Thumbnail Sketch of Southern 2716:
In 1981, Chesapeake & Ohio 2-8-4 2716 had an all too brief career dressed up as a Southern Railway locomotive for excursion service. While the Southern never had any 2-8-4’s, the railway was looking for a more powerful locomotive to haul excursions, leased and modified C&O 2716 from the Kentucky Railroad Museum in 1981.
After pulling several excursions in 1981 and 1982, firebox cracks were discovered and the 2716 was taken out of service, ending her brief career as a “Southern” locomotive.
FlyerChief Southern 2716:
As the FlyerChief model is of a Nickle Plate Road S2 Berkshire there are some detail differences between it and a C&O 2-8-4, notably in the location of the sand and steam domes. But, a FlyerChief model is not expected to have road specific detailing.
It is a reasonably good representation of the Nickle Plate Berkshire, however.
Here’s an absolutely unfair and uncalled for visual comparison with a River Raisin NKP Berkshire:
As with my GP7 review, this is not to say one is better than the other, just different in resolution. All the recognizable NKP characteristics are present on the FlyerChief model. And in Southern paint, the model is very attractive. This is also a friend’s locomotive. If I were in the market for an F/C Berk, I think this is the version I would get.
Beating the Dead Horse:
However, if Lionel would replace the cast on handrails with wire ones, it would make the model look soooo much better. ‘Nuff said…
Out of the Box:
I examined the locomotive and found all screws tight, pilot, trailing truck and tender wheels rolled freely.
Paint is flawless, the fine striping and lettering on the Southern version is very well done and legible. Although, it might be nice if Lionel could reduce the gap between engine and tender a little…
I gave all bearing surfaces a drop oil per the manual. The owner expressed concern about lubrication on the worm gear, so I removed the cover plate. I found the spur gear essentially dry although some residual oil seemed to be present, (It appears the only thing Lionel lubes is the pilot/trailing truck pivots and sliding surfaces) so I gave the spur gear a dab of LaBelle 106 Teflon grease. I also added a drop of oil to the inside of the driver bearings before buttoning it back up.
I also noticed washers between the tender truck wheels, I gave these a drop of light oil.
On the Road:
When we tested the locomotive under conventional at our LHS, conventional performance was pretty bad. The locomotive apparently didn’t like the Flyer tubular track of the shops test track, although responded a little better after cleaning the track. The shop uses an MTH Z4000 for power. Under FlyerChief, the locomotive ran well.
At home, I again tested the locomotive under conventional power (MTH Z1000.) Operation on my S-Trax was a totally different experience than the LHS. The locomotive responded to the reverse, whistle and bell buttons, along with throttle-off reversing. The locomotive ran fairly smoothly at low speeds, but seemed to have a little “hitch in the get-along.” Much better conventional operation than the GP7 I tested. Perhaps the greater mass of the Berkshire has something to do with it.
The headlight stays on in forward, neutral and reverse. The classification lights and number boards on the boiler front are not illuminated. Smoke is OK I suppose, but I’m not a “smoker” and I don’t have any smoke fluid in the house, so once I verified the smoke unit works with the residual smoke fluid from Lionel testing, I turned it off.
Bell and whistle sounded fine, I don’t have a first release to compare against. Chuff worked without skipping a beat, but I did detect some kind or low rumble at speed. Tender shell resonance, maybe.
Under FlyerChief control, the low speed hitch disappeared and the locomotive operated smoothly forward and backward through all speed ranges. As with conventional control, the headlight does not go off in neutral or reverse under FlyerChief. The locomotive responded to all commands from the remote instantly.
Once again, I'll leave Bluetooth operation to someone familiar with it.
All in all, the FlyerChief Berkshire is a pretty nice locomotive. Thus far, I’ve encountered no problems with it. I’ll give some additional running before turning it over to its rightful owner.
Finally, I’ll leave you with a photo of the Berkshire posed at the Iola coaling tower on my S Scale railroad:
Rusty
