Maiden run of my new C & O Berkshire

Now that is an awesome model john.  Thank you for not posting a big boy

John,

 

   That is the first C&O Berk I have seen. Looks and sounds great, good luck with it.

 

JohnB

Terrific!  Use it in good health.

Fantasic looking/sounding engine.....enjoy. Nice layout, too!

 

 

Peter

Very nice. Enjoy your new purchase.

Looks great John!

 

For the sake of discussion:

 

 

At risk of sounding like I'm trying to "rain on Johns parade", which I am not. I'm a "stickler for sound". 

 

Lionel stated the legacy berks were to have the same soundset as their previous offerings back in 2010 or so. Thats obviously not the case with the C&O.

 

It shares the same whistle as the 765, I suspect this is not correct... Hotwater? I know you stated the deep whistle on the 2010 version was incorrect as well.

 

I'm wondering if the Erie berk has the NKP whistle and may also be incorrect. This begins to remind me of the "generic raspy hooter" that found its way onto every articulated prior to the VL bigboy whether it was correct or not.

 

Hotwater, you commented that MTH has the correct whistle for a C&O berk, is this the whistle you are referring to:

 

MTH C&O 2-8-4 sound

 

Lionels sound is fantastic, why fall short with," this whistle will do". Rudy please correct me if I'm wrong.

I love the Berkshires, so this engine is it hit with me. Congratulations.

Thanks guys for the nice comments.  Rick, no you're not raining on my parade.  I already did that when I overfilled the smoke reservoir.  Thank god for belonging to a great club with gunrunnerjohn as one of it's members who fixed it.  Your comment on the whistle are interesting and you might think that with the price of engines they would get it correct.  However I think they have bigger problems with engines arriving with broken parts and smoke units that need improving.  Unfortunately it seems quality control is missing today, eg the auto industry.

That said, my grandchildren love it, and that's all that matters to me.

John

Great looking engine and video!

 

---Greg

That's a beauty of a locomotive! the C&Os are much more beautiful than those NKP berks.

Good gawd though I've never seen passenger cars almost as long as the locomotive before!

John,

 

That was great!!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks for posting the video

 

Alex

It sounds good to me and if you like it that's all that matters.

Nice looking layout.

Great sounds and smoke……..  have fun…….

"Sorry for some shake but I had my Cab 2 in one hand and the Samsung 5 in the other recording it."

 

and you were holding the phone in portrait mode instead of the "better for trains" landscape position.  shame.  

And it made it's way through all those tunnels -- which the Big Boy couldn't do!!! 

 

Great locomotive, John.

 

David

John, fabulous Berkshire; the whistle reminds me of my boyhood town south of Pittsburgh and the trains that blew by at night.  Is there a part number for it??

Thanks, RickM46

Nice John!

 

-Bill

Or, maybe I should have said, Lionel's model/part number.  I was headed toward getting a Big Boy; but the C&O Berkshire has turned my head.

OK, I think I found your model at Charles Ro; is it 6-11452??

RickM46

I have the Erie Berk and it has the same whistle as the C&O in the video.

John how about a full loop video showing off the entire layout?

RickM46, yes that is the number.  Give Hennings (see forum sponsors above) a call.  They have great prices.

BillP, I was going for a full loop but my video stopped and it takes 6 to 7 minutes to circle the layout.  You need to come run trains with us.

Congrats John! Thanks for filming.

 

Looks, sound, smoke!  Excellent locomotive!  Yes, we all want one now!  thanks for posting now!  Nice layout too!

Very nice, enjoy it!!

John,

Did you have any issues out of the box with the Berkshire??

I am seriously considering this Berk as my next.

Thanks,

RickM46

Don't see it mentioned, but:

 

There were no Chesapeake and Ohio Berkshires. Not a one.

 

The C&O called them by the name "Kanawha".

 

The Lionel model is actually the NKP Berkshire, re-decorated. I'm not sure about all the Kanawhas, but the one(s) with which I am familiar looked like preserved C&O 2755 (see Wikipedia), a different loco, head to tail.

Rick, no I didn't have any issues except for the one I self inflicted.  These berks have divided smoke chambers and even though you run out of smoke for the stack, you may still have enough for the whistle so be careful not to overfill it when that exists.  I now do only 6 - 7 drops and I use an actual dropper.

 

John

Looked like a nice steady run.

Great looking engine. Loved the video and please keep posting more video's. It was nice meeting you today and talking to you about the layout.

David

Lionel's C&O 2-8-4 may not look like a classic C&O Kanawha due to the different sand/steam dome design and placement - but it does have the look of an N class Pere Marquette Berkshire (similar to NKP Berks) re-lettered and renumbered by the C&O following the 1947 merger of the PM into the C&O.  Perhaps someone knows if C&O crews referred to the acquired PM  2-8-4's as Berkshires or Kanawha's.  If I had to guess I'd speculate in former PM territory they were called Berks and those running in original C&O territory Kanawha's.  

 

Either way it's a nice looking model.

 

Ed Rappe 

John,

I took one look at your video and had to have the Berk. 

I got the Pere Marquette version from Mr. Muffins Trains (a fellow Indiana resident) a few weeks ago.  That whistle on that locomotive took me back to my kid days hearing that whistle late at night as the train went by in south western Pa.

But I get the Homer Simpson Doh award for not following your 6-7 drops prescription for the smoke unit; on the 2nd day, I put too much and that killed the smoke motor.  However, Lionel customer service fixed it and now I have to be more careful.

Exactly how do you determine that you need to add more fluid to that locomotive??

Thanks

Great engine! Thanks for sharing!

We have the Gold Edition and it is a fabulous engine. The features are just outstanding and the whistle steam works great. We had a chance to show it off last night and our guests were very impressed.

John,

   Fantastic Engine and Consist also!

PCRR/Dave

John thanks for sharing. the whistle smoke on the engine is one of the best ever!!

Ya got youself a great machine there.As far as the whistle goes.Well not many railroads had the same sounding whistle.But bear in mind some where there is always the epception.Chase in point I have heard a whistle of a n&w sd40-2 in hamlet nc on the wws.Railroad owned by ns and csx that sounded like seaboard sd40-2 and sd45.The whistle efect is cool looking.Sure to catch some peoples eyes and suprise them.I think you can go ether way freight and passenger train.