The new milk cars are beautiful! But, I will not plunk down $70 a car just to have issues. Is this issue going to infect, and it appears so, the rest of Lionel's line of rolling stock? I can't justify spending an additional $24+ for new trucks on top of a $70 car.
Has it been determined if it's just the coupler or the whole truck?
Would like to see an acceptance and resolution from Lionel.
Hello, new guy to the forum here. After reading about this topic and checking my own recently received milk car for the same issue, i contacted Lionel directly and was assured a redesign is in the works and will be made available to those who purchased cars with the faulty trucks...here is the exact reply.
"We are currently in the process of having new trucks designed and developed for these milk cars and will inform dealers, service stations, and customers when these become available. Once available we will gladly ship them to customers for free as a replacement for these trucks. Have a great day, Aaron Call Center Agent"
It seems they are on top of it.
Interesting that a Call Center Agent gave an update. Wonder if the Agent speaks on behalf of Howard Hitchcock and other Senior Management.
@Ray of sunshine posted:Interesting that a Call Center Agent gave an update. Wonder if the Agent speaks on behalf of Howard Hitchcock and other Senior Management.
Aaron is the new head of Customer Service taking over from Dean. So I would think he has authority to comment.
Hopefully, it’s not just the milk cars, but rather everything with the new trucks including the PS-1 boxcars.
Probably not going to happen, but it would be great if “we are currently in the process of having new trucks designed and developed” was code speak for “we are dusting off the prints and tooling and are going back to our trucks from five years ago.”
code speak for “we are dusting off the prints and tooling and are going back to our trucks from five years ago.
While this would be the best answer, it's not going to happen. The problem is the molds are in China, and the CCP is NOT going to let them out of the country. New molds will have to be designed from the ground up, or the existing molds will have to be modified to alleviate the problem. That's expensive, either way.
Chris
LVHR
I think we are beating a dead horse, but I have to get this off my chest anyway. But first know that I am I die hard Lionel fan. Their quality of products and support has been top notch, IMO. Yes, they have had issues with some products in the past, but so has EVERYONE else. That said:
I wonder why these were allowed to pass "Quality Control", or was it that there was no quality inspection of the "NEW" design.
If the molds were not released in China, then new molds would have had to be produced in Vietnam, right? If so, then it appears that no one at Lionel verified the design before casting the new molds.
Perhaps, these new couplers/trucks are so much cheaper to produce, that Lionel felt the cost saving to THEM was worth the newer design. And they can keep the prices the same as in the past.
Perhaps Lionel knew about this issue from the beginning but elected to keep the "new" design anyway. If so, why didn't they announce this in the new catalog stating that the "new" couplers will not work with existing couplers unless the buy makes modifications to the knuckle.
If they are serious about maintaining customer loyalty, then they must address and replace the trucks that have been purchased by us, the CUSTOMER.
In an earlier posting, I stated that Walthers produced an HO version of the CB&Q F3. They stated something to the effect that it was prototypically accurate. When it was delivered, the nose grab irons were installed on right side of the engine. They should have been installed on the left side. Walthers stepped up to the plate and shipped corrected shells to everyone that bought these at no cost. AND they did not want the old shells back. I understand it was several hundred shells.
RAY
Great that Lionel is going to fix this, so now come out and announce it.
Yes it’s great that they will fix this but there will be many many current new items with the bad truck that won’t even be sold for several years. Then what will people do. Too much confusion for me. I guess I have enough stuff now. Sales will most certainly plummet with Lionel’s current management staff coming off with these blunders.
Well you can make some of the people happy some of the time, etc etc. I've had Railking wheels disintegrate on me and two smoke units fail on the same engine - everyone has a bad day.
Just received my Lionel New York Central PS-1 "Flat Spot" FreightSounds Boxcar. The couplers are not articulated. Will place it in a consist between two Lionel PS-1s that have Lionel's original diecast metal sprung trucks and articulated couplers and hope that this will prevent derailments. We shall see. Hopefully, Lionel will recognize the error of its ways and return to its original trucks and couplers that were scrapped for no good reason in or around 2016.
Pat
Even if they are not articulated, do they couple with older Lionel equipment?
@superwarp1 posted:Great that Lionel is going to fix this, so now come out and announce it.
If they announce it, then they have to fix all of them. Otherwise its just those who know better. The last "real announcement" I recall Lionel CS making to fix an issue, was back when MR worked there.
I'm sure most of those hudsons still have 5 chuffs, and there are more than a few folks with a lurching mogul etc....
Then theres the diffrence between saying and doing. We were just reminded that there are 25 people that have been waiting a year and a half for optional boiler fronts they were promised.
Certainly, there are likely way more than 25 pieces of rolling stock with problematic couplers.
