Lionel LC+2.0 RS3 Shipping

I bet they are great because the LC+ version from 2017 is a fantastic runner and smoker!

Brad

I sure hope so! That's encouraging to hear. I'll be sure to post a video as soon as I get mine.

Just got word that my locomotive has arrived! It's a rough day to be at work. I'll post a video as soon as I can!

what road names are available in the current run?

Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, Santa Fe, and Southern.

I bought two Southern locomotives to match my old Southern RS3.

Thanx, Bill

I have a Rock Island RS-3 powered by BlueRailDCC. Would love to compare it with the Southern        RS-3 LC2.0. Based on my 0-6-0 docksider LC2.0, I would anticipate similar good results.

Well I won the bowling game between the friends tonight and I came home and opened it up. It's got some weight to it! It's a good looking engine. It pulled a very heavy train with no trouble. Here it is solo:

The smoke unit is loud though:

So I took the shell off to see if anything was out of the ordinary:

I was expected the impeller was rubbing on something or the motor was touching a die cast section. I didn't find either of those things. I'm guessing that the smoke unit being screwed to the shell just amplifies the motor vibration:

It is interesting how they decided to screw the smoke unit to the shell instead of mounting it to the body somehow. I haven't taken apart any modern locomotives but this was interesting to me.

This thing creeps too. Speed step 1 is no problem at all, even with a load behind it. I'm very impressed. The gears make a bit of ruckus when you start going fast. I put some multipurpose grease on the gears with the hope that getting some hours on this locomotive will quiet the gears and help them mesh better.

The smoke was finicky at first. I'm not sure if I didn't add enough fluid at first or what but I checked the batting when I had the shell off to see if I burned it up. It looks good so I added fluid with the unit apart and then reassembled it (oiled the impeller motor too). The locomotive smoked well after that. So I'm not sure what the deal is.

I would love to convert it to a fixed pilot. I also want to design a cab interior to be 3D printed to cover up that fly wheel in the cab. You can't see it unless you get down to the window and look so it's not a big deal.

Overall, I'm very happy with this locomotive. It looks great, sounds great, runs great!

Thanks for your review, looks like a great engine with a decent retail price that will not empty your wallet.

@BillYo414 posted:

The smoke unit is loud though:

So I took the shell off to see if anything was out of the ordinary:

I was expected the impeller was rubbing on something or the motor was touching a die cast section. I didn't find either of those things. I'm guessing that the smoke unit being screwed to the shell just amplifies the motor vibration:

It is interesting how they decided to screw the smoke unit to the shell instead of mounting it to the body somehow. I haven't taken apart any modern locomotives but this was interesting to me.

@Bob "O" posted:

Oops. I posted too soon.

There is a wire (? for the headlight) that appears to run between the smoke unit and the inside of the shell. It might be preventing a tight fit. Seems an odd way to route that wire.

@das boot you're welcome. I ran this locomotive a lot more yesterday and I really like it. It smoothed out more and looks great creeping through sidings.

@Bob "O" I actually thought the same thing. It seemed weird to me but the screw seemed to go down all the way as far as I could tell. I wouldn't mind taking it apart again to move the wire. I ran my b6 and 2-10-10-2 with this RS3 yesterday. The ruckus of the steamers mostly drowned out the whine. So that's good. Even still, I'd prefer it to be silent.

This seems to be the diesel version not the 0-6-0 docksider; it runs well and looks/sounds great, all at a decent price point. The Visionline/Legacy stuff is cool but these LC+2.0 locomotives are a great deal so far.

Sounds like the smoke unit needs a new motor, a fairly common issue.

BillYo414  The engine looks great!  I have a couple LC Plus engines, and they run great.  Hope you can get the smoke motor issue fixed.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Sounds like the smoke unit needs a new motor, a fairly common issue.

But.....it already has a "new" motor.

You mean "another" new motor.

I mean a "different" new motor.

I'm not sure if there is actually anything wrong with the motor. I just assumed it was because the body/shell was acting as a sound board. Is this a sign of a motor that's gonna bite the dust?

The motor shouldn't be that loud, tons of plastic diesels without noisy smoke motors.

I see. Guess I'll have to look at my options. I might leave seeing as how it gets lost in the background when I'm running multiple locomotives.

Just got my LC+ 2.0 GP7 today and it has the same issue with the smoke.  It's finicky (sometimes smokes well, sometimes barely at all) and noisy.  I may open it up and see.  Any suggestions, or just same thing you did?

I haven't had any time to tinker with the smoke unit for the noise. I plan to just buy a new smoke unit if I can figure out what the part number is unless someone can convince me it won't be a painful experience to ship it back to Lionel.

My b6 is doing the same thing but a little quieter. I'm hoping I get some free time next week. I want to dig through the forum and see what I can find about noisy smoke units. There must be a reason for the ruckus.

