S gauge FlyerChief GP7's are arriving from dealers...tell us your views and/or reviews.

I finally got to run my ATSF units.  The units looked good, no issues.  I had no loose screws.  The dedicated remotes worked.  One remote will control both engines in unison.  Universal remote - I put the first engine on the track - the universal remote connected right up.  I removed that engine and put the second engine on the track and the universal wouldn't connect.  I cleared the remote but still no connection.  Not sure what is going on there.

I wasn't planning on MUing the two but tried it anyway.  I set them on the track, but not coupled, and ran them to see how well they matched.  The two engines didn't accelerate the same.  There was only one particular throttle setting where they were relatively close.  Maybe after break-in runs they will match better.

I was able to pull 15 flyonel 40 footers with one engine before the engine started to struggle.  

The biggest issue is that both units growl going around my R27 fastrack curves.  It sounds like the traction tires are dragging.  I don't have any R20 track setup to test with, yet.  

Brendan

HI,

I was going to order one today, should I wait?  UP or SF?

Thanks,

TIm

Update on my issue.  I tried to narrow down the growling.  As I ran the engines more, the sound actually sounds like part of the engine rubbing the ties.  It only happens on certain pieces of R27 track.  I moved the pieces around and the sound followed them.  When I get more time I will try to see the differences in track pieces.  i set up a loop of R20 and there was no issues.

Brendan

Brendan

The “first” batch of R27 curves had a defect of sorts, the simulated spike on the rails were to tall, and made contact with some of the flanges of highrail wheels.  This was a popular topic at the time (like 5 years ago) on this board.  Lionel advised at the time, that it did not effect the operation of the trains so they were not going to do anything about it (as far as identifying it as a defect).

I believe Mike R at the time had said that future runs of the track would have this fixed.  I don’t know if they ever did another run of track, and if so, if the issue resolved. This is something I have often wondered about.

Maybe Dave Olsen can chime in on that.  I personally purchased one loop of R27 track and was quite put off with the rattling cars that went along with it. Especially with the PE passenger cars with the glued on wiring! I would have bought more, but not with that defect. 

Ben

Thanks Ben.  That info saves me from investigating.  I'm glad it is not the locos.  I hadn't noticed it before with the equipment I run.  It is 4 pieces that seem to be a problem; got them about a year ago.  

Brendan

Brendan posted:

Thanks Ben.  That info saves me from investigating.  I'm glad it is not the locos.  I hadn't noticed it before with the equipment I run.  It is 4 pieces that seem to be a problem; got them about a year ago.  

Brendan

Good catch by Ben. I am familiar with this same issue. I bought my son a flyonel Legacy Texas Special PA and discovered this issue.  It's not a fun one. No simple solution. 

To assure yourself that this is the issue, you could hold the Geep in your hand and roll the non-powered truck over a piece of your R27 track.

Our train club met today and there were 5 of the GP7s there.  Loose screws were on four of them.  One was so loose on the powered truck that is was sparking.  Luckily no fried board. Once the screws were all tight no issues were there. To me the screw thing is simply a quality control problem that should have been caught by final inspection at the plant.  At least it is easily fixed when you get the engine.

No gear noises with any of the engines.  All thought they were loud and I had to explain that the manual was wrong about adjustment and I showed them how to do it.

I had to go into some detail about how the Gilbert trucks were always wrong sized to fit the PA truck motor size.  All thought the ones on these engines were too small.  On the way I took a picture of a GP7 that is still operation near me on the Fort Worth and Western RR.  It runs from FT. Worth to Brownwood TX.  Attached photo here.in 

Chuck K posted:

To assure yourself that this is the issue, you could hold the Geep in your hand and roll the non-powered truck over a piece of your R27 track.

That's it.  Not a defect my eye.

Brendan

Here's the nickel Plate Road version.  I'm currently working up my review which I'll post in it's own thread.

