New Acela, will you be getting over the old?

Good luck with the new Acela.

Lionel has been having trouble engineering a simple, sprung, four wheel truck with an operating coupler.

At least theres a forum member that can remedy the issues of the old one, and you don't have to sit on hold for 4hrs  for repair.

As much as I want one, I just can't. Its not the cost of it, I can foot that if I really wanted to. Its the fact that it basically has nearly a 0% chance of being fully functional, durable and properly decorated. Also, when it breaks (not if), there will zero parts and it becomes a paperweight.

At Your Service.

Contact info in profile.

Yours can be number 15 of the sets I have serviced.

They eliminated all the cool features to make one that looks the same but doesn't have all the "neatness".

Without the opening doors, I most likely will pass on this version.  I really liked the original until it did not work and after 6 returns to Lionel, I gave up on it.

I don't personally mind the fact that they new version is a simpler to maintain than the original.  A solid running train without all the bells and whistles would be nice.   I suspect it will be accurate to Amtrak as Amtrak now has a person responsible for approving colors and graphics match as closely as possible to the prototype. 

I can't justify the price at this time with other financial obligations. 

still want this,but no opening doors is a bummer. the truck redesign to facilitate easier traction tire replacement is a good thing. still not sure how the cars are going to be coupled together though. only amtrack original scheme for me though. no fantasy paint job.

At the price point for the set and add-on cars it scares me to buy it due to lionels quality control issues lately,but I still always wanted this set. never bit on the old one even used due to the changing of the traction tires as well as the going prices on ebay.

maybe if prodution samples are shown by ryan or dave describing the improvements that have been made ect. I will get one that is if they are even made. the cost of the set and people willing to buy this set coupled with the built to order numbers needed to produce it. this may get pushed back again. I hope not, but will see.

seems dave spent quite a bit of time examining the flaws of the old set and making the new set better. so maybee they will make the set after all. so his time was not wasted on developing this new version. well see.

I’m excited for it. Compared to some of the vision line items I don't think the price is bad considering you get 13 feet of O-scale high speed train. Im excited for cars will tilt mechanically, sounds and motors in both units, smooth speed steps, doors that will stay closed during operation, great sounds in the cafe car, operating pantographs. Plus it will likely hold a solid resale value. I get that many are still upset about the design from 20 years ago, but I am cautiously optimistic. Plus if you’ve ever been stuck behind one for hours because it broke down on the northeast corridor. Or sat on a siding for what felt like eons for one to pass. You’d know the real one can be unpredictable too lol

If I were Lionel I would have made it even simpler and cheaper, put two motors in the front engine, and call it done. There is no reason to have two motors at both ends, not that many cars to pull, just more to go wrong.

with motors at both ends when going in reverse it probably really helps. this way your not pushing the cars. so I like that it has four motors.

just watched the ryan and dave show. dave mentioned the old IR tethers and there problems. maybe I missed it, but since the new cars just have lights. there will be no need for IR tethers between the cars am I right? so how will the cars connect up together. what will be the coupling set up? If that was mentioned in the show I missed it.

They have manual opening doors.

@Craignor posted:

If I were Lionel I would have made it even simpler and cheaper, put two motors in the front engine, and call it done. There is no reason to have motors at both ends, not many cars to pull, just more to go wrong.

Have you owned the original?  There may only be six cars, but wow are they heavy.  The one power unit actually struggles to push/pull at the train at times.  And the harder the motors have to work, the more wear on the gears. Both units powered is one major benefit of the new model, imo.

I don't know, kind of on the fence about getting it.  Quality wise, as long as they build it like the old one, there won't be any problems.  The old one was always kind of an oxymoron in my opinion; kind of reminded me of a German luxury car.  Absolutely nothing "cheap" about it.  Super well put-together, nearly on the level of Marklin, imho.  But it was so overly complex that there were bound to be problems.  Again, those problems arose from complexity and slight oversights in engineering, not from it being a cheaply thrown together hunk of junk, by any means.

People tend to assume that if something has problems than it must be "cheap".  I can assure both from my experience with the Acela and with German cars that that is absolutely not always the case.  Something can be of the highest quality, but have problems stemming from its being so over-engineered that other problems have been caused in the process.

In the end, though, I'm an engineer who loves solving technical problems, so the original Acela is basically the ultimate "mountain to be climbed" within model railroading, at least!

@Craignor posted:

If I were Lionel I would have made it even simpler and cheaper,

Hmmm....theres a joke in there somewhere lol!

The opening of the doors was a major selling point. removing the cool features and increasing the price make me hesitant now. And I really love this set and was waiting on its return.

I bought 2 complete sets last year.  Spent about 12 hours each relubing and adjusting doors and pantographs.  Both run flawlessly.  I wonder how the trucks will be geared.  Original trucks gears are pretty elaborate compared the typical.  I”m glad I have the old ones.  The “doors and tilt” make it unique.   One engine powered is plenty.

if I did not own them, I would consider, but $2,495?...

I have the old set that I bought new back then. I had some issues with mine but without a doubt the old acala set has to be one of my favorite most advanced sets lionel ever produced. The new set had me interested but after learning that the doors don't mechanically open and close by the touch of a button I suddenly lost interest. To me that is the coolest feature out of the whole set if anything I would rather see the tilting be removed over the mechanical doors. I love the tilting thought. I wish they new set had all features the old set had but with improvements and love the rear unit powered because when operating old set with single powered unit I found that sometimes when in reverse the cars would lose it's synch with other cars because of the pushing of all 6 cars instead of pulling. Just found the set much more reliable when in forward motion and when adding the 3 additional cars it wasn't as reliable so having that powered engine in the back would have helped huge in my opinion and less wear on the tires especially when climbing the grades.

I wonder if the rear powered engine from the new set will work with the old set? If so I would be interesting and picking up a powered rear unit to go with my old set.

I also would hope the same sound files were used in the new set because they sounded awesome as I think they were original sounds taken from real acela crew. I especially love the black guy voice collecting tickets from passengers...just think he sounds great so legit.

Bottom line without the mechanical doors it's a no go for me especially for that price.

Just my opinion.

It has opening doors just manually open