Who still enjoys the old Lionel Large Scale trains?

I occasionally run my Lionel boxcars and gondola with a USA Trains F7.  

Had a Atlantic but sold it 10+ years ago.

Made my gp20 to run on std ga. Track..

I think a few people did that modification and not just to the GP20 back then Riki.  Your not the first I have heard of doing that.  G scale track isnt cheap by any means.  I thankfully had/have a local shop that gets in estates and collections with good second hand track that is many times half the price of new.  My outdoor track is 100% LGB, the indoor is LGB as well, but I am going to replace the indoor with Lionel G scale track as I find it affordably.  I want all the indoor LGB track for expansion of the outdoor railway.    Mike

I still have the Atlantic in NYC, some freight cars, it hasn't been run in years. However we also have one of the original Christmas set's and it gets run every year on LGB track.

I run the gon, flat, and drover caboose behind my Bachmann Indie (modified to upscale it to 1:20.3).  They are perfect for that combination.

When I built my garden railway and indoor overhead loop,  due to space limitations and the desire to use the quieter running G scale over noisy O gauge 3 rain trains, I had to go with tight radius curves.   To run anything other than small European or LGB trains I would have had to put wider radius curves.  Diesels from USA and Aristo need larger diameter curves to operate.  My Lionel GP20's work just fine on my tight curves.  Thier cars with the slightly smaller size capture the style of USA prototypes, yet manage my tight curves.  I just wish they would start making them again.  I love what they do in O and S gauge.  But with my limited income due to my disablity, I can only manage to support one scale.  G scale run quieter and I do not have to wear my noise canceling headset when running them(I keep the sound very quiet or off on the GP20's unless running outdoors).  I keep the plastic wheel sets in the cars, as the extra noise of metal wheels on brass rails is like nails on a chalk board to my ears.  Its very calming to just sit on the couch or in a lawn chair and just watch the train run.  It is a very important calming tool, to the level that my therapist told my wife to make sure I could support my need for trains as best as we could afford.   Mike

Since I lack the catalogs from back then, what the heck did Lionel suggest to power the 4 motored diesels with?  I forgot what a total power hog they are till I ran my new to me BN GP20 today.  I had to pair up 2 transformers to run her with the sound turned off.  In time the matching dummy unit will carry battery and RC receiver, but thats waiting on a friend to make the next payment for a train he is buying from me.  I have debated on removing one motor from each truck to drop the amp draw. But will wait to see what battery life is like.    Mike

Mike, you might note that you paired two 1 amp "transformers".... very few people (except LGB) ever use anything under 5 amps.

Nonetheless, they do use a bit of current, but so do USA Trains, a popular brand.

Greg

I was curious what Lionel recommend for the GP20's back when they were new.  LGB's 5 amp set up was about all that was around then, till the LGB Jumbo and the big MRC and Bridgewerk's supplies came along.    Mike

I upgraded my Milwaukee Road GP 20 to TMCC and Railsounds (it was a later model that had all the electronic mother boards to just purchase two boards from Lionel and plug them in).  It is a great running and sounding engine.

I use a 135 watt Lionel AC brick with a bridge rectifier between transformer and track.  Plenty of power!

Kids as well as myself love to run the engine using the CAB 1 remote.

Happy railroading,

Don

Sounds good Don, if I was running track power still, I would look into that route.  But my garden railway and a few I go run on are all dead rail, so its live steam or onboard battery power.  I found a burnt board in my powered unit, was causing her to run very slow in the forward direction.  So I removed all the boards(the main Railsounds board is good if someone is looking for one). The burnt board is what ran the lighting and beacon.  I swiped the stand alone beacon light flasher board from my dummy unit so the lead powered unit would have a working beacon.  SO, I am hunting another one of those stand alone beacon circuits that went in the dummy GP20's.   The new RC set up will have sound, and its a more prototypical sound with the turbo whine that the Lionel sounds lacked in that engine.  The factory sounds are correct for a non turbo charged EMD like a GP9 ect.  She is all hard wired and running much better on temporary track power.  Conversion to onboard battery will come soon.  I also grabbed a spare set of NOS power trucks off ebay, so I may make the dummy GP20 into a powered unit at some point.  Mike

MRC had a fine ControlMaster 20 which had a 5 amp output. Great for LGB & Lionel LS!

I am using my friends big MRC throttle right now till I do the battery conversion to the diesels.  I ended up gutting the Railsounds out as the board that controls lighting had a burnt spot and was drawing excessive power in the short hood leading direction. The main sound board was ok(if anybody is looking for one).  I also have the beacon light board from the trailing dummy unit.  I put new lighting and beacon lights in from Richmond Controls.  I also have two NOS power trucks to motorize the dummy unit eventually.    These take a back seat to my primary modeling of UK narrow gauge in 16mm scale.     Mike

artfull dodger posted:

...but I am going to replace the indoor with Lionel G scale track as I find it affordably.  I want all the indoor LGB track for expansion of the outdoor railway.    Mike

artfull dodger,

I see that you are interested in acquiring Lionel G-scale track.  I sent an email to the address in your profile that I have quite a bit of the old Lionel G-scale track including long straights, curves, and switches.

If you are interested, I can do an inventory of exactly what I have.

Can you power one of those GP-20's with a Bridgewerks mini magnum?

I have three of the Atlantics--all running. I have added wiring to them which would allow for them to be powered by batteries on my yard layout. I have found them to be quite and reliable. I got them from ebay at bargain prices compared to what they sold for just a few years ago. They would have befitted from tender power pick-up in addition to the drivers.

I just finished up a complete Atlantic DCS conversion. It was a brand new AT&SF that is now painted into Milwaukee Road orange & maroon. Ball bearings on the driver axles, metal wheels all around including MTH One-Gauge trucks with metal wheels under tender. 6 axles now pick track power. Boiler & tender marker lights are Led illuminated along with firebox flicker light. PS3 installed with Chippewa soundfile. MTH One-Gauge Dash-8 smoke unit installed. Operating ProtoCoupler on tender rear. Next will be installing whistle smoke and maybe a swinging bell.

Also installed an extra 5lbs. lead weight into boiler and a few pounds into tender. I may cut the drive wheels for traction tires then loose the boiler weight...or most of it.