Tell us about your oldest modern/command control train

Still hold two of the earliest TMCC locomotives, one steam and one diesel - the Lionel 6-18043 C&O Hudson L-1 from 1995 and the Lionel 6-18952 ATSF PA-1 from 1997 (with the 6-18965 PB-1 from 1998).  Bought them second-hand in 2005 and 2004, respectively, but they're still like new.  Can't speak for prior runtime, but I don't run anything heavily and have encountered zero reliability issues.

hobby-go-lucky posted:

Still hold two of the earliest TMCC locomotives, one steam and one diesel - the Lionel 6-18043 C&O Hudson L-1 from 1995 and the Lionel 6-18952 ATSF PA-1 from 1997 (with the 6-18965 PB-1 from 1998).  Bought them second-hand in 2005 and 2004, respectively, but they're still like new.  Can't speak for prior runtime, but I don't run anything heavily and have encountered zero reliability issues.

I have the same engines had them since they were new, I sold the C&O because I hated the fact that I could see the motor through the cab.  The PA's I still have, never had an issue, only run them occasionally at my train club.

I don't run anything heavily either.

My first purchase was the 1997 Lionel 238E Pennsylvania Torpedo 6-18052.  It has been a solid runner. Smoke unit a little weak, but Mega Steam helped. I also have the Lionel 6-18952 ATSF PA-1 from 1997 (with the 6-18965 PB-1 from 1998). Great Horns with both units set to the same engine number. However these units seem to loose their TMCC settings when left in a cold environment.

I have the Lionel GG 1 from 1997,I did not open the box until 2002 when I had track down in my new home that we built with separate building for shop and train layout.The engine did not run in TMCC or Conventional and a call to Lionel said too bad,the thing is now a paper weight.

Mikey

My oldest is the Lionel 2380 NYC GP9 from 1996.   20 years of operation now.

It still runs like it did new.  I have had no repairs.  Just normal maintenance of lube and oil.  All TMCC functions work.

I also have the Santa Fe F3 A-B set from that year.  Same thing.  Everything works.

I too have the 1996 New York Central Geep 2380......drawbar pull of about a pound and a fantastic RailSounds sound card.....never have had problem. 

Peter

Lionel ACL F3s.  The first F3s with TMCC.  Still work like a Swiss watch.

the only modern engine is my RK PRR M1a. got it from a forum member 10 years ago. has never left the track since I got it except for lube and oil, and got a new teather a couple years ago.

Lionel 2380 GP9. Bought it brand new and never had a problem pulls great never even a glitch with the TMCC Cab 1. Sounds are great . Bought the tmcc same time at York and haven't looked back, My personal opinion is that the original TMCC equipment is bulletproof, never had a Tmcc problem with locos or command system. Some cosmetic problems maybe due to shipping but no systems problem.  just my 2 cents. Oh wait I take that back, I have a Lionmaster N&W Class A that I can only program to engine 1 or it works erratic. Aside from that alls well on my pike....

I have the C&O Yellowbelly and 2380 NYC GP-9 Lionel made back in 95 and 96 respectively. Both are solid runners for older AC equipment, have excellent sounds, and they're like rocks. No repairs I've needed for either, other than normal maintenance. Both I updated with ElectroCouplers. The Yellowbelly is mated with the 4 Heavyweights Lionel made in 97, and the GP-9 can handle a decent 12 car consist without struggling.

The Lionel 18046 Wabash Hudson Steam Locomotive w/ TrainMaster Command Control from 1996. I had to look up the year. An early TMCC steam engine from Lionel.

I don't have anything quite so old as many folks here, but I do have several TMCC Hudsons and Berks from around 2002-3 vintage.  All of these but one were bought used in the last few years, and none of them have had any problems besides having to replace traction tires.  The one I have had since new was bought as 'command ready', and I've run it hard, pulling heavy loads for more than ten years now on tight, o27 curves as a conventional engine.  last year I finally opened her up and popped in an R2LC board, all the rest of the electronics stay the same, and it has run flawlessly since then, still pulling long, heavy trains of post war cars.  As a note, on occasion, for no particular reason that I have been able to determine, these locomotives will stop playing sound.  When this happens I have to remove power and restart the locomotive, and everything works fine again.  

The only electronic components I've had fail in my o-gauge trains are light bulbs, Rectifiers in my ZW, and many mechanical e-units in my post war 2055.  

As a whole, I find the original TMCC system rather robust, though I have far less experience than many others here.  

JGL

I'm amazed at how many have the 2380 New York Central Geeps!  Will it become the 2046 (by which I mean a popular postwar workhorse that runs like the day it was made, even 60 years later) of the early electronic era?

Peter

I just got for christmas a Lionel 6-18045 Commodore Vanderbilt from 1996. What an excellent runner, even with an AC motor! I have got to say, it has the best whistle in my collection. Even though the paint is slightly off, it has got to be my favorite locomotive that I own.

