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LionChief Plus, 4-6-4 Hudson, NYC

LionChief is good stuff, I feel it is better than Legacy because each engine has it's own controller, thus two operators can run two trains at the same time. I would like to see Lionel put LionChief in some of their scale engines. $318.00 is a great buy. $1000.00 for Legacy Controller & an engine. 

When my grand children or a friend comes over, all I have to do is hand them the LionChief Plus Controller and away they go. Hands on, for visitors

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Originally Posted by trainroomgary:

LionChief Plus, 4-6-4 Hudson, NYC

LionChief is good stuff, I feel it is better than Legacy because each engine has it's own controller, thus two operators can run two trains at the same time. I would like to see Lionel put LionChief in some of their scale engines. $318.00 is a great buy. $1000.00 for Legacy Controller & an engine. 

When my grand children or a friend comes over, all I have to do is hand them the LionChief Plus Controller and away they go. Hands on, for visitors

I could not agree more.  I love them, although I have to say that when you have five of the remotes sitting there on the shelf of your control table, you often pick up the wrong one, even when you've written the road number of each.  I love love scale locos with this control system.  Simple, radio, flawless, with good control.  I love LC+

OK, Gary now you have gone and done it!  I was always on the fence about whether to buy one of these and when watching your video this morning my 8 year old was all over this ..... He was eating breakfast while waiting for the bus, heard the video saw the controller and said "Dad that is what I want from Santa"  Now I have to call my LHS ......

Originally Posted by Fredstrains:
Originally Posted by Fredstrains:

Did I hear TWO Chuffs per Revolution or FOUR??

Gary...I repeat TWO Chuffs or FOUR each Revolution??

 

Just Curious

Hello Fredstrains • In the comment section of this You Tube video, Brad from Bradstrains pointed out this issue and ask the same question.

The answers is Two Chuffs per revolution.

Brad is a top notch High School Student, who for the past several years has work for Eric's Trains at his Home Tours.

Only a professional model railroader would notice this detail.

Most of the visitors to my Trainroom are non model railroaders. They can not tell a Hudson from a Mikado.

The main point is to let visitors have fun, I have 10 engines on Lionel Cab #1 and 16 engines on MTH's DCS Remote. These controls can be very complex for a beginner.

Hope this answer the question.

 

 

Last edited by trainroomgary

I tell you, videos such as this have sold more LionChief+ engines than anything else.  The awesome sounds, smoke, speed control and pulling power all become very apparent with these videos. 

 

And I totally agree about the ease of control.  When this system was first announced, I was skeptical that it would be accepted well within this community.  I thought people would scoff at it and think it was only for the beginners to the hobby.  But look at how popular they have become.  And for good reason.  People of all abilities -- and more than one at a time -- can control trains.

Originally Posted by trainroomgary:
Originally Posted by Fredstrains:
Originally Posted by Fredstrains:

Did I hear TWO Chuffs per Revolution or FOUR??

Gary...I repeat TWO Chuffs or FOUR each Revolution??

 

Just Curious

Hello Fredstrains • In the comment section of this You Tube video, Brad from Bradstrains pointed out this issue and ask the same question.

The answers is Two Chuffs per revolution.

Brad is a top notch High School Student, who for the past several years has work for Eric's Trains at his Home Tours.

Only a professional model railroader would notice this detail.

Most of the visitors to my Trainroom are non model railroaders. They can not tell a Hudson from a Mikado.

The main point is to let visitors have fun, I have 10 engines on Lionel Cab #1 and 16 engines on MTH's DCS Remote. These controls can be very complex for a beginner.

Hope this answer the question.

 

 Thanks, for the info. I was just curious. I think the VIDEO was fantastic. I'm sure it will sell Trains!!!

 

Thank-you fellow OGR Members for watching the video and commenting. 

I have read all your comments and I feel this is the best thing to come from Lionel since they introduced 'ODSSEY Speed Control" about 12 years ago.

    The strong point for LionChief Plus+, is one control to one engine and very easy to set up and operate. Great for visitors that come to your trainroom.

    Just hand it to them and the fun begins • Hands On • 

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Originally Posted by Country Joe:
Originally Posted by Art:

Just ordered one. One question for you, is this the same size as PW locomotives?

 

Thanks,

Art

Yes, it's traditional size, not scale. It's advertised by Lionel to run on O31 curves. I have O36 FasTrack curves and it runs on them just fine.

Thanks, Joe

I don't know if anybody mentioned it but the sounds can all run simultaneously. With my starter set 0-8-0 the chuff stops while the bell is ringing or the whistle blows and only comes back on after the other sound stops. With the LC+ Hudson the bell and chuff are on at the same time. The same with the crew talk. Plus, the loco is a fabulous smoker. It almost puts out too much smoke for my little train room. My wife would say it's too much, but I love it.

