Did Lionel ever make the American Flyer EP-5 locomotives in the 2019 catalog?

I checked the Ro site and for the NH 2021010 in the 2020 Catalog Ro shows on back order with pre-orders accepted. The Ro site shows availability expected by 11/10/2022.

Thanks Tom.

On some catalog review that I watched with Lionel, I don’t recall which one, Ryan and or Dave confirmed that while sales were not great, they are being made.  Still would have been happy with a Milwaukee Road or Polar Express version of the EP5.

Ben

I would expect both of those engines to be good sellers.

I just ordered a NEW HAVEN from Charles Ro I had been waiting to see if they were going to be made.

Gunny

Ro now has them in stock ready to ship!

A few weeks ago I received the Wabash GP-7 from TrainWorld. The EP-5 arrived yesterday.  Both are great looking!   They run well too.

Jim

These are twin-motor EP5's, if I'm not mistaken.  They should have quite a bit more pulling power than the single-motor Gilbert originals and the first-generation Lionel reissues.  With the black truck sideframes, they are also more prototypical.

Got mine from Charles Ro a few minutes after 7pm. I checked her out and it runs fine,tomorrow it gets the run in test.

Lionel needs to make the Alco PA in Flyerchief New Haven it would sell.

Gunny

I do not recall Lionel making any FlyerChief PA's. All recent PA's have been Legacy and there is a NH version. Making FlyerChief PA's would be a significant investment for Lionel. S gauge engines for Lionel are a relatively small market and they have managed to further subdivide that small market between Legacy and Flyerchief. The O gauge market is large enough to support both command control systems, I fear the S gauge market is not large enough. There are a lot of operators including myself that only purchase Legacy engines. Then there are those that only purchase FlyerChief.

Unfortunately an orange three engine remote will not operate S gauge Legacy engines because they do not and will not have Bluetooth. I ordered a Base 3 that will operate FlyerChief engines using a Cab 2 handheld but Lionel just released a revised ship date on the Base 3 of December 2023. A year later than the original ship date.

Tom,

No Lionel never made the PA in Flyerchief I was suggesting they could do so and come in at a good price point to lure more buyers. The Flyerchief geeps seem to sell fairly well in certain road names and I feel PA units would also.

I have had all the Legacy units and have gone back to conventional only,No more features I do not use or want.

Gunny

I just got my PRR EP5 today and wanted to point out what I feel is a flaw in the design. The manual states the pantographs can be removed by pulling upward on the base and that this feature is important to prevent damage in the event something hits the pantograph. Before running this engine I wanted to verify this feature worked...it did not. I followed the directions, however when I pulled up on the base of the pantograph is broke off the four plastic insulators. I was able to glue them back in place, but I am obviously not happy this happened on a brand new locomotive. If there was an impact I believe these small plastic insulators would shear off before the pantograph pops off of them. Hopefully my unit is a fluke and the rest are okay, however I wanted to highlight this for others with the locomotive. I reached out to Lionel and hopefully I will hear back soon.

Good catch! Hope Lionel makes it right for you.What did you think of the sound? I turned it off on mine,never heard an electric engine idle like a diesel.

Gunny

I just got my EP-5 in Great Northern colors last week. I forgot I even ordered it. 3&1/2 years is a long time to wait. All the other items I ordered then came in long ago! They are dual motor and pull great! good sound and nice slow speed operation.