Shout out to the latest Eric's Trains review

Hokie I watched that one too!    Ive been eyeing that set since it hit the market!    Someone here or on FB posted that you can take two of these engines, reverse the motor wires and run them together like an A A lashup!  Had great video of that too!     An awesome set and a great video! I wish Lionel would make it in Southern!!!  

Jim

Totally agree. Nice to see some detailed and thoughtful reviews on starter sets. The general public, viewing these on YT, will be much more likely to purchase something like this than a train selling for north of $1,000.

Grow the hobby.

Same here; I'm new to the current starter sets.  I gotta tell you, I got the scooby set, same FT A unit.  It is a terrific, smooth, strong engine.   I tried it out pulling its own cars, plus 17 scale freight cars, up my 4% grade, no problem.  Great engines those starter set FT's!

Great review.  433 positive ratings and strangely, about 12 dislikes.  What is there to dislike about this review, or are about 3% of viewers just appallingly curmudgeons who don't like toy trains ?

Landsteiner posted:

Great review.  433 positive ratings and strangely, about 12 dislikes.  What is there to dislike about this review, or are about 3% of viewers just appallingly curmudgeons who don't like toy trains ?

I think you are correct about the curmudgeons. Some are perpetually unhappy.

I watched Eric's review as well, and thought it was a great idea and I believe more reviews are needed on all O gauge tiers across all product types.

I plan on doing a review of the Railing Box Car with the built in power meter in the next few weeks. Might not be for everyone, but I hope it can help grow the hobby.

Landsteiner posted:

Great review.  433 positive ratings and strangely, about 12 dislikes.  What is there to dislike about this review, or are about 3% of viewers just appallingly curmudgeons who don't like toy trains ?

I've thought of that before with other videos. Could be that a certain percent are people hitting wrong button or accidentally hitting the button.  But yeah my thoughts as well.  Not scale I guess  🙄

The FT loco is actually a scale model, and not badly detailed - certainly superior to the PW F3 tooling (not a cut; just improvement).

The real FT's were a bit smaller than the real F3's, F7's, etc., so some may think that the model is under-sized.

I picked up the FT by itself from a set break up. Really is a nice loco.  My son's first set is the conventional Rock Island Rocket Freight Set from 2014.  He'd love to see that FT loco run on the Legacy layout we're building, so I'm looking at swapping parts between the two.

As D500 notes, the FTs are scale sized, so they work with scale rolling stock, and also look great with traditional sized cars. As others have mentioned, it's good that Eric is reviewing these engines. Fact is the LionChief engines - especially the Plus versions - have been a big hit with many adult operators. Their size and great performance fits perfectly with the needs of probably the majority of operators, being those with modest sized layouts, those who don't need the complexities of Legacy controls, and those who don't want to or aren't in a position to spend $500-$1500 on a single engine.

Speaking of Lionel FTs, there are new AA unit sets in the 2019 catalog. Granted, these are Lion Chief 2.0 so not exactly what Eric reviewed but thought I'd mention it. Produced in several road names including Texas Special which seems to be calling my name. 

carsntrains posted:

Hokie I watched that one too!    Ive been eyeing that set since it hit the market!    Someone here or on FB posted that you can take two of these engines, reverse the motor wires and run them together like an A A lashup!  Had great video of that too!     An awesome set and a great video! I wish Lionel would make it in Southern!!!  

Jim

Hi Jim, Lionel has produced both dummy A and B units in the SF FT through various releases over the years and they are fairly easy to find. My son had an earlier release of this set and I tracked them down to produce an ABBA set. The powered unit pulls really well, so there really isn’t a need for two powered units with 15” passenger cars and the dummies are a lot easier to use than reversing the motors of a second powered unit. 

One other tip about this set: MTH makes 15” SF passenger cars in their Railking line that are literally identical to the Lionel cars. You can put them side-by-side and you can’t tell them apart down to even the undercarriage detail. They have to be from the same tools. They also make a cool matching full-length dome car.  These MTH cars are a great way to add additional cars to your set without lots of duplicates. They can usually be had for a few bucks less than the Lionel cars as well. 

Have fun. 

breezinup posted:

As D500 notes, the FTs are scale sized, so they work with scale rolling stock, and also look great with traditional sized cars. As others have mentioned, it's good that Eric is reviewing these engines. Fact is the LionChief engines - especially the Plus versions - have been a big hit with many adult operators. Their size and great performance fits perfectly with the needs of probably the majority of operators, being those with modest sized layouts, those who don't need the complexities of Legacy controls, and those who don't want to or aren't in a position to spend $500-$1500 on a single engine.

I wish there were steam equivalents:  scale-sized, small engines without the complex electronics and elaborate details for smaller layouts AND smaller budgets!

I agree this is a great way to go for a lot of people. For example, I have 15-20 Postwar and MPC locos from when I was a kid, and I recently built a pretty basic floor layout in my attic.

Last month I bought the Lionchief Plus GP-38 to try it out, and the fun factor for me is far beyond the PW gear. Ability to run slow, steady speeds and pull a long train up a grade without slipping, and then all the great features: smoke, sounds, remote couplers, and the kids are always excited to run it using my phone.

If you search on “Lionel Lionchief FT AA”, there is the 6-82296 Erie set advertised at Walmart for $325. Or, Trainz has the same units on eBay for $350.