an E-unit would be E-9s and those started at #6046.

PC or Conrail?!?!?  Blasphemy!  Daylight colors too gaudy?  Repaint 'em in the scarlet & gray "bloody nose" scheme.  That way it will compliment the beastly, utilitarian look of the E units, and you don't commit sacrilege and paint them in some non-western road in the process.

Sharp looking model. Love the detail  that Legacy remote control stuff is not for me. I want to just throw the transformer handle and let em run. I am building my layout to last a minimum of 100 years and want to keep things simple to meet that goal. That way we can keep the OGR forum going after I check out!

Well that's the neat thing about Legacy/TMCC & DCS, they work conventionally too, no remote system required.

K-Line had an E8 all powered ABA set.

Pages 31 & 32 shows flanges on all wheels. It also shows the middle axle is the only axle powered???

http://www.lionel.com/media/se...ents/72-4574-250.pdf