Lionel Powered AA Units

Williams used to do this, make available powered trucks that you could swap out

and make powered units out of dummys. On that other hand I have stolen motors out

of dual motored Williams units and installed the motor in the dummy unit to make two powered units

that would run together or I can run them separate for two train running

Popi,

   Thanks for the info on Williams. My first scale engines were Williams PRR F7s both A units were powered. Later I got a B unit with OTTs sounds. No command control but it was not around then.

    My intention is not to pull two separate trains but to have a set of E8 units both powered to pull longer trains.

   Forum members - how about some support here quite a few of you were complaining about Lionel not having two powered AA units in the past. Now it is time to get behind a plan to fix that issue.

JohnB

side note on Williams trains. My 1rst set was a Texas Chief AA F units Yellow war bonnet scheme. ran for about a year at two or three shows I went to. Second year went to put them up on the board and heard this awful wiening noise. I spun a drive gear. Ordered a new front truck (Williams does NOT sell just the drive gear). When I went to replace the gear, there was little to no grease in the gear box. Greased her up and have had no trouble since. As I purchased future Williams locomotives, the 1rst thing I did was open up the gear boxes and found the same in 3-4 additional locomotives. little to no grease in the gear box. I greased them all and have had no trouble. Now I don't know if I just had the luck of the draw ending up with all those locos with little to no grease in the gear boxes or if someone dropped the ball in production. All in all, my Williams locos are my best runners. I just have to make sure they are properly greased.

I dont see this as likely. You would need everything. Motors, trucks... and the boards. It wouldn't be cheap and once handling the boards comes into play, this is pretty much off the table to sell as a kit. Since all these things probably have different plugs for lighting, etc... It would cost as much as a locomotive and there would need to be a different kit for each one. 

If you have to have the 2nd powered loco, just wait until you find a cheap set second hand and swap frames. 

The easier solution is to sell powered B's to go along with some of the AA sets that were made in the past. 

I agree with Boilermaker. I think there's somewhere between no chance and zero chance that Lionel would produce separate sale powered chassis. They've never done anything like that, and likely never will. Even if they did, you'd be dreaming to think they would run $175/200, given that currently cataloged non-powered dummys for big GE units, for example, are listed at $350. Powered chassis would likely run only a tiny bit less than the powered units, which are listing for $600.

This appears to be a fairly comprehensive list of what is available from LIONEL's service parts doing a simple search using "E8" as the search term:

https://www.lionelsupport.com/...;submitButton=Search

I haven't gone through it.  But perhaps there is something there of use.

Also, give LIONEL service a call if you haven't already and go up the food chain to see if you can find someone to sell a complete power chassis or complete enough for you to do the rest.

Breezinup, Boilermaker1

     Thanks for the info, I took the difference between the prices of Lionel’s powered and non powered Diesel engines in this years catalog as a starting price on the “Powered Chassis”. I will let Lionel come back with what they think the price should be. Keep in mind myself and a many others shelled out for a $1000 list AA unit with a powered and a unpowered unit. In the 2018 V2 and 2019 V1 catalogs Lionel lists the AA both powered units for the same $1000 list. I am willing to give them another $200 plus for a “Powered Chassis”

Carl,

    I looked a several of the part diagrams and the “powered Chassis” on most (part # 2) was unavailable. You must of missed my point about being all thumbs. I will see if a buddy of mine who can fix any train and has a relationship with Lionel if he could pursue buying a powered chassis from the parts department.

Thanks

John

Boilermaker1 posted:

If you have to have the 2nd powered loco, just wait until you find a cheap set second hand and swap frames. 

The easier solution is to sell powered B's to go along with some of the AA sets that were made in the past. 

For the second powered A this is what I have done: search for a second boxed set.  For my Lionel E6 set and my Lionel E7 set I bought a second boxed set to get two powered A units.  I then swapped shells from one non-powered A to a powered A to get a two powered AA set.  Two issues with this approach: it is expensive it you can't find good deals on the sets, and now I have two AA boxed sets of non-powered units that are taking up space under the layout.

The issue I have with Lionel's powered B units is the lack of sound.  Getting sound to these units has been a pain, and I wish Lionel would just put sound in the powered B units since the rest of the electronics is there.  Sound in all units has become more important to me than power and I have one dummy B unit I have added sound to.

JohnB posted:

Carl,

    I looked a several of the part diagrams and the “powered Chassis” on most (part # 2) was unavailable. You must of missed my point about being all thumbs. I will see if a buddy of mine who can fix any train and has a relationship with Lionel if he could pursue buying a powered chassis from the parts department.

Thanks

John

Missed your point?  No, just thought if you wanted a powered chassis badly enough you would scour a LIONEL parts list to see if what you wanted was available; e.g. a chassis, some motors, etc. either complete as a single part # or if the major components were available.

Carl,

Please go back to my original post and re-read it, In the second paragraph I stated that I love my PRR E8 AA set and have no trouble pulling my seven car 18” Alluminum passages car train. So I don’t want s “powered chassis” so bad that I need to scour the parts list to build one. I want Lionel to offer the “powered chassis” to all of us who purchased AA sets of a powered unit plus a non powered unit. As I said before Lionel is now producing AA units with two powered units for the same price as the one powered and one non powered unit. I do not expect Lionel to give me a “powered chassis” for free but sell them at a “fair price” so the many of us that purchased AA units with one powered unit can upgrade them to two powered units.

I am not trying to start an argument here so please do not take it that way. Sound in the second A unit is not an issue for me. My set currently does not have sounds in the non powered A unit. I never missed not having sounds in the second A unit. Also powered B units do not solve the problem as the Pennsy did not own any E8 B units, althould they did own E7 B units.

Thanks again for all the input.

JohnB