Rusty

Hello, I removed the shell on my new North Pole Central. I was curious to see what was inside. What I found was that the flywheel was and did cut into a lead wire to the LED. No problem it was still working. The insulation was nicked and had showing wire. Applied a strip of rubber tape to the LED wires that are in the cab close to the flywheel.

had a LED problem with my new NP gp7. I did not take the shell off to see what may have killed the LED. I just packed it up and sent back to ChasRo for a refund. Waiting for the Reading GP7. Hope I won't have trouble with it.

I got my Santa Fe GP7 and was able to give it a good testing this weekend.

I experienced many of the same issues others have:

First, my engine made a scraping sound going in both directions.  The cause of this was the wires to the front head light resting on top of the fly wheel.  Pressing these up into the roof of the short hood fixed that. 

Second was the grinding  noise made when going around curves. This was being caused by the fly wheel rubbing on the inside of the shell in the short hood.  I took my dremel to the shell on both sides to create a little more clearance. Noise is gone now. 

Lastly gear noise.  I have noticed a trend on the last few new Lionel locos I have gotten.  The worm gear is dry with no grease applied from the factory. I greased the gears and it improved the gear noise, but it is not completely gone. 

Mark, are they going to replace it or repair it?  My guess is Ro could use either option.

banjoflyer posted:

There is a bright side to these problems. All the defective engines will probably  be sent back to Lionel where they most likely  will be dis-assembled and parted out for repairs of other engines in the future. I think that's how Lionel is able to stock parts...either from returned engines (not repaired) or new engines bought from China specifically to be dis-assembled to have parts on hand. That's my theory anyway!

Mark

I hope they don't really rely on their products being defective to get replacement parts!

Brendan

banjoflyer posted:

I think that's how Lionel is able to stock parts...either from returned engines (not repaired) or new engines bought from China specifically to be dis-assembled to have parts on hand. That's my theory anyway!

Mark

That's exactly how they do it. I've  watched techs disassemble new pieces and bag the individual parts.

Bob

Lionel has told me that they are not in the parts business anymore much.  Tearing down defective units is exactly how they repair other engines.  That is why units years old are not repairable except with aftermarket motors and E-units where available.

Today, I learned of another quality control problem with the Geeps from a dealer.  Boxes labeled for the UP engines have Santa Fe's inside.  To get buyers the right engine the wrong one has to be shipped back to the distributor who then has to send them to Lionel.  The guy at Lionel who has to deal with replacement is on vacation till mid January.  Buyers are dead in the water on getting their engine till then.  

I wonder if all the O Gauge people are suffering with quality control with new releases along with Flyer people? 

If you follow the O gauge side, you will see that this is not unique to S. 

Ben

Roundhouse Bill posted:

 

Today, I learned of another quality control problem with the Geeps from a dealer.  Boxes labeled for the UP engines have Santa Fe's inside.  To get buyers the right engine the wrong one has to be shipped back to the distributor who then has to send them to Lionel.  The guy at Lionel who has to deal with replacement is on vacation till mid January.  Buyers are dead in the water on getting their engine till then.  

 

Could become problem if there aren't an equal amount of Santa Fe Geeps in UP boxes returned...

Rusty

I suspect there are two types of replacement parts.  Some are common to a variety of different Flychief and LC+ locomotives (motor, gears, wheels, electronics, operating couplers, smoke units) and probably are available from stock for replacement without requiring reuse of defective products.  Others (shells, external detail fittings) are probably only available when recycled from defective locos/rolling stock.  For units that cannot be easily repaired, salvaging materials is both sound business practice and environmentally laudable .

Returned mine 21 Dec. via Priority Mail, Charles Ro received 26 Dec.  Returning by FEDEX, sent 29th with a January 4th planned delivery.  Considering the holiday rush, that's not too bad.  Agree on turn-around likely being a new engine as replacement.  I do hope it was tested as mentioned above.  Happy New Year Everyone!

I received my replacement from Charles Ro and it is much better that the one it replaced. I would suggest checking ALL the screws. It still had some gear noise and I found that one of the screws that goes through the bottom of the truck to hold the motor in place was screwing into the truck and then the motor. I was able to correct that and thread both screws into the motor only to hold it in the correct position in the truck.  Now I can't hear the gears over the sound of the wheels on the track.