Lionel LionChief Keystone Special

Just be aware that it is not LionChief Plus.  They have not made any LionChief Plus sets.

Jon  

Grampstrains posted:

Congratulations on your new train set.  You found a nice set.

Thanks a lot!

At 65 I am still a kid at heart and found this set to appeal to the inner child as well as the technical child👍

KOOLjock1 posted:

Just be aware that it is not LionChief Plus.  They have not made any LionChief Plus sets.

Jon  

Thanks! I’ve changed the title on the post.

I have given TWO of those sets as Christmas presents- one to each of my sons' families and children.  They are a great value.  With the addition of BlueTooth, you can customize the engine - control the sound volume, and other things important to a young family (who sometimes have younger ones sleeping).  

The kids love them- one was 1-1/2 yrs. old when he got his set and he could run it.  Only FAST, at first, but the thing stayed on the track forwards and backwards at full tilt.  Now he can run the trains in any way he wants, including "slow like Grandpa's trains".

Enjoy!!

I’m planning to enjoy the set and hope that it’s a suitable diversion for a grown up kid like myself. I will most likely use other rolling stock in addition or in substitution of what’s supplied.

A crazy thing happened. Someone on Facebook was selling the Lionchief Pennsylvania Flyer, the more expensive one than the Keystone Special. He wanted less than the normal list price for it. Completely factory sealed and untouched. Best thing was he was local, an hour from me, so I bought that and will soon have the Keystone Special as well!

Tried everything in the book as well as online help and could not get the iPhone Bluetooth app to work. Remote was off, I knew about that but the engine was never found.

Not sure what’s up with that!

There seems to be two Lionchief Pennsylvania Flyer sets:

6-30233 No Bluetooth

6-83984 with Bluetooth

Which one did you pick up?

MrMoe50 posted:

There seems to be two Lionchief Pennsylvania Flyer sets:

6-30233 No Bluetooth

6-83984 with Bluetooth

Which one did you pick up?

I have the latter; 6-83984W.

States that it comes Bluetooth enabled.

 Thanks 

Have you tried updating the app?

With my iPhone I get notified when updates become available. I haven’t seen anything for Lionchief. Is there a way to update manually?

I don't have an iPhone, but with  Android you can manually go to the Play Store, pull up your downloaded apps, and hit update. I'm sure iPhone has something similar.

Train Nut posted:

I don't have an iPhone, but with  Android you can manually go to the Play Store, pull up your downloaded apps, and hit update. I'm sure iPhone has something similar.

I tried that. It’s at version 1.1.8 as of a month ago and isn’t allowing a manual update. I have an iPhone. I’m guessing that’s the latest and greatest for now.

I have an email in to Lionel. I can see what they say. I’m also getting the Keystone Special with Bluetooth. If it works with that then it must be something else.

 Thanks 

Elliotgb posted:

Train Nut posted:

I don't have an iPhone, but with  Android you can manually go to the Play Store, pull up your downloaded apps, and hit update. I'm sure iPhone has something similar.

I tried that. It’s at version 1.1.8 as of a month ago and isn’t allowing a manual update. I have an iPhone. I’m guessing that’s the latest and greatest for now.

I have an email in to Lionel. I can see what they say. I’m also getting the Keystone Special with Bluetooth. If it works with that then it must be something else.

 Thanks 

I havent got to use the app yet but my son in law had me improve my WIFI transmitter.   You could see the signal drop as you walked around the house!  And the train room isnt close to the WIFI ..   So he got me a newer LYNKSY with 3 antennas on it.    How I can go anywhere in the house or in my yard and get full bars!

Although improving WIFI signal is a good thing, WIFI signal is not used for Bluetooth connections.

MrMoe50 posted:

Although improving WIFI signal is a good thing, WIFI signal is not used for Bluetooth connections.

Just to make sure I took 2 Bluetooth speakers in the back room and connected to each successfully. I tried my iPad as well as the iPhone with the app and no dice. I made sure that there were no additional Bluetooth connections in the mix. 

Shoukd I see a connection in the Bluetooth section similar to the ones I see for speaker and other connections?

It's unclear what you're attempting to do.  Do you have the engine on the track with power applied to the track?  If so, is the engine giving you a chirping sound indicating that it's looking for a signal?

