Hot Water posted:I remember back in the "Mike Regan era", Lionel had a "Quality Control Inspector" over there in China. So,,,,what happened to him, and why wasn't this reported "sound mistake" found by that "Inspector", over in China prior to any models even being packed?”
That was said years ago and not to put too fine a point on it I remember being skeptical. Anyway it does not seem that the effect of what was done was lasting. But I think it has to be borne in mind that Lionel’s product range is pretty vast and although I’d expect the higher range products to get more scrutiny than starter sets, catching every fault is well nigh impossible. In various posts on this Forum over recent years Scott Mann has detailed the practical issues with QC in China and they are daunting. More recently we hear that Chinese factories are not permitting on site inspections, which hardly makes an importer’s life an easy one.
Less charitably, the spec at Lionel’s US end has to be right for the factory to execute it according to its terms. Either this engine was spec’d with articulated sounds or it wasn’t.
Norm Charbonneau posted:Bottom line, you're stuck with what Lionel decides to put in there. Lionel has a history of unpleasant surprises when it comes to sounds in their high end engines. I have a JLC Allegheny and Legacy Big Boy with whatever random whistle file was available at the time. It's a bit strange when their Lionmaster or Flyer offerings have more correct sound features. They had the edge up until maybe 15 years ago with reliable command control and sounds that had an easy to use interface. The aftermarket at the time picked up the slack with upgrade parts but now they are so far behind the curve. Seems like they just dumbed their stuff down to appeal to boomers and toddlers and no one in between. I was watching a random Loksound vid and the dude was demoing 16 different whistles! 16!”
Years ago when Lionel was first in HO they produced a DCC Veranda Turbine with the most spectacularly realistic sounds I have ever heard from a model engine; I think that they were done by QSI. I’ve never understood why Lionel could not put similar sounds in the O Gauge Veranda Turbine they issued at roughly the same time, which is otherwise one of their finest model diesels ever (IMHO). But judging by what is said above and in particular by GRJ it seems to be a system limitation. Behind the curve indeed.
