Is the lionel legacy S2 a good running locomotive for a small switching layout?
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Mine is.
Mine is now. Local Lionel Legacy repair person had to adjust flywheel (under warranty) and since then, it has run smoothly, even at "roll" speed.
Also, the bell did not respond to Cab2 correctly, and Lionel had to "reflash" a chip (repair person sent it to Lionel and it was covered under warranty).
Jeff
The earlier version with just TMCC was not a good running engine. The one I saw was jerky.
the distance between rollers on the center rail is short so it may stall on some longer switches. other than that both of mine the legacy and the older TMCC version run well. if you are using ross switches he has wiring diagrams to use DZ switch machines and a relay to liven up some of the dead rails. as info the S2 is not a switcher it was a commuter engine in and out of Grand Central to Croton Harmon, but that's the nice thing about toy trains you can do as you please. Rick
winrose46 posted:The earlier version with just TMCC was not a good running engine. The one I saw was jerky.
I have 2 of those (the S1 and the S2, actually); mine run quite smoothly. "One" is not a sample.
I have the Chicago & Northwestern Legacy version and it is my slowest, smoothest operating engine (vertical "china" drive or horizontal drive).
I have not had any problem up to 072 switches, I cannot speak to the operation on the #6 or #8 switch.
The sound is NOT as robust as many other Legacy engines and I think that has to do with the drive and space available at the time.
Hope this helps.
Charlie
If you were buying a new Legacy switcher (and assuming both ran fine on a test track) would you stick with the S2 or the new SW7 ?
I have both the Legacy S2 and the Legacy SW7. To me, the SW7 is easily the better of the two. The sound quality of the SW7 is far superior than the lackluster and frankly disappointing sound of the S2.
T4TT posted:I have both the Legacy S2 and the Legacy SW7. To me, the SW7 is easily the better of the two. The sound quality of the SW7 is far superior than the lackluster and frankly disappointing sound of the S2.
The S2 was an electric locomotive. The SW7 was a diesel. Electric motors don't roar like a diesel. The Lionel Legacy S2 sounds are typical of an electric locomotive and seem correct to me. At the end of their careers, the S2s served as switchers in Grand Central Terminal but mostly pulled short local commuter trains. My Legacy S2 runs smoothly at low speeds but I have never used it for switching.
MELGAR
My disapointment was not with the sound file set of the S2 but with the volume and robustness of the sounds. That little pancake speaker in the S2 is useless. The baby fatboy in the SW7 is far superior in delivering more bass and depth.
I've never heard an operating S2 but, being an electric, I would not expect it to be as loud as any diesel. The larger speaker of the SW7 will deliver more volume and more bass but an electric locomotive will have less volume and less base than a diesel. In that sense, I think the Legacy S2 sounds are correct. They sound something like a trolley car...
MELGAR
The original poster is not clear but he may have been asking about the Legacy ALCO S2 rather than the NYC S2.
I assumed since the op mentioned running on a small switching layout he was referring to the Alco S-2 switcher, like my CN #7949.
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winrose46 posted:The earlier version with just TMCC was not a good running engine. The one I saw was jerky.
You saw one run so you determined they were not good running engines. Wow!!!! I have one and it’s a very smooth, great running engine.
T4TT posted:I have both the Legacy S2 and the Legacy SW7. To me, the SW7 is easily the better of the two. The sound quality of the SW7 is far superior than the lackluster and frankly disappointing sound of the S2.
I don't care as much about sound. I think they both have shaft drive, but @T4TT which one runs better? Especially starting, stopping, and at the slower speed steps?
I’ve mentioned the sounds in the past. Neither Lionel nor MTH have the correct engine sounds for the 539T engine. I have the Lionel TMCC version and it is a generic diesel sound set. There are still plenty of 539T equipped S2 and RS1 units alive out there that could be recorded.
When we did the NW2, we modified the tooling drastically to improve the loco over the S2. SW7 uses the same core tooling as the NW2, but with different body slides.
In the NW2, we were able to change from the small pancake speaker in the S2 to the standard 40mm baby fatboy with a custom speaker enclosure that the crew figures sit on top of. I do have one of the original Legacy S2 engines, and the sounds were definitely in desperate need of a larger speaker...
The motor drive was also redesigned to lay the motor down and reduce the number of components to reduce friction. Track IR was also added. I think it turned out to be a nice little engine. Pulls pretty well.
Thanks for all the replies, yes I was referring to the ALCO.
Thanks for that update, Dave. I have the older TMCC version which works very well only the sounds are disappointing versus the prototype. When I heard the Legacy version it seemed to be the same sounds as I had, so I skipped it.