I feel sorry for any hobbyist that isn't a member of this forum.
The answer I received for my Friendship PS-1, NYC Freightsounds PS-1 and Lionel Lines Cupolacam caboose which all have the cheap couplers was “Thank you for taking the time to write into us. I would recommend using some graphite to help lubricate the joints of the knuckle couplers. This has worked for many of my customers and has proven to be a very simply fix for this.”
1.) Graphite did nothing, I tried it on all 3 cars. The coupler pockets are smaller than any other Lionel coupler pocket and therefore DO NOT FIT.
2.) Filing them in key areas fixes the problem of fit, but not the derailing problem. I tried it on the Cupolacam caboose.
i am on another discussion where I may learn of part numbers for older trucks/couplers to use as replacement. That’s the only way to get it right since it appears Lionel is not doing anything about it. My email response was that if that’s their solution, I will not be buying any cars with the catalog description:
”Die cast metal trucks with operating couplers”
If it doesn’t have the word. “sprung” in the description, I’m not purchasing it. If anyone knows what the Lionel equivalent part number would be to replace these crappy couplers, please let me know.
The NYC Freightsounds PS-1 needs one with a middle pickup for power, the Friendship does not.
Thanks,
Mike
Mike, a couple things:
The catalog is full of editing mistakes. Don’t assume “sprung” in the features listing really means the car will have the old trucks. I believe it’s far more likely to be a mistake. At this point, I’m assuming all the scale freight cars have the new design.
As far as replacement trucks, unless you can find NOS at a dealer, I wouldn’t order them from the catalog. They may just be replacement versions of the new design. I could be wrong, but I can’t imagine them producing the old design solely for sale as a spare parts item. The best way to get the old trucks for your new cars (sounds crazy doesn’t it?) is to find an inexpensive donor car in the secondary market. The trucks you want were produced on lots of different cars over an extended period of time.
Just my $0.02 worth (and maybe not even worth that).
@irish rifle posted:Just received my Lionel New York Central PS-1 "Flat Spot" FreightSounds Boxcar. The couplers are not articulated. Will place it in a consist between two Lionel PS-1s that have Lionel's original diecast metal sprung trucks and articulated couplers and hope that this will prevent derailments. We shall see. Hopefully, Lionel will recognize the error of its ways and return to its original trucks and couplers that were scrapped for no good reason in or around 2016.
Pat
I placed my new Lionel NYC PS-1 FreightSounds Boxcar in a consist with older Lionel PS-1 boxcars that have Lionel's former world-class diecast metal sprung trucks and articulated couplers with hidden uncoupling tabs and there were no issues, as the articulated couplers on the older cars mated well with the new inferior couplers and their articulation compensated for them. Please note, however, that my curves are O-72 or larger.
Pat
Pat,
I actually asked Lionel to give me the part numbers for trucks/couplers as replacements. I made it very clear that I did not want the current production couplers. I have read many catalog descriptions of the couplers and the current ones very specifically do not include the word sprung. My only point is that that description is an almost a sure bet you are getting current production couplers.
I doubt Lionel will get back to me, the tech said he needed to do some research for my specific 3 cars as 2 of them use track power for lighting and freight sounds. I did consider the idea of a donor car for the Friendship PS-1, but then decided to try one of the only 2 truck sku’s, finished goods, not parts, that Lionel sells out of the catalog. If they do not work on the box car, or even if they do, I will report back.
Mike
Regarding the scale milk car trucks:
After the first run many years ago, Lionel chose to move production out of China for these. Originally to Eastern Europe. China will only produce a completed product. They will not allow a company to produce a car body in one country, and get the trucks from China. And they won't allow the trucks tooling out. China is a Totalitarian Fascist economy under a Totalitarian Communist rule. You can't expect any American company doing business with them to not be dictated to.
I'm sure that wherever these cars and trucks were made, they were given the design and samples and then proceeded to copy them very badly. Probably a "lowest bidder" kind of deal in another third world country.
Jon 
@KOOLjock1 posted:Regarding the scale milk car trucks:
I'm sure that wherever these cars and trucks were made, they were given the design and samples and then proceeded to copy them very badly. Probably a "lowest bidder" kind of deal in another third world country.
Jon
The latest scale milk cars come in boxes that say Made in China.
Stu
Well, I take back my earlier defense of the new coupler design. 
I recently did a mod to my new sound boxcar for remote control described in the thread Remote Control for Lionel Sound Boxcars. In order to tow it around the layout for testing, I connected it to a TMCC upgraded RMT BEEP. Or, at least initially I tried to connect it! The couplers wouldn't close! After some grinding and filing, I was able to continue with my testing.
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