I bought a Lionel HO GS-4 Daylight from a flea market like store, (that was probably the mistake but it looked like it had never been removed from the box and my parents had the same model with the American Freedom paint scheme and it runs great.) While it ran good for a while but when I put it on a track that had a hill the fourth drive wheel on one side wentout of alignment. I was able to push it back in and run on level track no problem for awhile. So I took it apart and found that the plastic gear on the fourth drive wheel has a crack on both sides for where the axel enters the gear. S
So the question is how hard is it to come across a new gear or even find out the part number?
Or is it better to find a junk engine a get a gear from there? The lionel website was not much help.
I have also heard the possibilty that Bachmann made the GS-4 for Lionel. If this is the case does Bachmann carry the part?
Any help would be appricated right now my wife calls it my $60 engine that does not run.
I picked up five of them after Christmas at a department store about 35 years ago for $4.00 each. None of them was worth that. If Bachman didn;t make it it was certainly copied from their way of mounting motors at the time which was between two halves of the weight that were insulated for pick up. Mine wouldn’t pull three passenger cars up a 2% grade. I doubt parts still exist but you might try Bachman. If not try E bay. Good luck.
Lionel brought these into the country when they first were trying to enter the HO market in the 70’s. The mechanism left a lot to be desired, and would be hit-or-miss if you got one that would hold up. The same overseas company made them for Bachmann. You may get a new part but you’ll end up with another of the same quality.
A better bet, if you want to keep and run the loco is the Bowser kit made special for repowering these:
Lionel imported the GS4 in 1975, about the same time the 4449 started with the Freedom Train. I purchased three of the Lionel GS4’s at that time, but found they could not be used on any club layout since they ran so poorly. Most of us thought they would be collector items since they were called a limited run of what turned out to be “way to many and only limited by the sales numbers.” They did look fairly nice, but mine have been in the box they came in for thirty three years. Hardly seems worth the money or effort it took to get them now.
Lionel has been in and out of the HO market several times and the last time was a joke on us model railroads and many dealers. I know of one dealer that still has five HO Lionel Challengers at full price. They may never sell since they are way overpriced in this market.
On the one hand there are collectors who say nothing marked “Lionel” should ever be altered in the slightest.
Then there are the rest of us.
The Lionel GS-4 is not the same as the Bachmann, to my knowledge, but I do think the Lionel body casting was more than decent, and perhaps the repowering kit that Bowser offers for the Bachmann engine could be adapted to the Lionel without too much effort.
I have built two of the Bowser GS-4 kits - one is under an original Lionel shell, the other is motivating the most recent Bachmann edition prior to the “Plus” locos. Both work extremely well, but took some patience and dedication to put together and get working reliably. With a can motor instead of the open frame motor that comes in the kit, and a flywheel, it would be comparable to a medium quality diesel in performance. The worst part of the Bowser kit is that you have to re-use too many of the poor Lionel / Bachmann parts! The kit really should have included a complete full length metal frame to replace the wimpy and awkward plastic piece. You may also find the siderods a bit cheesy. When my locos require complete disasembly for maintenance, I hope to make new parts from brass to solve both problems, and add a bunch of weight, as they still don’t pull many cars! If you really want a GS-4, however, it may be better to hope and pray that a modern high quality model will be produced, or spend the big bucks and buy brass - several good ones were imported in the past. The Westside model, for example, had good reviews back in the day.
The original Lionel GS4’s offered by Lionel became the same unit with some minor drive changes for the Bachmann offering a few years after Lionel first offered the GS4. I have no knowledge if Lionel sold the pattern and tooling but it was the same model in most every detail. I purchased one of the GS4’s painted in Daylight colors when they became available. It ran just as bad as the original and was never used . Both the Lionel and the Bachmann had shells that looked to be identical and the drive was almost identical. The Bowser drive train will work with either model. The model is fairly good in fidelity and looks OK, but don’t expect them to run well.
Bachmann currently make a greatly improved version (at least mechanically) of the GS-4 that has a DCC chip built in. While this might not match the Bowser, it will probably drop right in and might be cheaper to buy but mainly is already fully assembled.
Although this is described as a “standard” model it has the features of the former “Bachmann Plus” model. The locomotive price is $159-00, so the mechanism (which should be available) should be less than that.