New UP 844 by Lionel

Nice!  Thank you for sharing this

Very nice Marty.  Thanks for the video.

Marty,

GORGEOUS!

After all these years of self denial, I finally succumbed to the temptation and used the "recent unpleasantness" as my excuse.  The blessed event is scheduled for Friday and I have her baby things all picked out.

Thanks for the preview, the sound is almost too good to be true!

Looks great, Marty.  I was initially on the fence and was concerned about my pre-order...but after seeing a few more of these videos, it looks fantastic. 

I've seen mixed assessments that the details are not up to par whence comparing to the 2007 version.  Can you confirm? 

Presumably Lionel used the same tooling, so I am a bit perplexed as to how/why they would minimize/remove details.

Thank you for sharing,

Michael

The tooling may be the same but under the hood is another story.  The early Legacy version used the modular boards and that was an update from TMCC.  This baby has the newer RCMC board system and that is a world beater.  No more modular boards to get loose.  This is the real deal.

Mine just came today

Hi Marty , 

I totally agree with you ,  it's definitely a keeper. Especially with the great electronics under the hood. 

Alex 

I'm very happy with mine. Here's a video with the Old & New. 

https://youtu.be/S6_NUt8NIyc

You can't beat UP steam. I have all three of there engines, the JLC Challenger 3985, Visionline Bigboy 2014 and the 2009 844 FEF. I do plane on upgrading the JLC engine with a Electric RR cruise commander. I canceled my preorder of the new 844 because it did not match the picture catalog. Just could not get past the black drive rods and the missing chrome covers on the steam cylinders. It does look like a good runner and I am happy people post pictures of there new engines.   

I can say that it is a beautiful model, I cant wait to run it this weekend. The graphite paint does seem a bit on the dark side as well as the drive rods are a bit too dark. Ive got the previous legacy version in greyhound and that's a great engine so I cant wait to get this one on the layout.

Is that Rich melvin's voice?

Bill

NSBill posted:

Is that Rich melvin's voice?

Bill

Hi Bill 

Yes that's Rich Melvin's voice. 

You mean Lionel didn't record Ed's voice?

Great videos and photos of one great looking and sounding loco. Thanks for all the posts!!

Chuck Sartor posted:

You mean Lionel didn't record Ed's voice?

Chuck,

I agree, they should record Ed's voice too!!

Alex

From what I can see online, the smoke and sound are very impressive.

But did they remove locomotive specific Crew Talk?

I was going to pre-order the 838 to go with my 844 from 2008.....but the price point was about four bills too large for my personal comfort zone. 

Hope everyone gets as much enjoyment out of this round as I have with my 2008 844.  It's operated flawlessly and has been a true pleasure to run.  Layout guests always seem to appreciate it.

Very nice MARTY, thank you for the video.  Enjoy!!!  I have the older one and really like it.

Nice Marty. Great sounds.

I just received the shipping notice for mine!  Should be here tomorrow!  Really looking forward to receiving this one!

Got mine today.

Marty,

Wow, I love that engine and it looks even better with the yellow UP tender following. How do you like the echo on the whistle?

I think it is an improved whistle over the first Legacy version. How do you like the whistle steam? Good luck with this one !!

Eliot

I also concur with Marty - it is a keeper.

The emergency stop feature that activates crew talk and causes the red mars light (?) to come on in flashing mode is a nice feature over the 2007-2008 models

Chris

Can anyone verify if the different road numbers have the Sellers's or Worthington feed water heaters as advertised in the catalog?

Thanks!

86TA355SR posted:

Can anyone verify if the different road numbers have the Sellers's or Worthington feed water heaters as advertised in the catalog?

Thanks!

Yes. The catalog is indeed correct. Not that many FEF-2 and FEF-3 locomotives were up-graded to the Worthington S series feed water systems. I have a list of this few up-graded locomotives and respective dates, if interested.

Is it me or is the Crew Talk, et al, the same as the recent Legacy Heavy Mikado?

Hot Water posted

 

Yes. The catalog is indeed correct. Not that many FEF-2 and FEF-3 locomotives were up-graded to the Worthington S series feed water systems. I have a list of this few up-graded locomotives and respective dates, if interested.

HW, 

Thanks, I have the list from when you posted a while back.  I was hoping Lionel kept their promise.  

Berkshire President posted:

Is it me or is the Crew Talk, et al, the same as the recent Legacy Heavy Mikado?

There all the same now. All my new steam engines have the same Crew Talk with no engine number announced. To me this is a disappointment from the old days.

Depending on the road name of a given Legacy locomotive, you'll hear one of several possible engineer characters with different regional accents. But you're correct, no unique roadname or numbers are spoken, that's been a Vision-only feature for some time.

My LHS just put the 844 on display. Had a chance to look closely at it today as he unboxed it and put it up.  

Very nice locomotive but the arguments about the diminishment of details is valid. I've owned 6-11131. The new one appears identical but lacks in the finer details. The afore mentioned painted vs previous "chromey" cylinder caps being the most obvious. On the other hand the red Mars Light was nice.

Just the same, price arguments aside, anyone who missed out the previous release should be pleased.  If they offered the TTG I'm looking for I would have considered it.

Now tempted to get one    I was always hoping for a vision line run of this engine

xxl posted:

Now tempted to get one    I was always hoping for a vision line run of this engine

It would've cost a lot more.

After W.'s post, I'm curious to compare the new & old version. 

My graduation present to myself, FEF #838, should be arriving next week. I am very excited as this is the first time I have pre ordered anything from Lionel. 

Like most I also broke down and bought the 844. Should be here Saturday. I have the excursion cars on order, so it will be a great setup. I figured if I didn't get the FEF, I could at least pull the excursion passenger cars with my VL big boy for the heck of it.

my 838 is sitting in its unopened shipping box in my living room, hopefully tomorrow i'll be posting some pictures of it next to my original issue Greyhound 844 for comparison in HD Quality, we will see what i get around to after work!

MDuppy posted:

 I do plan on upgrading the JLC engine with a Electric RR cruise commander.

I upgraded mine to full LEGACY control and sound.

Big thumbs up and job well done on the FEF.  The usual great detail, smooth slow operation, and great sounds.  I passed on the first one and glad I did because I would have wanted the whistle steam feature.  I was a little concerned about the smoke output because of the double stacks and trying to squeeze the dual smoke unit in a small area.  My M1a has two smoke units combined into one assemble under the stack and the main stack smoke flows through an angled pipe reducing the smoke flow.  This does not seem to be a problem at all with the FEF.  The smoke is a little slower but plenty of it, and the whistle steam looks like high pressure steam blasting out.  Great feature! 

Rich

www.toytrainsontracks.com

Here are some screen shots and a Youtube video.

Great job Rich.  Beautiful layout.

Rich Battista posted:

Big thumbs up and job well done on the FEF.  The usual great detail, smooth slow operation, and great sounds. 

 

Now THAT is what a Union Pacific FEF-3 is SUPPOSED to look like, back in the mid 1950s!  Although Lionel missed painting the engine truck wheel centers bright aluminum, that is an easy add-on with a small paint brush.      VERY nicely done!

Bruk posted:

MDuppy posted:

 I do plan on upgrading the JLC engine with a Electric RR cruise commander.

I upgraded mine to full LEGACY control and sound.

How did you get the railsounds board? Could you also share about how you did it?