Great review, Gary. Excellent camera work by your boy, too!
After watching your video, I went back through it looking for some visual evidence. Spotted what I was looking for right at minute mark 4:02.
The new car does not have fast angle wheel sets. The wheels appear to have maybe a slight taper, if at all. And take a look at those couplers! I can see why they don't work worth a hoot - the new profile doesn't match the old one at all! No wonder they don't want to couple together. Maybe the new ones will couple okay to themselves, but that sure doesn't do any good if they won't couple to the age-old standards!
Also, since the knuckle is further away from the truck pivot point than most standard freight trucks, and since they're not articulated, I'm pretty sure that these new trucks will not play nice with the freight trucks on smaller radius curves or ess curves. Derailments will most likely be the norm, and not the exception.
I can usually allow a manufacturer some leeway on new production items and sometimes figure out how the new owner can correct a factory deficiency or two on their own, but these trucks ain't going to cut it.
My opinion: Lionel should offer corrected replacement trucks for owners to swap out, and recall any unsold models and fix them right. Hate to see this happen, but dang!
