New Lionel SF Mogul vs. Williams Ten-Wheeler

I am just getting back into 3-rail trains after a long time away with HO and Large Scale. I have an Atlantic conventional 11317 built recently and this thread seemed like a good place to ask as I am having trouble finding an answer to this elsewhere although it is probably a simple question. Wires go toward both the draw bar of the engine and also towards the tender. They fit into little holders on the top of the draw bar but do not touch. They are also held in place by a piece of tape. My 4-4-2 runs pretty well but does not make much smoke. I was wondering if you knew what purpose those wires serve. Does the Mogul have a similar set up? Should they be connected or the tape removed? Thanks  

Hi Ken,

The two holders, one on the loco drawbar, the other one on the tender drawbar, are the infrared connection between the loco and the tender. Don't cut the tape!

Allan

I also like the looks of the new Williams engine.  But I wondered if it is really in scale?  so many of these models of older engines are too large to be in scale; witness the Lionel General, or for that matter some of the recent MTH 4-4-0 and 4-6-0 models.  I'm waiting for them to do a modernized version of that engine, with, say a headlight in the center of the boiler, perhaps a steel cab, more modern steam and sand domes, etc.  along with that, plain black paint jobs and a bit of research as to which railroads actually used similar engines, rather than just painting them up for any RR at all.

Since everything I run is command control, I would need to convert the engine to TMCC or DCS before I could use it.  Have any of you tried to fit the electronics into the tender shell provided?  Sounds like it could be a nice little branch line engine used in either peddler freight or local passenger service.

Paul Fischer

Oh no!  Just leave the tape alone.  

My complements to you all as it is nice to see a thread with just good useful comparison information as it seems we see to much thrashing of products and manufacturers these days which gets really old.

So, I guess it could be said Williams makes a pretty decent engine.  Thank you, there are several Williams engines i was looking at, and now I've no fear of purchasing them.

John

Thank you for the replies! There should be a course in model train technology advances since I last modeled. I'm pretty far behind the curve. I too prefer the conventional series of engines from Lionel over the Legacies probably because it's all I can do to keep everything working at a basic level. The detail on the 11317 (I have the Southern roadname) is pretty nice and the sounds are fine (although I could live without the talking parts.) It is heavily built and runs smoothly. Everything was fine for the first few days when the smoke went from really dramatic to pretty wispy and, finally, to hard to see. I called the company where I purchased it and they guessed I might be using too much smoke fluid. I have had no luck following the tried and true remedies so I called the closest service station and left it there. I was wondering about it last night when I thought about the wires which you all kindly set me straight on. I had asked a couple of folks and searched the internet without success. But I guess that wouldn't fix the smoking. I'm glad that I'm having it looked at but I'd be a little hesitant to spend a lot more effort on the smoke unit. Everything else about the engine seems fairly nicely done. It wasn't cheap but, with a slight discount, I don't think that the price was exorbitant. I do appreciate the responses about the draw bar.