New Lionel Legacy F3 WP ABA

chipset: The easiest way I've found is to grab the steam boiler vent on the hatch and gingerly pull up. You are fighting two small magnets that actually hold the hatch to the roof.

One other area of concern chipset; some of the 2012CY production of F3s and F7s had "oversized" traction tires installed by the factory. You will find them actually rubbing on the side-frame brake shoe detail if they are the oversized ones. If you have this issue, MTH tires work great.

Some of my purchases got the brake shoes ground-down some as I didn't have access to any MTH tires.

Don't know if you have the 2006(?) era units or the newer 2011/2012 units. If the tires are too big, the unit will start running with a jerky motion and you'll swear the Legacy electronics are faulty....

Found it thanks.

Funny you should mention that....I am not too happy with the performance..not even close to my Neil Young Signature Series F3.

The powered A Unit is a little wobbly...that surprised me, in that you usually dont see that in a $475 Lionel Legacy, latest and greatest....but instead cheap RTR sets.

Although, the non powered A unit doesnt wobble, nor does the B-Unit.

The engine sometimes exhibits odd performance when going backwards and occasionally going forward but not enough to bother me, although right out of the box it was horrid...

But after a few laps it seemed to be fine, but then returned  to poor performance again, seems I too have  over sized traction tires rubbing against the brake shoes...they are damaged now too.

Still...disappointed in the way Lionel had no grease in it, probably no oil either, I had better oil it in proper places too.

Oh, and its a little noisy for a can motor Legacy engine, as I can hear some minor "clockwork" type sounds?

Whereas my Neil Young Sig PRR is 100% silent from a mechanical stand point.

They dont make them like they used too!

Not a single engine, MTH or Lionel can match the quality of performance of my MTH PS2 Premier NYC&HRR 4-4-0's...they are perfect performers since 2007.

I am dead serious....if this trend of poor quality from Lionel (2x PWC, 1x Legacy WP) and MTH (3x LIRR PS3 MU's) keeps up, I will sell them all at a discount and just run those two good old reliable MTH Premier 4-4-0 NYC&HRR's.

And of course my several perfect $150 $200 Williams scale engines with conventional can motors that blow away the performance of anything I have purchased except those MTH Premiers.

The fuss and bother is making me think of just going back to 100% conventional yet again.

Because I spend more time troubleshooting, adjusting, and fussing with these C&C engines and systems, when I could just flick a switch and go.

And not have to deal with overpriced toys made in China with wrong colors, out of box failures, sporadic and inconsistant quality.

Give me a vintage Post War Lionel made in the USA from our Parents, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, and all those folks that made them in the 40s and 50s, that I can work on myself if need be.

chipset: The over-sized traction tires are too high; i.e. they stick out too far above the outside of the wheel flange. Look at the clearance between the traction tire and the brake shoe simulation on the truck side frames - you should see about 1/32" of clearance if OK. Should they rub the brake shoes, the performance will be spotty at best and may even bind up the truck totally if like some of mine originally. Once fixed, these are smooth runners.

Yep, its official, they are too big and rubbing, and are somewhat chewed up.

Where did you get your MTH tires from?

Actually chipset; I was lucky the last time as I bought a new SP Black Widow set from Marty Fitzhenry and he was kind enough to throw in a set when he shipped it to me.

I would think most any good sized MTH dealer should have them in stock, or most certainly Midge @ MTH should be able to provide them for purchase.

Once you get the rubbing stopped chip, you'll be amazed how smooth they will crawl for you. The rubbing is driving the cruise control circuit bats**t trying to maintain a steady speed while the rubbing tires vary the drag/load all over the map while running. They are most likely the source of the erroneous noises you're hearing as well.

I ended up grinding them down, and the engine runs like a champ.

Thank you again for letting me know about this, it might have done much more damage,