I have noticed on several forums early reports of trouble with the horns and bells operation on the new PWCC FM, both Lackawanna and VIrginian along with the GG1s. In most cases it seems the bell works but the horn does not work consistently. Also, there are some reports of the Tuscan GG1 not running smoothly, even after breakin. Has anyone here purchased these sets or engines and have you run them yet. If so, how did they run. Also, there were three or four reports of blemishes on the Tuscan GG1 that were bad enough the buyers were sending them back to LIonel. I am thinking that my original thought of Lionel not being able to produce quality control and sell at this price level might be well founded. If I keep hearing of these problems I will change my mind and buy Williams instead.
I don’t have any of these but want several so am interested in this. At least one of the posters recognized that his engines horn worked fine with Lionel transformers and did the chirp with his MTH transformer. I also noticed that several of the posters with trouble noted they used MTH transformers and in the post never considered the difference in mfr transformer as a possible culprit. They all immediately blamed the engine. I mention this as a point of caution in that there may not be any thing wrong with the engines, there just may be some incompatability. (This would still be an issue to some, but a different issue never the less). As far as the discussions of running rough, I don’t know what to tell you.
I still expect to pick up a few of these engines, but in the end you need to make you happy so if yo are more comfortable with Williams,by all means buy one. Maybe then the Lionel ones will get dumped at better prices[:D]
Ogauge…I have a Williams FM and you would love its WABASH livery. It can pull stumps. One night I coupled up 20 cars and it pulled them up the 3% grade on my layout. I installed ERR’s TMCC and their sound card. I highly recommend this Williams locomotive.
AS BUCKEYE stated above. Also I run them around the Christmas tree for hours and have had no problems. Great engines.
laz57
I have the GG1 set, and I have not had any problems. It is a great set all around. Once again, like the PS1 battery issue,I think this issue is being blown out of porportion. People need to remember that these are Pullmor motors, so they are not going to run as smoothly as can motors. I had one Williams loco, and I couldn’t wait to get rid of it. Total junk IMHO. Buy a real Lionel GG1 or FM.
I too have the GG1 set. It has been run about an hour now total. Looks good, runs good, horn and bell work fine, just a slight wobble due to the traction tires. I do not own but have run the two different Trainmasters and they were just fine also. Strange how everyone pick up on the “bad” thread but few notice the good ones.
Has anyone tried using a transformer other than Lionel with these? I understand that the bell only operates properly with a Lionel transformer. When I used a non-Lionel transformer it continued to ring until I powered off the throttle completely and then powered up again.
Other than that it was awesome!
Mike
I’m using a 400 watt Right of Way transformer. I have not even tried it with a Lionel one yet.
I’ve considered a few Williams engines in the past but never pulled the trigger. I’m sure I’d be alright with one, but Lionel is just my first choice, hard headed or not…I may yet get one if I trip over the right deal though.
It seems like using a modern era Lionel transformer is the best way to go if your having whistle/bell problems. Many people had problems using older, LW in my case, Lionels with modern PWCS locos. The whistle rectifier had to be reverse wired to get whistle to blow and the bell was not possible unless maybe you installed a seperate bell button. The way it was set up without mods it was most likely to ring bell insead of whistle.
I got the GG1 passenger set, I used a PostWar ZW transformer to test and had to add two Lionel 5906 sound activation buttons to get the bell and horn to work correctly.
You know, While I will positively agree that this probably could have been designed a little better, if it works with the transformers Lionel sells today… Does it really make sense to complain about it to the extent that some are saying Lionel should design new boards and replace the current ones…That being the case, they should all redesign their transformers so I can properly sequence my Marklin ho stuff with them. People have both DCS and legacy for this very reason (mfr incompatability). Strangely enough this problem doesn’t seem to be a problem to those guys since it works in both those scenario’s.
So, to the 99% that this isn’t a big deal to, Way to go, great job finding a solution to a probable mfr incompatability issue!
On the other hand, if these do not work with all the current lionel control systems, then of course they should fix it.
I would also agree that a little healthy commentary will drive Lionel to correct(make these more robust) these for the next issues of these engines.
As usual, just my 2 cents which is relatively worthless these days [swg]
PS, any of you guys that want to sell your junk conventional classics, I’ll give you a few bucks for them, but hey, the horn don’t work so they ain’t worth nothing anyway[;)]
And just to be clear, most of that neg commetary is on the umm other forum…