Lionel NYC S-2 Electric

That is a cool engine - being able to active the swinging bell is a fun feature.

Nice review Eric.  Always love the swinging bell.

Good one Eric !
I always learn something watching your videos.

Thanks for your efforts.

Pretty neat little engine.  It would seem that the layout would have to be NYC themed to make it feel at home.  Cool bell.  I’m on the fence with the tower talk though.  That can get cheesy.  Nice job with the video.  I watched the whole thing.

Well done.  I have had my S2 for a while and give it an A+ rating.

The brass cylinder on the top, opposite the bell end, should be the air whistle; they work just like steam whistles, but use air pressure. Most (all?) NYC electrics had air whistles rather than horns; this was common on electrics all over, I believe, as a large number of them came along in the steam era, and the familiar "diesel air horn" was not common or perhaps hadn't even yet been invented. Whistle technology was common.

The whistle on the Lionel S-2 does have a bit of a horn-like "blat", but it also "hoots". The MTH NYC P-2 also has an air whistle sound, as I recall.

If anyone has more/better info, please correct me.

Great loco; I got the Pre-War Inspired set. Now I want the NYC&HR version like yours (but I already have the older TMCC S1/S2....they run and sound quite nice, so...).

D500 posted:

The brass cylinder on the top, opposite the bell end, should be the air whistle; they work just like steam whistles, but use air pressure. Most (all?) NYC electrics had air whistles rather than horns; this was common on electrics all over, I believe, as a large number of them came along in the steam era, and the familiar "diesel air horn" was not common or perhaps hadn't even yet been invented. Whistle technology was common.

The whistle on the Lionel S-2 does have a bit of a horn-like "blat", but it also "hoots".

It always reminds me of a tugboat.

D500 posted:

The brass cylinder on the top, opposite the bell end, should be the air whistle; they work just like steam whistles, but use air pressure. Most (all?) NYC electrics had air whistles rather than horns; this was common on electrics all over, I believe, as a large number of them came along in the steam era, and the familiar "diesel air horn" was not common or perhaps hadn't even yet been invented. Whistle technology was common.

The whistle on the Lionel S-2 does have a bit of a horn-like "blat", but it also "hoots". The MTH NYC P-2 also has an air whistle sound, as I recall.

If anyone has more/better info, please correct me.

Great loco; I got the Pre-War Inspired set. Now I want the NYC&HR version like yours (but I already have the older TMCC S1/S2....they run and sound quite nice, so...).

They are "Trombone Whistles" from Westinghouse. Not terribly uncommon, I like 'em. MTH has a good recording of them I've heard in some engines. Sounds pretty close to the real thing. 

I agree with Marty - Lionel did a bang up A+ job on these. I always thought this was a cool engine since the TMCC version and this was a must have. 

Thank you, excellent as always.

I bought this because of the ringing bell, and I wanted a Legacy electric.  But I still can't get the bell to stay on.  I have also found that the rollers are too close together and it stalls on some switches at low speed, like my Atlas O72/54 curved switch.  But I still love the thing.

I have the faux tinplate version as a display model with its consist, and it is a jewel! I had the first TMCC version, but it was not a smooth runner, as it had the evil "Odyssey lurch"! It also had pantograph spring issues, so I sold it with a disclaimer. 

William 1 posted:

...  I’m on the fence with the tower talk though.  That can get cheesy.  ...

It's only cheesy when Lionel dumbs it down to just the same old generic dialogs that don't mention the locomotive roadname and/or roadnumber -- especially when you have multiple trains running and they use the same voice.  That's another little pet-peeve of mine with the newest dumbed-down towercom corner-cutting.  If the feature is implemented properly with voice-talent that sounds convincing, then the results can add a nice dimension to the hobby that visitors would enjoy in a heartbeat. 

Personally, I thought the roadname-specific dialogs added a lot to the locomotives.  If you're gonna do something like that, then it should be done properly or not at all.  When I produced a couple of videos of my new layout, the roadname-specific towercom/crewtalk announcements added a nice touch.  Had multiple trains produced the same dialogs with the same voices, things would have gotten rather monotonous quite quickly.

This is one area where Lionel's bean-counters need to be told to go play on their computers rather than dictate policy.  We shouldn't need to pay VisionLine prices for the proper implementation of this feature.  The original plan for VisionLine was to offer something unique and then have those cool features trickle down to the regular Legacy product line-up.  Perhaps somebody at Lionel should remind the bean-counters of that little nuance. 

David