EDIT. I missed the repairs section. I have not had to repair this engine yet, but, oddly, a newer Scale engine from about 2003, which I also got for Christmas is having issues. I guess I will be running the CV more often.

I have 9 Proto 1 engines that I bought new in the 90's that all run great and have never had a problem. Four have BCRs, the others still run on batteries that I replace every 4 years.

I've had 2 Proto 1 units where the electronics went out and were replaced with TAS/ERR TMCC systems. It wasn't the scrambled chip scenario, but some other type of board failure.

I've had 1 other Proto 1 where there was a board failure, GGG fixed it for me at a very reasonable cost. 

So 10 out of 12 are still running original electronics and are roughly 18 years old. All still run fine mechanically. I do a full oil/lube every 4 years. I have replaced the speakers in all of them. They all get run every year.

Oldest I have is the Lionel Santa Fe F3 A-B set from '96.  I wanted that war bonnet F3 set since I was a kid and saw it at my local dealer brand new.  I ran it conventional for a few years and then added TMCC around Y2K.  I also added the second A unit Lionel made a year or so later.  I would consider my unit to be lightly used as I do not have a permanent layout.   

Knock on wood, no issues at all to date.  And until I read this thread, I didn't even realize it was turning 20...

Tony

Of 13 that I had Mike and Phil at Train American studios convert, the 1992 Lionel 4501 Southern Mikado is the oldest.

A majority of the up fits to TMCC were early MTH Southern Ry steam plus the Clinchfield Challenger. Nothing wrong with MTH except I was getting old and Proto 2.0 was not close to birth [as Mike opined at the time].  For economic reasons I decided to stay with predominantly one roadname and one control system plus conventional via the remote through a TPC link. However, I became enamored with N&W and Clinchfield articulateds and slipped my policy and checkbook regarding conversions.

Putnam Division posted:

I'm amazed at how many have the 2380 New York Central Geeps!  Will it become the 2046 (by which I mean a popular postwar workhorse that runs like the day it was made, even 60 years later) of the early electronic era?

Peter

Include me in that group.  I also have the separate sale 2383 NYC Geep.

Fairly certain I won't be around to find out if these engines are still running in the year 2056 but it is an interesting question.

Edited to add these pictures.

I too have the NYC 2380 GP and NYC PA/PB. Also have the original NYC FTs with TMCC. Never had an issue. Sometimes I pair the GP with FTs - makes a cool looking head end power set.  In fact I've been lucky and not experienced any headaches with any Lionel locomotives I've purchased, my newest being an NYC Alco S switcher. 

Some of the early TMCC engine were very nice. The geeps were complemented very nicely by the addition of tmcc.

Plus, they work with the legacy command base and cab2. Much unlike the chief garbage. 

I guess the Lionel LLC GP-9's are so popular because they fit every medium really.

• They're small enough to run on postwar Lionel layouts with O-31 curves.
• They're very nicely priced (even when they came new in 1996)
• They look good enough to fit in with the scale locomotives
• They have modern command control
• They have excellent sounds

Sounds like that GG-1 suffers from unglued MagneTraction magnets.  An easy fix!

Jon

My oldest is the incredible Joshua Lionel Cowen Series #3985 Challenger (Black Version).

This along with her four sisters (UP Grey, Denver Rio Grande, and Clinchfield) were the first installments of the Joshua Lionel Cowen Series back in 2000-2001. Back then they retailed for $1800 a piece!

At 15 years old, she still runs like a charm!  

Best,

Michael

In 1995 Lionel put out a catalog featuring the N&W J # 612. This was the same catalog that introduced TMCC. It led me to believe that the J would come with command control. It did not. Still has great sounding Railsounds II. The first locomotive(s) I purchased with TMCC were 2 Atlas GP-35's, both Chessie System.

I have the lionel pennsy torpedo from 1996. I also have the pennsy gp aba combination.  never had a problem with them.  l don't run my stuff hard.  Only issue I have had with tmcc is the first run of scale k4s. I have 5385. The radio board died. I put in a new r2lc and its been fine ever since.  All of my stuff sees light use. I swap out engines every month or so. I have the 1997 gg1 as well.  never a problem.  that engine can easily be fixed as there is only one board in it.  Its no paperweight. If that board dies you can put in an ac commander from err.

SJC,

    My oldest and most run remote control engine is my MTH 263E, I preordered her from Frank at the Iron Horse Hobby Shop when MTH 1st started making P2 263E Engines,  she has a lot of hours on her, from running her on the big Office/Gameroom layout for over 10 years,  she had the old style 8.4 Battery (9 Volt looking) in her. I had Frank immediately replace it the 1st generation White (9 Volt Looking)  BCR.  That BCR is way over 10 years old now, and still works perfectly.  The old P2 263E still runs like brand spanking new even now.

