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 Hello all, 

 Since I had no school today for local elections, I decided today would be a great day to go purchase my CSX F 40 from Lionel. While I was there I did get kind of worried that the one I would buy would be defective, but I reassured myself saying that only the Amtrak ones had the issues. 

 Man, could I have been more wrong? 

 Once I got home I took the engine out of the box and admired the beauty. Lionel did do a great job with the paint on these engines. However functionally speaking, these engines are not that great. Once I put on the track I removed the panel on the roof in order to put it in the program mode. As expected, this was very difficult because it is very tightly on. There are a few scuffs on the edges now. Once I had Flipped the switch and turned on track power, this is when the issues arose. At first the engine did absolutely nothing, which is what I expected it to do. Then about two seconds later, the lights on the engine begin to flicker like crazy and the horn sounds repeatedly cut on and off. I was very taken aback by this and then it got even worse. The left number board completely  burnt out, and the horn sequence begin quilling and even the HEP generator sounds begin to turn on.   Keep in mind this is before I touched the legacy remote or even programmed the engine.

I am very disappointed with the engine, however I do understand that there were many others like me that had the same issues. This engine will be going back to Lionel for sure, and I hope they can fix it.  I do understand this is not the worst thing to happen ever because this is definitely just a first world problem, but I did pay lots of money for the engine, and I expected it to work. 

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Last edited by Maxrailroad
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Did your dealer perform any of the work as mentioned in the dealer memo that went out from Lionel?  I watched my dealer open up both my Amtrak and CSX F40ph's, rerouted wires and greased 'em up, then ran them on his layout until I was satisified before he even took my money.  Also fixed a bad connection on the smoke unit while he was in there.  He also worked on the hatches to make them easier to get out.

Given all the posts on this forum about the problems that these engines were experiencing, I am surprised you didn't ask them to put it on the track to test before you left the store.  Hope you get your issues resolved.

Last edited by MrMoe50

IMO, all of these should be opened up before running and inspected for wire harness dressing.  They are pretty easy to open up and check the routing of the wire harness.  This is the proper routing for the powered units.  On the ones that aren't properly fixed, the wire runs across the center of the roof and right over the flywheel.  There was an anemic piece of tape holding the wire up, however it wasn't up to the task.

Last edited by gunrunnerjohn

Hey Max! Known problems on these engines unfortunately.

Give us a call, we'll pay shipping both ways and get it fixed for you very quickly. We'll make sure the paint is touched up properly and all. It's a great engine once fixed up.

We're making major improvements in QA and QC this year, and this will be the last time a product is delivered with this level and number of problems. It's 100% unacceptable and we're working hard to prevent any other products from having QC issues outside the norm of typical expected problems.

Dave

Thank you Dave. As I said before, it is very refreshing to hear these comments from Lionel.

Things happen, sometimes out of our control and you are doing your best to make it right. It sounds like you guys are on the right track moving forward.

A lot of us are waiting patiently for the new passenger cars..please double check them before shipping!

Unfortunately, I have (3) Amtrak F40's I need to return to have all the issues fixed. (2) powered and (1) Cabbage. Do I call for a RA?

Thanks.

Donald

3rail 2 posted:

Thank you Dave. As I said before, it is very refreshing to hear these comments from Lionel.

Things happen, sometimes out of our control and you are doing your best to make it right. It sounds like you guys are on the right track moving forward.

A lot of us are waiting patiently for the new passenger cars..please double check them before shipping!

Unfortunately, I have (3) Amtrak F40's I need to return to have all the issues fixed. (2) powered and (1) Cabbage. Do I call for a RA?

Thanks.

Donald

Donald - Just call 586-949-4100 or 800-454-6635 or email TalkToUs@lionel.com and they'll take care of you.

Dave, 

Thanks so much for the response. I will be sure to call once I am home from school (I really shouldn't be on my phone right now but whatever). Anyways, I do have a question. The issues I experienced seemed to happen to most people after they ran their engine for about 20 minutes or so, but mine happened immediently. How was the wire destroyed before I even ran the engine?

Dave Olson posted:

Hey Max! Known problems on these engines unfortunately.

Give us a call, we'll pay shipping both ways and get it fixed for you very quickly. We'll make sure the paint is touched up properly and all. It's a great engine once fixed up.

We're making major improvements in QA and QC this year, and this will be the last time a product is delivered with this level and number of problems. It's 100% unacceptable and we're working hard to prevent any other products from having QC issues outside the norm of typical expected problems.

Dave

Dave,

I'm very happy to hear that as I have a few 2017 Legacy diesels on preorder and the FP40 issues were making me worry. Looking forward to getting them thank you.

 

 

Dave that is great to hear from you. You have a tough job I am sure. Lionel does not want a bad rap. Thanks to you,jon and ryan,rudy and howard and all at lionel for standing behind everything that you guys are bringing out. 

I got a used lionmaster legacy challenger it had a bad board sent the boards to cs and they are on thier way back at no cost to me according to the email. Was not expecting this at all since it was bought used. Great customer service and a well engineered product is why I bought the challenger. I love the legacy stuff it runs so smooth. Just got the ns first responder. Payed a little more for the lionel model with legacy than the mth version but it is a flawless paint job and the legacy sounds and crew talk are a real winner. Another lionel home run. Also please petition howard to let you guys do the acela set in a vision line legacy version with jon making the improvments it would be top on the list of must haves. Thanks 

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