ENJOYING WHISTLE STEAM

My son and I ran pur EM1 tonIght.  The whistle steam is a great feature.  I am glad Lionel included this features in their steam loco in their current catalog. 

It is a very cool feature.  I have the V Hudson and the EM-1 with it and love it, although I do not operate it that often: just me, my wife hates the smell of smoke and she can smell even the "odor-less" stuff, so I refrain.

But it is a very fun feature to have!

Great video's Alex.  Features on the V line Hudson make it a definite stand-out locomotive.  I really like the ringing bell.  Thank you for posting.

Steve, Lady and Tex

Very cool Alex!!!! I like the whistle steam and the swinging bell. 

Nice video Alex, love those passenger cars.

Alex,

Thanks for posting the video. I always enjoy seeing your NYC fleet and layout.

Take care,

Richard

Is the Hudson the only steamer they produced with the swinging bell?

On a smaller scale, I had heard that the whistle-steam effect is less than stellar on the separate sale Polar Express Berkshire Lionel offered a year or two ago.  Does anyone have info on how well it operated?  It SHOULD have been great as it was priced more than the entire Polar Express set itself!

thanks, Alex!  I wonder if I could make a ring tone of that whistle for my I-Phone. 

C.Sam,

Lionel offered a Legacy PRR 0-8-8-0 with a swinging bell.  Someone help me here:  I believe that their Legacy Santa Fe 2-10-10-2 also had a ringing bell.

Steve

Nice videos. The sounds are great.

Ok, can someone tell me what whistle steam is?  I see that smoke is coming from the whistle-is the sound being made from the smoke being pushed through an actual whistle, or is the whistle electronic?  

On a side note, did they use radios and steam engines together?  The crew talk just seems strange coming from a steam engine.

Five of my collection of PRR by Lionel have whistle steam: two K-4s (including the Tuscan one); the Lionmaster T-1; Lindberg Atlantic and of course the above mentioned CC2s. 

All continue to work great.  The Grandkids are just now getting into the feature and I have to be careful to keep the fluid flowing.

It is a top drawer feature. Once you have experienced it, you want it on all of your steamers. Thanks for the video Alex.

Great video as always my Friend!!  Looking forward to seeing you two at York!

Alan

Steve, you are correct in both cases.

Steve, Lady and Tex

That looks and sounds great, Alex.  I really like the whistle steam feature.  On a related note, I saw that the Lionel product documentation says that the VL 700E Scale Hudson requires a minimum of O-42. Since that is the max I can handle, do you know if the engine and tender can actually negotiate O-42 curves? I have had problems in the past where setups advertised as O-42 ([particularly the tender) could not do it.  If it can, this would be a great engine to get whistle steam on my layout. 

Actually the SemiScale PE with WS works well for me.  However, she had to take a trip to service dept right out of the box for Wobbly Wheel Syndrome.  After that she has been a super smooth runner and a little torque monster.  I have about 50 hours on her with no further issues.

Hello everyone,

 Thanks for the nice comment's and great input.

.

Baemr, the sound is coming from the tender, just the smoke comes out of the whistle.

I'm also not much of a fan of the crew talk .

Jim, This engine handles 042 curves with no problem at all. It's usually running on my 042 line.

Thanks again to all,

Alex

Thanks for posting the videos. Your layout that is shown in great.

 I run my VL  Hudson 5344 and Legacy every time I fire up the trains, I don't have that many trains.

Brent

Thanks for the follow up, Alex.  I appreciate it.

I agree!  I really enjoy running the VL Hudson because of the whistle steam and swinging bell.  IMHO, this locomotive is a must-have for the NYC Hudson operator!

I LOVE those plated passenger cars too!  They look to be a Premier set.  When were they released by MTH?

Alex,

Thanks for posting the video's. I too am a fan of whistle steam as well as the other steam effects. I see you took time out from the workshop today and ran some trains.

Nice.

Mike R

PS...I noticed someone questioned what radius track the Hudson runs on, my VL Hudson is running on 0-31 track with no problem.

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the nice comments, and video's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Todd, great to hear from you. I'll email you so we can catch up

Alex

SORRY, but the Lionel VL Hudson looks BEST when running on 072 or larger diameter track, otherwise TOO much overhang for this beauty.

Thanks for sharing this video Alex!  That's a very nice model Hudson with great features.

I've read some of your posts on modeling and modifications you've made to other engines, and I'm wondering if you have made any mods to this one, or is this stock operation for the VL Hudson?

Thanks,

Robert

Hi Robert,

      Thanks for your input. This VL Hudson is totally stock, no mods at all.

Thanks,

Alex