PCRR/Dave

Mine is a Lionel Milwaukee SD-40 with Rail sounds from the Richard Kughn/Neil Young era. It was my first and totally got me hooked on TMCC. And it is still one of my favorites to run..............Paul

I have both NYC Geeps, both SP Geeps.  In fact, I have every TMCC Geep made.  It is interesting to see the progression of Railsounds that occurred during the mighty TMCC Geep's run.  I actually like Railsounds 2, where you have to manually increase the engine RPMs after the second level.  It was fun and is better for switching, not having the RPMs always jacking up during a simple switching move.  Great engines.  Personal favorites are the triple lashup sets, the 2 custom series with hot rod sounds, the 97 orange LLines and the AEC.  Rock on.

We had the B&O GP-9 and the UP Ore set both from the late 90's. Both purchased new from Fairchance Pharmacy (now Get a Hobby in Uniontown, PA). Never had any issues with either loco. Bulletproof performance.

Just sold them both a few months ago as I was thinning the collection. The B&O is now pulling freight in the UK.

Lionel 18564 Canadian Pacific GP-9 #2380 from 1997, still have it and runs great.  Nice sounding horn.  Back in the day these engines had a street price of right around $200, quite a good value for a TMCC and Railsounds.

Had the first #2380 NYC command GP-9 from 1996 also, but did eventually sell it.  Never and problems with it. seems like these early TMCC locos are pretty bullet proof.

My first two TMCC engines were the popular 18952 (and matching B) AT&SF PA + an 18250 AT&SF SD70 in the great pumpkin scheme. Both have worked well with no issues. The 18952+ matching B have one of the finest horn "sets" you will hear in the Railsounds stable. Love to run them together and hear the horns blare at each crossing.....

My oldest command engine is the Lionel 6-11934 Virginian Rectifier set.  I ran the wheels off of it when I bought it new and eventually added the upgrade electro-couplers to the engine as well.  I had not run it in a few years but brought it out this week for a test run.  Ran just like new.  I get a real kick our of the shutdown sounds.  Sounds like something out of Frankenstein's lab! 

Rolland

My first Command Control locomotive was a Lionel GP-7 in Chicago and Northwestern livery.  At the time, I think that it was the first engine Lionel offered with TMCC and the engine came in a special set with the Command Base and a hand-held controller.  I still have and use all three, although the GP-7 very rarely.  It was made with the Pulmor motor and only four wheels powered and is pretty weak compared with newer engines.  I'm not sure of the date nor the number and I'm really not close, at the moment, to the storage where I keep that stuff. 

If I were to guess, I'd say it was from somewhere around 2000 or so.  I had started on my new and present layout, at the time, and I made the decision to make the whole layout Command Control, which did change some of the wiring plans that  I had made.

Paul Fischer

Don't know the numbers, but:

Lionel N&W J Warhorse; the loco that got me into Command Control and never looked back. Still runs (not very well, unfortunately; never did - lots of speeding up and slowing down - Pullmor at its worst).

Lionel 5344 J1e (the 700E loco with those cool Scullin drivers) with that wrong, wrong, wrong Vanderbilt tender (long ago replaced with a CC PT tender); runs smoothly and strongly - Pullmor at its best.

Light operation on both.

Just for the record, SJC - Proto 1 was not a Command Control system.

My 1st MTH engine was a RailKing RS3 in Seaboard Air Line colors, but it had Locosounds not PS2 so it doesn't really count.

My 1st command control engine was a RailKing Seaboard NW2 (2006 vintage, 30-2669-1) I got from Jim Sutter back in 2009.  It was 2 more years before I got up the gumption to buy the DCS system.

That NW2 has been a real workhorse, never had a problem with it that I recall.  The RS3 however would give me fits (when the layout was in the garage) if the temp was under 50 degrees, above 50 it ran fine.  The Locosounds were just OK, later I replaced it with a ERR kit.

LOL, the NW2 still has the original battery!!!  About the only thing I've done to it is fixed the pilot, added Kadees, and a 2-man crew.

The CNW Geep was not first generation.  It has Railsounds 3 and came out in 2000 as mentioned.  The first guys came out in 96, so a couple years behind.  I bought it too for the extra Cab1 it came with, plus I'm a CNW guy, growing up in Chicagoland. This engine has arguably the coolest, most random horn, ever included on an engine.  It is never the same and totally unique.  The only one close to it is the NP Geep, which was one of of the last TMCC Geeps made, but even it's horn isn't as cool as the CNW model.  Big fan of the CNW TMCC Geep.  

Ditto for the NYC Geep and the NYC PA/PB for me.  Sold me on TMCC at that time, 20 or so years ago.

So,  does anybody have a list of road names for these GEEPS...I think I have 2 and really love them.  The Nickel Plate 577  and the UP 2397...and I agree...they are really solid pieces with great sound!  If there are more that I can run on my layout I will. 

I only run road names we have caught in action on camera ...thus far these 2 are ones I have added to my layout!  If anybody knows the road name list...please put it out there.

Thanks in advance

For me its the 1997 NYC NW2 622. Runs as well as its Post War brothers and fits right in. This purchased second had just a few years ago. My first new TMCC engine  is the K-Line Scale Hudson which led me down the slippery slope of scale 3 rail.

Pete