2-10-10-2 Arrival (and problems)

@BillYo414 posted:

I hope so @Trainmaster04. I mean I gotta assume they're gonna see charred electronics and set to replacing immediately.

I checked one side and all my brakes seem to be clear of the wheels. I'll check the other side another day.

Any new news on your locomotive?

The binding is 100% gone @Trainmaster04 and the smoke is working well. Sound is still eh at louder volumes and I can't figure out the headlight. I can't think of anything besides a bad connection (not fully plugged into the board) and myself that would stop that headlight from coming on. I see I can toggle Rule 17 Manual or Rule 17 off. But I don't see how to manually control Rule 17 if I have it in manual mode. I don't even know if that's related.

Hi All,

Sorry to hear of these problems. My 3009 seems ok. One thing to consider, though, is if you're shipping this loco back to Lionel, please take off the magnetic removable dome and wrap it and place it in a recess in the styro cradle.

Similar to the magnet on the Pacifics, these caps tend to easily free themselves from the domes and may cause paint damage.

@N'awlins posted:

Hi All,

Sorry to hear of these problems. My 3009 seems ok. One thing to consider, though, is if you're shipping this loco back to Lionel, please take off the magnetic removable dome and wrap it and place it in a recess in the styro cradle.

Similar to the magnet on the Pacifics, these caps tend to easily free themselves from the domes and may cause paint damage.

Thanks for the tip. I shipped mine back to Lionel last week and unfortunately I did not do that. I remember when I first opened mine the front dome was off and loose in the box. Thankfully, it did not scratch anything. Here’s hoping it doesn’t do it now.

So after a short period of time running with no problems, my 3001 developed a problem: the sound and effects in the tender cut in and out, particularly when it’s going forward.  Anyone else have that problem?  I surmise it is something wrong with the drawbar connection between the two.   The loco and tender will be fine, then only sound from the loco speakers (so no bass, no stereo), then fine again, then only sound from the loco speakers again, and then finally all Legacy features don’t work (whistle steam, blowdown, it all goes).  

Lionel sent me an RA and a shipping label.   But I’m leery because my last new engine, the SF 2-8-8-2 with whistle steam, had a problem which they agreed to fix and it came back in the same condition (I’m hoping a local dealer with a mechanic onsite can figure it out).   But I don’t see what choice I have but to invoke the warranty repair on this $2400 beauty.

@N'awlins posted:

Hi All,

Sorry to hear of these problems. My 3009 seems ok. One thing to consider, though, is if you're shipping this loco back to Lionel, please take off the magnetic removable dome and wrap it and place it in a recess in the styro cradle.

Similar to the magnet on the Pacifics, these caps tend to easily free themselves from the domes and may cause paint damage.

Thanks for the tip!  That never would have occurred to me.

@Alec_6460 posted:

So after a short period of time running with no problems, my 3001 developed a problem: the sound and effects in the tender cut in and out, particularly when it’s going forward.  Anyone else have that problem?  I surmise it is something wrong with the drawbar connection between the two.   The loco and tender will be fine, then only sound from the loco speakers (so no bass, no stereo), then fine again, then only sound from the loco speakers again, and then finally all Legacy features don’t work (whistle steam, blowdown, it all goes).  

Yep. I had the same issue. The drawbars weren't fully seated between the tender and locomotive. I didn't figure out if it was from how I put it on the track or if it was just the way it moved but I reached in between them with my pinky finger and the locomotive side dropped down: sound restored.

@BillYo414 posted:

Yep. I had the same issue. The drawbars weren't fully seated between the tender and locomotive. I didn't figure out if it was from how I put it on the track or if it was just the way it moved but I reached in between them with my pinky finger and the locomotive side dropped down: sound restored.

Yeah, I tried the same and it wasn’t that.  They are fully engaged and it still happens.  Something is obstructing the signal between the two halves of the loco.  Hopefully they will do a better job fixing it than they did my 2-8-8-2.  

I'm sorry to hear that @Alec_6460. I was (still am) a bit perplexed at how the window is so narrow on the infrared given that the connection is a simple drop in draw bar. Seems like it wouldn't taken much to lose communication.

I know they may have been mentioned but what did the 2-10-10-2 pull? I’m trying to find something good preferably vision cars to go along with it. Not too much info online at least that I can find.

@Robert Cushman posted:

I know they may have been mentioned but what did the 2-10-10-2 pull? I’m trying to find something good preferably vision cars to go along with it. Not too much info online at least that I can find.

Freight, but no modern cars. As mentioned above, by about 1918 they were all gone.

@Robert Cushman posted:

I know they may have been mentioned but what did the 2-10-10-2 pull? I’m trying to find something good preferably vision cars to go along with it. Not too much info online at least that I can find.

You can pop over to YouTube and type in "The Hazards Of Helen, The Leap From The Water Tower" as that is 3001's film debut. This is a silent film from 1915 and has some great shots of 3001 running cars about. Hazards of Helen appears to be a series of short railroad themed films back in the day.

WOW BEAUTIFUL ENGINE!!  What a beast!!! My new favorite engine.  Got lucky no problems with it. Got it from ModelTrainStuff.

I really can’t believe how nice it is. The smoke is unreal also. The swinging bell and blow down and the sound system in it are extremely impressive.

On the Hazards of Helen film, 3001 seemed to be pulling some wooden boxcars that in paint scheme at least look a bit like the Atlas double sheathed ATSF wood boxcars (one big SF cross, no system map or ad for a passenger train).   I’ve been thinking i would have my 3001 pull those plus some SFRD wood sided refeers and maybe some billboard reefers.  But I’m aware that those cars came into service protypically a decade or two after the 2-10-10-2s were broken down.  I’m not aware of any prototypical 1910-1915 cars on the market.

Great tip Alec 6460!  I didn't know there was film of this loco, cool stuff!

Best  2-10-10-2 footage starts at about the 5:30 mark:

36' reefers would be passable. Even some of the billboard ones in the late teens (Heinz, Yellow Armour cars, etc...). You would probably have to look past the more modern trucks, but if you kept it to the reefers with truss rod underframes (Atlas made a number), those would be fair representations of early reefers that would pass the smell test. The book "The Great Yellow Fleet" has a number of photos of reefers from the late 1900's and 1910's.   The ATSF map cars and the passenger car slogan cars came way later (late 40's and beyond), so the idea would be to find the ones that just had the small Circle Cross logo in a square and whatever shade of orangish yellow they were painted.

@Boilermaker1 posted:

36' reefers would be passable. Even some of the billboard ones in the late teens (Heinz, Yellow Armour cars, etc...). You would probably have to look past the more modern trucks, but if you kept it to the reefers with truss rod underframes (Atlas made a number), those would be fair representations of early reefers that would pass the smell test. The book "The Great Yellow Fleet" has a number of photos of reefers from the late 1900's and 1910's.   The ATSF map cars and the passenger car slogan cars came way later (late 40's and beyond), so the idea would be to find the ones that just had the small Circle Cross logo in a square and whatever shade of orangish yellow they were painted.

Great intel.  Thanks!

Quick question, why don't these trains come with that little memory (writable module) stick to preload the info of the train into cab2 like my r-27 subway set?

@Robert Cushman posted:

Quick question, why don't these trains come with that little memory (writable module) stick to preload the info of the train into cab2 like my r-27 subway set?

Lionel stopped including modules several years ago. Cost savings?

It's easy enough to enter the info manually.

@RickO posted:

Lionel stopped including modules several years ago. Cost savings?

It's easy enough to enter the info manually.

True enough.  But it was a great little feature.  Remember it fondly.