johnnyspeeds original post which is now on the O-27 and hirail forum was:
Has there been any definitive information regarding the upcoming Lionel GP-35's? The catalog pictures look off to me. I don't know if they are drawings or some other models or prototypes or what, but they show a fixed pilot with opening. Just wondering what to expect.
I really can't say why it was moved, your question is quite pertinent to this forum. You have posted frequently here in the past, and I'd sure count you as a "regular". Perhaps the moderator will chime in and enlighten us. But now that you have brought this up, we might as well keep the discussion going. What is displayed in the catalog is billed as "All new tooling". The product appears to be the same as was supplied on my Lionel S-4 switcher, fixed pilot, with a huge opening in the pilot to accomodate the lobster claw. If so, if you are looking to convert over to Kadees, at least you have a good platform to start with, but you are looking at some styrene work to fill in the hole, create a mounting pad, and make a Kadee or other scale-like coupler installation look good. I would suggest that the best way to proceed is to e-mail Lionel directly and see if you get an answer. If they don't, try calling them. If they can't answer the question, then I wouldn't touch pre-ordering these things with a 10 foot pole given Lionel's track record of actually delivering a model that has the features listed in the catalog (they are not alone in this either). Bottom line, this looks to have potential from a 3RS perspective (and possibly a two rail one too). It will need some work to get a Kadee or equivalent scale-like coupler in there. I'd be worried about something else here though. How "scale" is this beast? You won't get a detailed review out of OGR, they don't know what a scale rule is for a product review. So in order to actually see just how good this locomotive will be, somebody needs to take a chance..............................................
Caveat Emptor applies here.
Regards, GNNPNUT