If you're attempting to control the engine via Bluetooth, then no, you don't "pair" with it via iPhone settings like other devices (such as your speakers).  You just open the LionChief app and pair with it that way.

beachhead2 posted:

It's unclear what you're attempting to do.  Do you have the engine on the track with power applied to the track?  If so, is the engine giving you a chirping sound indicating that it's looking for a signal?

Hello,

power is applied to the track. I hear no chirping sound at all. Just the idle chuffing noise. The remote is off. I just thought that “possibly” it may have showed up in Bluetooth connections but obviously that is not happening.

Again, no chirping.

 Thanks 👍

When you open the app on your iphone/ipad, what do you see?  Does it recognize your engine?

beachhead2 posted:

When you open the app on your iphone/ipad, what do you see?  Does it recognize your engine?

Not at all. Say no connected engines or no engines found. It acts quite ignorant 😡

It is odd that there is no chirping when power is applied to the track.  I do not have any Lionchief engines, only Lionchief Plus.  They all chirp when power is applied, and only stop when connected to the included remote, the Universal Remote or the Lionchief app.  Sounds like Lionchief behaves differently.

Have you checked the switch on the loco? There should be a choice between remote or transformer operation. Might want to read the manual.

JimJohnson posted:

Have you checked the switch on the loco? There should be a choice between remote or transformer operation. Might want to read the manual.

That is only on Lionchief Plus engines.  Lionchief engines don’t operate by transformer, only with the remote. Or with the app on BlueTooth.

JimJohnson posted:

Have you checked the switch on the loco? There should be a choice between remote or transformer operation. Might want to read the manual.

LionChief doesn't have a switch. It only works with the remote.

All LionChief locomotives should chirp when power is applied and they are not yet connected to a remote or app. If yours is not doing so, something is wrong.

I stand corrected. Hope he gets it running.

Jim R. posted:

All LionChief locomotives should chirp when power is applied and they are not yet connected to a remote or app. If yours is not doing so, something is wrong.

At this point I decided to sell the set to my cousin who expressed interest in it. He informs me he is not concerned about Bluetooth in the least. Oddly enough, as I got the box ready for shipping, I noticed the tank car was missing. I had not gone through the set entirely and was just interested in seeing if the engine and remote worked. They did. As I got it from a Facebook seller, I am screwed for the loss of the tank car. I made it up by buying a brand new one from Ebay to be shipped to my cousin. So, I take a minor loss of about $27.50. Caveat emptor.

 Thanks 

Elliotgb posted:

Completely factory sealed and untouched. Best thing was he was local, an hour from me, so I bought that and will soon have the Keystone Special as well!

 

I thought it was sealed?

Train Nut posted:

Elliotgb posted:

Completely factory sealed and untouched. Best thing was he was local, an hour from me, so I bought that and will soon have the Keystone Special as well!

 

I thought it was sealed?

It appeared to be. Unfortunately this guy buys returns from Walmart, etc. He was willing to open things up and set up the engine but I wanted to grab my bargain and run. My error😞

Had I noticed the tanker missing I would have offered him $25 less.

I promised the set to my cousin and as I had not gone through the entire box, I thought I should before I sold it to him for the price I paid. That’s when I noticed the tanker missing and informed him. “I” offered to replace the tanker at my expense so he’d have the complete set. Found one on Ebay for $27.50, free shipping and sent that to him.

My error but lesson learned the hard way!

Here’s an update. I suspect the train set that I got from Facebook was defective in a few ways. The seller was a bit deceitful in his representation of the item. The Bluetooth never worked, the tanker was missing and although he claimed it was factory sealed, I think all he did was get a sticky tag and apply it to the box.

i just got the Lionchief Keystone Special. That was sealed inside a plastic bag unlike the one I got from the Facebook seller. The engine chirped right away and it was recognized by the app.

Big lesson learned!

Sounds like someone bought the set then removed the tank car and swapped the Bluetooth engine for one without BT and then returned it to Walmart.  Wait.. What am I saying, nobody would ever do something like that, right?

GregM posted:

Sounds like someone bought the set then removed the tank car and swapped the Bluetooth engine for one without BT and then returned it to Walmart.  Wait.. What am I saying, nobody would ever do something like that, right?

Exactly! And caveat emptor. I should have fully examined this item before buying but hindsight is 20/20 as they say and this cannot be undone. My cousin cares not about the high tech stuff and won’t use Bluetooth anyway.

My store bought set had a paper label on the engine that the Facebook one did not.

Too bad for me but my cousin bought it at the same price that it cost me and I was out $27.50 to replace the tank car. Christmas present to him😁