I will say that mine seemed to need a lot of smoke fluid to start smoking consistently. When I opened everything up to look inside, the batting was dry. I'm lucky I didn't burn it. So I filled it there so I could see how much I actually added and I was surprised. I don't think the recommended 20 drops was enough. Especially because there is a sort of bowl under the smoke stack. The fluid has to find its way down to the batting from there. I like smoke features but my impatience means I'm prone to over filling smoke units. So I tend to underfill them and fill them often to compensate. I would say open it up and see if you're confident opening things up. I took the itty bitty screws off the board on top of the smoke unit off too so I could see how many the batting was saturated.

Why are you buying a smoke unit when all you need is the smoke fan motor?

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Why are you buying a smoke unit when all you need is the smoke fan motor?

Because I rely on your experience/knowledge to help me make good decisions haha

Any chance you know that part number off the top of your head?

I assume you pulled the impeller off and oiled the shaft bushing when you said you oiled the fan motor?

Oiling the bushing used to be fairly effective " fix" prior to the epidemic of bad fan motors starting with the original legacy k4... back in 2011? I think?

Since the k4 most if not all of the noisy motors require replacement. Oil is at best a short term fix. It appears on these motors the output shaft is moving in almost an orbital motion causing vibration and noise. Jon Z confirmed this when he was still at Lionel.

I do agree with you that shell mounted smoke units will always be noisier than chassis mounted units. Even in a die cast steamer.

Here we are, 11 years later and the fan motor issue persists. The worst part is. There's a chance the replacement motor could be defective as well. These motors are sourced from whole locos ordered and then parted out.

Having said that. I have some 20 year old tmcc locos with the original fan motors that run virtually silent, go figure.

I didn't pull it off. I just oiled the shaft as best I could and crossed my fingers the oil would find its way to whatever needed oiled. I didn't do any reading before hand. Just guessed something quick and reassembled. I assumed something was rubbing badly inside the motor and I might not be able to get to it.

I wonder if there's an aftermarket motor equivalent? Hopefully one factory doesn't churn out all the motors this size.

Are the TMCC locos using the same motor?

You could try opening it back up and gently pull off the impeller with a needle nose pliers. That's the only way to get the oil right on the shaft bushing at the base of the motor.

Oiling it with the impeller on just leaves the oil sitting in the housing outside of the bushing.

Take special note of how far on the shaft the impeller is. Too far down and it rubs the motor. Too far up and it rubs the board.

I appreciate the insight @RickO. This weekend is packed for me. I hope to get to it Monday. Hopefully @James Brown tries it before I get to it.

RickO is right. You need to pop the impeller off and get a small drop of oil or even smoke fluid at the base of the shaft. Eric Siegel has a detailed video on his YouTube channel on how to do it and test the motor before reassembly.

Brad

@BillYo414 posted:

I wonder if there's an aftermarket motor equivalent? Hopefully one factory doesn't churn out all the motors this size.

I've said many times here, my experience is the MTH smoke fan motors seem to be a better quality.  If the motor in the engine is the longer one, I usually stick an MTH motor in place of the Lionel motor.

My experience has anso been that for a long term fix, you need to replace the motor.

I haven't opened mine up just yet, but I think I agree with BillYo414 that 20 drops isn't nearly enough.  I added probably five drops more and it smoked a little more so I added another 5 drops and it really started working well.  But the fan is still noisy.  Granted, mine is a GP7 and the OP has an RS-3, but is it basically the same to get the shell off, just 4 screws?  I am coming over from HO so I have disassembled many HO locos before but this would be my first crack at a Lionel of any era.  Advice?

@James Brown posted:

this would be my first crack at a Lionel of any era.  Advice?

Replace the fan motor, it's easy.

@James Brown I don't have the GP7 but I'll wager it's the same disassembly. There were indeed two screws at each end. Had to turn the trucks to go to them.

There's some kind of red greasy material on top of the bowl under the smoke stack. I know it's just to ensure the smoke goes out the stack but it was messy.

I think I'm going to pick up a few fan motors when I find them. I'll do my RS3 and my b6.

I think this thread has some helpful part numbers in it. Hopefully they're still valid.

Edit: and this other one

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Replace the fan motor, it's easy.

How easy?  I have seen lots of part number posts, but are there any posts or known YouTube videos on how to do it?  I searched and didn't see any...

There must be some videos, I've never looked for any, so I can't say.

Smoke Fan Replacement Videos

Thank you so much John!  Eric Siegel's video was fantastic, I am confident I can at least lubricate the motor for now and later replace if necessary.  I am a little surprised how old that video is (2013!) and Lionel still has this problem???

I have recently picked up both the Southern RS3 and the Atlantic Coast Line GP7, both operating well with a normal break in running. Happy with both of them so far.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Smoke Fan Replacement Videos

After disassembling the loco, I totally see how John said it really is easy to replace the entire motor.  Mine was slightly different from the one in Eric Siegel's video but close enough to get it.  I know there are a few links to parts floating around this forum, but does anyone know definitively what replacement smoke unit I should opt for for maximum performance?  Part #?  Reminder, mine is a 2021 Lionel GP7.  I tried a couple Google searches but cannot really pin down exactly what I need.  Would appreciate assistance!