New Lionel BN (GN) F7 pair

I have purchased seven Lionel items recently and five had issues. One was returned to the dealer, Lionel fixed one and I repaired the rest. Opening the orange box use to being excitement , but now that has been replaced with relief when nothing is wrong. I do enjoy the Lionel items I buy, but part of the experience has been diminished. Hope this gets resolved soon, for you.

To add insult to injury, I did not order these because of the bizarre idea to put a Blue Sky engine with a Green BN version.  They should have made two Big Sky Blue engines.  Duh.

Those scratches are pretty bad.  I am really going to miss MTH.

That loose screw could be a motor mount screw.

It could be re-screwed. 

Andrew

Lionel's quality control has really hit the gutter the past couple years. It will most likely get significantly worse once MTH turns out the lights. Without any competition Lionel's bean counters can really cut corners.

That stinks about the damage  BUT man oh man do I love that Big Sky Blue scheme

It's a lot like heroine addiction. There's a high and then the pain comes. But you keep ordering stuff to get that high.

I sought rehab early on and have turned my focus to older Tmcc stuff. Not as big of a high, more like having a beer or two, but ,there's no pain.

RickO, I agree, my new plan will be to custom paint older equipment and save money and avoid an $800 aggravation.

Bluelinec4, the blue unit was why I wanted this pair.   Rdj, I too would prefer a pair of blue GN units.  

Falcon. if it was just the screw issue I would look for its location but given the scratched shells also, Lionel can fix this stuff under warranty.   

I just picked up this set from my dealer on Tuesday. Haven’t opened it yet. Hope for the best.  It seems like QC has become a major problem with The Big L and, if so, they had better get it fixed and fast. When you’re paying a thousand dollars for diesels and nearly twice that for steamers, it seems entirely reasonable to expect perfection or something close to it. IMO.

You can, of course, buy the powered Big Sky B-Unit for an additional $350 if you want, but that’s too rich for my blood after forking out so much for the AA. IMO, they should make a cheaper, non-powered B-Unit option available.

@Dave Warburton posted:

You can, of course, buy the powered Big Sky B-Unit for an additional $350 if you want, but that’s too rich for my blood after forking out so much for the AA. IMO, they should make a cheaper, non-powered B-Unit option available.

Dave

 Hope your pair is free of scratches.  I think the B they offer is in Green BN, if there's a big sky blue one I didn't see that one.  They should offer dummy B units. They are thinking it will result in bigger sales but I believe it does the opposite. 

Also  dining cars without sound and domes without cameras.

$15 camera from China in a passenger car suddenly makes it a $250 to $300 car!!

@rdj92807 posted:

I am really going to miss MTH.

Everyone is. The recent Lionel products have just been one quality issue after another. 

There are often many threads on this (terrific) forum revolving around two things:

1: What do you want to see being offered in the next catalog? 

2: Posts about how your long-awaited item(s) have problems, straight from the factory.

As much as I empathize with your frustrations about these on-going QC issues, I must once again ask: why do you keep going back for more? It seems that #2 would outweigh #1.

What am I missing here?

Mark in Oregon

I got a new Grand Trunk Western SD38 diesel locomotive #6254 in the past week. I carefully examined it. The shell apparently had a collision with object before final assembly. The paint is chipped off on the bottom rear corner of the long hood. It will need a paint fill. 

Andrew

Sorry about the damaged units Scott, hopefully Lionel will take care of it. I have these on order and the green B unit so I should have them some time next month. Crossing my fingers for no damage.

These are absolutely beautiful. I love the green with the blue (2 fave colors), I understand this won't be popular for some, but for me anything BN and GN combined makes them unique and will fit on BNSF layout quiet well.

@falconservice posted:

I got a new Grand Trunk Western SD38 diesel locomotive #6254 in the past week. I carefully examined it. The shell apparently had a collision with object before final assembly. The paint is chipped off on the bottom rear corner of the long hood. It will need a paint fill. 

Andrew

They've still got some problems with the color on the GTW stuff too.

The GTW SD40s used an incorrect blue, but the red was very good. 
Now they changed the blue, which is somewhat better, but they completely changed the red too! It's awful.
There's no consistency at all.

Also, the paint has flow marks because it was applied too thick. Some of the paint masks for color separation bled and are messy.

Now that MTH is gone, Lionel is all we have left, and they've got very some serious quality issues.
For the prices they're charging, I expect much better.
Much. Better.

Update.

Lionel still has not sent my return authorization.  Goes to show you how backed up with problem products they are.  

Strummer, I WILL NOT give Lionel any more money.  3 strikes, OUT!!!!   And now this snail pace response,  no thank you.  

When Lionel folds up they will blame the economy.  No, it will be because of their miserable quality control and even worse customer service.  They do a disservice to the future of the hobby.   

Thanks for posting. I have not bought any Lionel item since they made the majestic MR 261 steam engine about ten years ago. I hold back on any pre-orders. I was tempted on a Milwaukee Road engine or two,but the garish orange they painted them was ridiculously poor. Oh well,Lionel has saved me much money for years. Looks like that will continue.

Very disappointing to receive damaged goods.  My sympathies.

For those asking, the reason I and others keep buying Lionel products is (1) I'm not having any problems in recent years with damage/dysfunction and (2) my dealer(s) stand behind the product.  Basically, the very few times I've had a problem over the last 30 years,  the dealer has refunded or exchanged for a pristine example of the product. 

Not saying Lionel isn't having problems with some items, or that warranty work hasn't been a problem during the pandemic, but not everyone is having problems.  Explains why they are still in business I suppose.  Everyone's experience is just that person's experience, whether happy or unhappy.

Don't want newbies to think they cannot buy a Lionel set and expect it to work, so that's my reason for posting.  Out of tens or hundreds of thousands of customers, a few are going to have terrifically disappointing experiences.  But most are going to be OK.  The sky isn't falling.

And MTH products are not strikingly more problem free.  Shipping damage and just plain bad luck strike even Apple, Sony and others.

Hope you get your engines replaced or fixed to your satisfaction.