1988, Richard Kughn's LTI.....RailScope one of the 1st new modern technologies was announced. I was very excited. This is before Command Control. You were stuck at your transformer....you couldn't follow your train around the layout like nowadays.....
Riding the train and seeing what the engineer sees....WOW!!!!!. I was was sure excited.
These ads from the 1988 through 1990 catalogs really got the adrenalin going for me!
It was more hype than it was worth.....it had a complicated series of cords and battery power pack. The B&W picture was just so-so, and it drained batteries quickly. I lost my enthusiam pretty quickly, too. Soon, Lionel came out with a plan for putting extra battery packs in a trailing boxcar ( I never had the urge to do that). The TV was used for other things (like watching TV) , and is long gone.
I an by no means dissing Lionel.....for the state of technology at the time, it was great......but, the state of technology in 1988-1990 just did not equal the state of Lionel's vision.
It's been on the shelf unrun since the early 90s.
Fast forward to a week ago, when I was getting conventional engines ready for our sessions at the Chesterfield County Fair.....I saw it on the shelf, dusty and unloved. I brought it with me and it did rather well.....a dual can motor geep with traction tires.....a rebirth.
Who else had this engine? How often did you run it as intended? Who still has theirs?
Peter
