How Is The New Visionline Niagara Checking Out??

Mine is still chugging along well.....smoke output better than expected.....overall a job well done by Lionel!

-Pete

Great engine so far!   All features work, no problems.   Sound great.

Fun engine.👍

Well Rod, I'll be honest; I sent mine back to Lionel for the "tender vent" smoke feature working inconsistently as far as the smoke function working. When I trigger that feature, the sound portion of the feature ALWAYS works, but not the smoke. The sheet Lionel returned with the engine stated that every time they triggered this function, it always works over "hours of running". I run my layout with Legacy Cab2 powered by two Powerhouse bricks running through a TPC300.

Once it was returned to me, it took 13 tries before the smoke actually emitted from the overflow vents. I found that the smoke function is very susceptible to miniscus' forming in the smoke exit tubes which blocks output. This is with the "warranty required" Lionel Premium fluid being used. In short, the tender smoke feature is problematic on my unit. I don't plan on sending it back to Lionel as the inner shipping foam container is already under "duress" after this last trip + I'm not sure it will actually be fixed correctly at Lionel as after seeing results from this return.

On the plus side, the sounds are awesome along with the Legacy speed control and 4 chuffs per revolution. Smoke from the stack/whistle/and pop-offs works well. I also liked the blackened side rods; my personal opinion is they could have left off the white  wheel sidewall trim.

One item I feel Lionel dropped the ball on is not putting the two center rail pickups on the tender assembly further apart to allow drop-out free sound crossing large turnouts like my Atlas"O" 7.5 degree units. I would have deleted the Legacy IR sensor and put the second roller in that area. A "VisionLine' engine shouldn't need a battery back-up or a $40.00 capacitor installation to allow steady sound output over crossings and turnouts IMO.

As delivered, mine (and some others documented here on the Forum) arrived from manufacture with the tender drawbar not being bent "level"; this allowed the tongue on the engine drawbar to hit the center rail at times and cause a short, especially while backing-up. bending the drawbar to a horizontal position solved that issue.

In summation; smoke features can be problematic; the Legacy control/4 chuffs per revolution/and Legacy loco-tender Railsounds combination are the positives for me over my CCII unit

My 6013 is running great.  No problems. 

Mine has worked so far without any major hitch, including the tender vent smoke/overflow feature. I don't believe that Lionel tests any repair for "hours" but I imagine that their test layout is properly powered and cleaned regularly. I know from my own experience that Lionel smoke units work best with a Lionel transformer and a good power source to all parts of the track. Any low/insufficient voltage spots on the track will have an effect on smoke output.

Mine did throw a traction tire the first time I put a fairly heavy load behind it but fortunately the thing wasn't shredded. 

Mine had to go back to Lionel... when running forward, there was a loud clicking noise - it was not present in reverse. There was also a low electronic sound (sounded like Morse Code) when the engine was standing still.

That being said, it is a beautiful engine and the sounds were impressive. I can’t comment on the smoke aspects since I never use smoke.

Hancock52 posted:

 I don't believe that Lionel tests any repair for "hours" but I imagine that their test layout is properly powered and cleaned regularly. 

About 18 month ago, I had the opportunity to spend about six hours with the repair technicians in Lionel's service department in Concord and there were repaired engines running on their test layout the whole time.  I did recognize many engines that were running for several hours straight while there.

I do think they are running engines for extensive periods after repairs to insure the function as they should.

Happy railroading,

Don

The only problem I had with mine was both traction tires turned to a gooey mess in less than a month. The spares that came with it are holding up so far.

Thanks for all the feedback so far. Sounds like most problems were minor and easily fixed.

What has been the experience with the "variable chuff intensity depending on drawbar load" feature? Does that seem to work as advertised?

Rod

My 6013 has been flawless so far. It’s a fantastic engine, great smoker, & very loud!

Ran first time Saturday, am pleasantly surprised how much better it sounds compared to on line videos. Speakers in tender and engine is really a big sound.

Rod Stewart posted:

Thanks for all the feedback so far. Sounds like most problems were minor and easily fixed.

What has been the experience with the "variable chuff intensity depending on drawbar load" feature? Does that seem to work as advertised?

Rod

That feature does work as described in the engine’s manual. It seems to be very sensitive to changes in the load the engine is pulling, even including pulling cars around a relatively sharp (O-72) bend. 

While I did not buy the engine for that feature, I am still very impressed with it and it adds some extra play value to listen out for the changes in sound.

I bought it after I saw the prototype at York. When I got it I took it with me to our Tuesday night crew get together. He ran it on his layout for me. An impressive engine. It ran flawlessly for about an hour. He had the lightning stripe version. Had he known I was bringing mine over he would of put the front coupler on his to double head them. The only problem he has had with his was that since he got his he has had to replace two traction tires because them became soft...........Paul

jim911 posted:

Ran first time Saturday, am pleasantly surprised how much better it sounds compared to on line videos. Speakers in tender and engine is really a big sound.

I did not realize this offering has the extra speaker in the engine. That is a great feature. First time I heard that setup was the VL Bigboy, and it is very impressive. Its nice to hear the engine sound coming more from the engine, like it should, rather than just from the tender. Plus it just seems to give much more "presence" for lack of a better word, or really big sound, to coin your term. Thanks for this info! Its nice to see that Lionel appears to have a winner here, espcially after all the problems reported with the H10 just recently. Yikes! 😫

Also nice to know the load sensitive drawbar feature sounds like it works pretty well, thanks Hancock52.

Rod