The NYC Commodore Vanderbilt

I am always hoping for an updated version of these from Lionell. The original was made at the New York Central shops at West Albany, not far from here.

how are

they as runners, they look great.

Fred

For some reason, I always picture it with those drivers, so I've seen that picture or photos of that loco in the past.  I looks good with them. 

Nice pic!

 

Peter

Never wore Scullin Disk Drivers?....

 

Then that would mean Lionel did a double whammy in messing up on their first version of the Commodore Vanderbilt!

The 18045, the light grey version runs pretty well. It can only pull 6 out of the 10 scale heavyweight passenger cars that it was made for. My Black 18063 pulls a little better. I can get it to pull about 7 or 8 cars. The black version is scarce. I see the light grays available all the time. The rare "weathered" version number 18067 pulls like the black 18063. the sounds are great, it is only one chuff per evolution, but I dont care. The whistle is deep and the smoke unit is pretty good.

 

The 18045 and 18067 came with the Scullen Disk Drivers, the 18063 Black came with the closed hudson drivers..The only real wammy on the first issue was the paint!

 

 

Jk~

 

These engines have been favorites of mine regardless, though the black 18063 always seems to allude me.

 

It's kinda interesting that my 18005 scale Hudson from 1990 could pull 7 of the Commodore's Heavyweights (which I borrowed from a friend who had the 18063 and the whole set) without much trouble...

I converted mine to a can motor and a Cruise Commander. It's a great runner now!

I purchased my black CV from Nicholas D'Alessandro (Forum member) in June. He made a few very nice cosmetic modifications (see Forum posts). The locomotive runs very smooth and keeps a steady pace at a reasonably slow speed. These locos have a nice drive train, smoke well, and sounds are excellent. And, Nicholas' handiwork made the one I have an outstanding machine. 

Royboy, I was thinking of converting my first issued one, but I dont know. I like keeping most of my trains original. Except for my early 90's scale steamers which I am converting to TMCC and RS 5.0

Has Lionel ever done one in the correct gun metal grayish color?

"...a CV loco"? "a"?

 

There was only one CV Hudson, ever - J1e 5344.

 

When first CV streamlined, it still had the spoked drivers with plain bearings. Later the

Scullins with roller bearings were substituted, and the 5344 wore these drivers until

scrapping, including when it was RE-streamlined to look like a Century-style J3a Hudson,

and continued with these Scullins when DE-streamlined, then eventually scrapped.

 

 

 

Has anyone ever discovered why the CV is a weak puller and fixed whatever the problem is?

 

It's a great puller unless you add all the passenger cars.  The four bulbs per car eat up all the voltage and there is not enough voltage left for the ac (field would) motor.  If you replaced all the incandescent passenger car bulbs with LED's or removed the bulbs all together from the cars (wouldn't look good) the engine would pull  just fine.  You could also convert the engine to a can (dc) motor.

Erie Bob and Rex,

 

I replaced the incandescent bulbs with LEDs in my 18045, and it will now easily pull 6 70' heavyweights.  Before the change, it really struggled, so I generally limited it to 4 cars. 

 

George

Here is my "Black/Gray"version, which  about as close as they got to the prototype gunmetal gray. Lionel called it the Black CV.

And here is the box it came in...Notice the Scullen disks, so technically, they got it right.. :-)

I have the original 18045 in light silver.  I love the way this engine looks and its whistle is superb but as a puller mine leaves a lot to be desired even when only pulling three or four passenger cars.  I do recall that some time ago someone did post a remedy for this lack of pulling power but I never got around to trying it.  In any event, even with its lack of pulling power I still think this engine is a keeper.

OKHIKER,

I bought mine silver 18045 sealed a few months ago., I took the engine apart, and regreased the gears and oiled it up, and ran it for a while to break in. It will pull about 6 Lionel Scale heavyweight cars, but I think I am gonna try the LED conversion and see if it makes it any better. But yes, its a keeper!!

Nice picture.  I have two of these CVs...the silver NYC and the red Lionel Lines.  I always loved the Commodore Vanderbilt and these Lionel units.  For the most part these are good runners.  Count me in the group that would like to see Lionel issue these again...this time with can motors and Legacy sounds.

I would whole heartily agree to this! I'd love to see Lionel do some Legacy streamlined steam engines, since they don't seem to do many, other than the J and the Daylight.

I have the 6-18067 version and have pulled 8 heavywieghts behind it no problem. I was thinking about the can motor upgrade but now running it under Legacy I'll leave the Pulmore in it. 

 

I do want to upgrade it to 4 chuffs and fan smoke unit with super chuffer someday!

 

Doug

 

This is certainly a right handsome locomotive.   Did Lionel ship a scale pilot truck with them?

Too bad that for years Lionel built their nice scale steamers to run on 031 track with these diminutive pilot wheels that look awful. Even today some of the newer locomotives appear to have smaller wheels than scale. IMO they should ship them with scale pilot wheels and offer the 031 ones as an option....

Keith,

Is there a difference in the red and silver Commodore whistles?

 Not that I know of.   

 

Doug

Take a listen for yourself, and you be the judge.

 

 

Sam,

 

I had the silver Commodore Vanderbilt (18045) for a while but didn't care for the color so I sold it and bought the black version (18063).  I like it much better.  I also have the weathered version (18067) which is the silver version covered with a weathered coating of paint.  They (Lionel) sprayed over the lettering, handrails, etc.  Anything that wasn't masked was painted.  This may have been Lionel's first attempt to darken the silver version.  The "Black" version is spot on.

 

Now to answer your question, yes, the engines I listed above all shipped with a scale truck to mount in place of the tinplate truck.  The sidewalls were painted white.  Of course I can only speak for my engines, but I am fairly sure Lionel shipped these engines with the scale pilot truck.  Not sure about the blue or red one though.

 

 

Yes, in all 3, the scale pilot truck came in the box

Thanks for that, but I own the two you posted videos of - I was trying to figure out if the red and blue CVs possess the same "similar" whistle.

The red and blue have the same whistle/sound package as the black/dark gray version.