These are plentiful and cheap...look decent to me. Are they scale??? I can't seem to find any info around their 'scale' size. Thanks
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Simply put, they aren't. They're the same size as the postwar shrunken-head 746 N&W J's.
AMCDAVE at the time it was nice to see Lionel make a new engine mold. MIKADO 4501 is correct. It sits on the 746 chassis. Also to note that a majority of them were not good runners due to the wrong bearings put in on the motor shaft. I have both the Rock Island and the DL&W. I did hear that later they issued it in a Great Northern which seemed to have the problems that plagued the first two taken care of. Eventually I'll get to putting in the right bearings so mine will run better...............Paul
They were lousy runners mostly a bearing problem. Looked nice though. Once you get the bearings fixed it ran pretty smooth.
They did seem larger then engines in their era but they were not true scale. They do look ok with engines that are scale. I had one and I liked it.
I had the Northern Pacific one from 1992. Despite not being scale, it did have an attractive paint scheme and ran relatively smooth. I guess Lionel removed the issues from the past two models.
These engines do look REALLY good with the Irvington-style passenger cars made by Williams currently, like the two-tone green Northern Pacific ones.
A fair emulation (as opposed to a model) of a CRIP 4-8-4 (I forget the class designation). Good-looking, hefty, near-scale-girth boiler and fair detail. In other words: scratch bashing fodder! Too bad about the ancient running gear, though. I understand that some of these were incorrectly assembled per a driveshaft bearing, some weren't. But - if the gearing is the same as my Warhorse TMCC N&W loco with the same chassis, it will run poorly even with good bearings - zoom-zoom/bog-bog.
Too bad; a thick beast that just cries out to be a "scale" freelance Mikado with some scale front/rear trucks and some cylinder work.
Ah! You know, that boiler just needs to be put on a Williams brass USRA Mike chassis, with appropriate flourishes...hm. The Lionel tender is probably usable.
Mikado 4501 posted:Simply put, they aren't. They're the same size as the postwar shrunken-head 746 N&W J's.
Looking closely on the side of my Lackawanna's cylinder and you will see a "J" class plate. I am guessing that they all are like that.
At the time these came out, before the scale revolution, I thought that they were the best looking of Lionel's steam locos. I changed out the bearings (because of the OGR article) before ever running my loco. Mine runs great and has steam chest smoke.
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I have the Rock Island version. I put a scale 4 wheel trailing truck in place of the under-sized original and replaced the lead truck. It greatly improved the appearance...it now more closely resembles the Rock Island 5000 series northern; just a tad too short for scale.
I put a new Lionel motor in my Rock Island loco and now it runs great. If smokes well from the stack and the steam chest. My Great Northern has always been a great runner as Lionel had finally addressed the bearing issue for this production run.
I put in a Dallee #400 reverse board in one of those engines and it ran decent.
Thanks all!!
I haven't ran mine in a long time but after fixing the motor it ran just fine and looks good.
ROCKYROAD, in your post you said you added a scale 4 wheel trailing truck. What truck did you use that fit. Thanks Paul
Paul,
The scale truck was one I bought on ebay. It is a three rail truck from one of Lionel's J series Hudsons.
I must be honest...I had to do a lot of "fool'n around" to get it to clear the 1800's frame, but it works. The lead truck was also from a J series Hudson.
Thanks ROCKY ROAD, I appreciate the information........Paul