LRRC #6469 Liquified Gas Car Arrived...

Thanks Mike! I'm anxious to see what it looks like and will be checking my mailbox!

CW, It's going to go with my LRRC Mercury car as well. Terry

Thanks for the heads up. I looked at the site a few days ago, so they just updated it.

Mine showed up in todays mail! Looks great, colors are very good.

Terry

Mine arrived Friday.  

I carefully removed it from the box, slowly and gently removed the 4 "twist ties" securing the trucks, started to place it on the track to look at it... and one entire truck assembly just completely fell to pieces before it even touched the track!!!!

Pardon the "rant" but, whatever happened to quality control with this company? I'm so fed up with purchasing brand new Lionel products and finding so many of them defective right out of the box!     

I checked the Lionel web site. If the description of the trucks was wrong, they seem to have corrected the listing for the liquified gas car. the copy now reads:

I guess Lionel has multiple listings for the car. (Below is the one is to which I was referring on their LRRC page).  I also ordered the mercury missle launcher car.  Hopefully they've done a better job putting that one together!

I have always liked the look of the Lionel AAR Truck better than most other non-scale trucks out there.  I am sure when assembled properly...the new diecast AAR truck with stamped metal uncoupling assemble are an improvement over the PW plastic AAR trucks with thumbtacks.  BTW did all PW AAR trucks have the plunger style uncoupler with sheet metal arm?  These new trucks are almost like Bar end style trucks with AAR sideframes.

I will never understand why MPC just didn't copy the AAR truck and continue on with it.  Would have been so much better than the Symington Wayne truck.

I have always found the postwar plastic trucks with a riveted knuckle/metal spriing to be very reliable.

The mercury missile launching car is priced right at the upper edge of what I was willing to pay for one, regardless of the style trucks used. If I had my choice, it would have plastic trucks. As I wrote earlier, I ordered one.

Some early MPC cars came with leftover postwar plastic trucks. Some early MPC cars came with AAR trucks that were made with a modified postwar body, but had a plastic uncoupler armature, and the angled wheels. The uncoupler armature had a small rectangular bar glued into a notch on the bottom. MPC cars with those early trucks are among the items I look for at train shows.

Thanks for the picture Cooper. That is a good looking car. Is there anywhere that pics of the other offerings in this series are posted?

Here are pics of the car and defective trucks.  I hope Lionel sees this as well.  I had the same problem on my LCCA Burlington Set Trucks.  And note the darn see thru step modifiction for the flatcar.  Why change what doesn't need to be changed.  I think its an oversight as the tooling can be had without that as well.  It was modified for a starter set in the recent past.

I spoke with the LRRC dept. at Lionel and was transferred to cust. service.

The trucks are attached by a single screw, so I asked if they could just send me a replacement truck rather than me sending the car back (and waiting several more weeks for them to repair it and ship it back to me.)  After disconnecting me, I called them back and was told they were "looking into" the matter and would get back to me.   

Sounds like that's the best way to go Mike. Thanks for the info and update.

Latest update:

Lionel's customer service rep' told me today the company is working out the details on a plan to fix the wheel problem. They expect to finalize plans this Friday. (Unfortunately there was no offer to replace the entire car).

Apparently they plan to send replacement trucks for members to swap out on their cars; and they will also send something to keep the "Liquified Gas" cylinder from falling off the car while it's moving.

Thank you for this latest update. I was going to start another post on "What are you doing to stop the gas cylinder from falling off the car". Terry

THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR POOR QUAILTY!!!!! NONE WHAT SO EVER 

Brent

I am glad I went the simple replacement route.  Never been fond of paying "new" prices for something "rebuilt." Unless its a simple snap-on piece.  But these screws, once you remove and replace...you can tell its been done.

The best bet with any issues is to just call the toll free service line and let them replace.  As one would do if ordering from Pottery Barn or anywhere else these days.  The new service team is used to handling replacements for diecast cars. 

The car looks nice, but given the truck problems I may stay away from it. 

I've had a bunch of issues w/  the AAR trucks on the conventional classics cars.  The wheels will just pop out & the truck get bent.   I don't understand the lack of QC, esp for the prices charged

Any news on the screw not fitting the new truck? Received mine the other day. Truck side frame is bent, coupler head is loose on the truck and the tank itself is cracked on each end. Also noticed the white paint on the tank has a bunch of cracks where the tank is not cracked. Anyone else have tank issues? I checked the nitrous oxide tank from the Great Northern seat a couple of years ago, no problems there. I already contacted Lionel, hope they can provide a solution.

"I already contacted Lionel, hope they can provide a solution." -Bill S.

When I called Lionel in September I was told they had no more tank cars and couldn't replace my defective one. Finally, they sent me a slightly larger screw and told me to use it to "tap" the holes on the trucks to enlarge them slightly. Once I did that, I was finally able to get the screws through the holes and attach the replacement trucks to the car. What an absolute fiasco! 

Wow, they didn't have any more to replace yours. I just ordered mine on Dec 5th. They still show it as available today. I guess they meant to say is "We have no more tank cars (to give out as replacements)

Since my last post, I have been in contact with Lionel Repair. They sent me the repair kit (minus 1 screw, that arrived today) but did not have any tanks to replace. They suggested I contact Railroader Club. They sent me a new car which also arrived today. they also provided a prepaid label to ship the old car back, they should have received that today. After all is said and done, I am very satisfied with the way Lionel handled it. Anyone notice the trucks provided in the kit are old LTI versions of sprung metal trucks?