So i chanced to buy this locomotive on ebay, because i really liked the look of it, and compared to my Bachmann ten wheelers, this is a "big" locomotive. I received it today and took it for a spin around the christmas tree. I have to say I'm rather disappointed in this one. I looked up the specs (from what i could find on such an old model) and closely looked at the photos and it looked pretty good. However I'm taken aback by how much of it is made out of plastic. Obviously most models will have a great deal of plastic parts, but the add-ons (whistle, bell etc) are almost toy grade plastic. This part I was not expecting. I know that Lionel O guage trains are very toylike, but I have several ore cars and have seen a GP-20 up close and they did not seem that way. Hmm, food for thought anyways- sometimes we dont make the best decisions (though if i had bought absolutely nothing i might have had barely enough for an aristo pacific...)
Even with G-Scale, Lionel continued to be a "Toy Train" company in a hobby that was striving for realism. Although the real reason they abandoned the G-Scale part of the hobby due to the Thomas and James locomotives being very poorly built (Can someone confirm this?) I think it was due to poor sales. I owned one of their GP-30/20's once. It was a BN Unit that I ended up taking back because it ran very poorly. I simply had bought it because of one detail, The Amber Strobe you so commonly see on their switchers, freight, and passenger units. I swore to myself I wouldn't buy Lionel's G-Scale equipment again unless they were offering say, an anniversary boxcar. I am not to fond of their G-Scale rolling stock either. Too O-Scale for my taste. And I don't like how their designed to begin with. The Atlantic, I've heard, is very very poorly built. EMD Trainman has talked about the tiny gears in the USA Trains trucks on certain models and how fragile they can be. Well they last longer then Lionel's large scale offering, in my opinion.
The Lionel G scale was indeed just a toy and was really never meant as a real model. The Lionel G scale however was a step up from a new brite battery operated train and was meant to fit in a certain budget area. unforntunately it never really took off because of reliability problems. Lionel is still Struggling with G scale believe it or not and came out with a battery operated G scale Polar Express train. MTH which is Lionels competitor has a huge and better upper hand on G scale trains and even has a scale ratio listed which is 1:32 scale ratio. I personally have see MTH locomotives and they are real nice and detailed. Some of the rolling stock however is still O scale like. I would like to elaborate a little on the USA Trains comments I've made. I have talked about the motor blocks in the USA NW-2 and the S-4, they are much smaller so they have smaller motors in them. We my motor went in my NW-2 calf after about 5 years, the gears were still actually good, I replaced the motor and moved on. There are fragile parts on some USA trains locomotives, but never meant the gears themselves. The USA F3 unitis have fragile side grilles on the, so you can't pick them up from the sides, The SD40-2 locomotive has articulated trucks with small drive wheels, but they do have the regular big motor in the motor block, however the pivot on these motor blocks can be fragile if they take too much impact from un even track. As far as lasting long, how about my USA F3 units which have run 8-10 hours per weekend every weekend for 5 years and then every weekend for 6 months for the next 3 years and never had to replace a motor, a traction tire or a slide shoe. Now thats dependability. The truck side frames do have brass bushings in them and are showing signs of wear, but not because they are fragile. Sometimes, however I can be misunderstood and never meant for anyone to think that USA motor block gears are fragile, they aren't. Just the motors in the NW-2 and S-4 are small due to the truck size, so USA doesn't put traction tries on these switchers because they don't want you to burn a motor out like I did. By the way, the USA 44tonner does have more power motors in them and also has traction tires, but not too many choices in road names.
I see now, I can understand now why a lot of people, including myself, can get confused by the motor blocks and gear talks. Lionel never fully grasped how to do it correctly in my opinion. Further research turned out their G-Scale locomotives tended to have a very short life span, and as for the drive gears in the Steam Locomotives, well Comparable to the original Delton C-16 before Aristocraft began overhauling it over several decades and releases. I'm sure there is a fix for Lionel G-Scale motive power out there to make it last longer, but my internet searching hasn't turned up anything yet.
Well, that certainly seems to be the truth. You live and learn I guess. I really have no problem with the Lionel ore cars, I have a set of three and they're certainly not bad, but I'm probably going to pass on the Atlantic to someone else. It's a pity considering how much I was looking forward to it, but my B'mann ten wheeler is better running. And I will admit that the amber strobe on those GP-20's almost sold me as well, except I haven't seen one for under $500. Aristo GP-40 is still on the way to make up for this i hope : )
I found a page with information on modifying the Atlantic and how to make it run better: http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips1/atlantic_tips.html I've been to that site many times for the aristocraft tips. Hopefully this might help you out.
Very helpful site, thanks! I was over at my parents' house for a few days in between finals and I moved most of my trains there under the tree. I took the time to clean the model up inside and out and it definitely runs much better, though this site is excellent in its detail. In the end I'm still rather glad I got the model, because it looks excellent under the tree, more so than a diesel would IMO.
Ouch :3 you just threw salt in the open diesel wound! Just kidding~ Ya I love that site, very informative, sometimes a bit confusing, but that's alright. I keep my Aristo Power Bricks running smooth with the guide for it on that site.