Yep Gary you did a fine job with this review. Hope you don't mind, after reviewing this thread again I got to thinking about the video I made of the LC+ NYC Hudson pulling the 8 Polar Express coaches around our Christmas display.  There's no lack of power in these Locomotives and the cruise control performs to perfection. If anyone is on the edge about these, here's a push.

 

 

I've been on the fence on getting one of these, this video is really making me want one now.

 

Silly question though, I'm assuming the rolling stock in the video is "traditional" sized O, not scale, is that right?  Lionel's website is saying the locomotive is "Traditional O Gauge", but sometimes the sizes look off and engines look almost scale sized, even though they are labeled otherwise.

 

Thanks and best...Rich

Matthew,

thank you for posting the video of your Christmas Layout pointing out the LC+ pulling the the PE cars.  If this is the same video I saw at Christmas time, I mistook it for the PE Berkshire.  While my PE cars are some of the lightest ones I have, any locomotive that can pull ten of them up your steep, tight curves without any trouble is a workhorse, no doubt.  I was thinking of the LC+ NYC Hudson to pull my baby Madison heavyweight consist.  I have an NYC RailKing Hudson, and would like to compare.

thank you again.

I love the LC+ steamers - have four now and about 400 operating hours among them.  They are close to bulletproof, heavy, and quite powerful.  I have had a pacific and a Hudson each pulling 22-25 scale reefers and a scale caboose up a 2.5% grade with no problems.  

 

I have had no control or operating problems with any steamer, other than this: near the end of battery life, but before the remote will die completely, things will start to go wrong: the train will beep its not getting a signal or the remote will indicate it does not see the loco on both, or the loco may not respond when the remote's button's are pushed.  Anytime I have a problem (so far) fresh batteries fix it.  The batteries last quite a long time, too.  In an oversight, I left three remotes on over and entire weekend, Friday evening to Monday afternoon = maybe 60 hours, and they worked for quite some time the next week.

Originally Posted by Mark Boyce:

Matthew,

thank you for posting the video of your Christmas Layout pointing out the LC+ pulling the the PE cars.  If this is the same video I saw at Christmas time, I mistook it for the PE Berkshire.  While my PE cars are some of the lightest ones I have, any locomotive that can pull ten of them up your steep, tight curves without any trouble is a workhorse, no doubt.  I was thinking of the LC+ NYC Hudson to pull my baby Madison heavyweight consist.  I have an NYC RailKing Hudson, and would like to compare.

thank you again.

Hey Mark, That video was done after Christmas when the trees came down. During Christmas we were using the LionChief Polar Express on the same trackage the PE at one time was pulling 13 coaches around the trackage. The LionChief + NYC Hudson has even more power than the PE LionChief.

For comparison sake the Hiawatha sharing the track in the video is a RailKing Imperial from the 2006 catalog.

Well, I pulled the trigger yesterday on a LionChief Plus!  After an indepth e-mail conversation with Lee Willis, Lee's and Gary's videos, and everyone else's comments, I decided to buy one.  It conveniently happened that I had to make a trip from my home to see my aunt in a senior facility the town of Zelienople, normally a 35 minute drive away in a blizzard.  Well, it so happens that C. T. McCormick's Harware is in Zelie right before I get to my aunt's.  I often stop there to buy Lionel and MTH trains.  Jeff had two LionChief Plus engines, the NYC Hudson and the PRR Mikado.  Well as of a half hour before closing he only had the Hudson.  The price in the store was a lot less than he had on his Web site www.cttrains.com  If I had a larger hobby budget, I may have purchased the Hudson to compare side by side to my MTH Hudson, but with limited funds, and having grown up near the Pennsy, I purchased the Mike for the best price I have seen.  If someone out there is looking for the Hudson, get over there before Jeff sells it.  I recommend him for in store and mail order service.  Also, this visit, he told me about the huge layout he is building with 48 DCS controlled switches.  That's another story.

 

I am very happy so far with the Mike, it looks good, sounds good and runs good.  This comment is taking into account it is a far cry from the high end locomotives, but it is worth a fraction of locomotives like the Vision Line Big Boys; but I will always have to stay in the lower price range.  No matter, I am very pleased.

 

I just took a video on my under construction 4x8 layout with my junky old digital camera.  I will post the video another time, as I don't have time this evening.

 

 

impulsebill posted:

Can you run LionChief Plus on the same track with DCS !

Yes - This video will show all my remotes that I use on my layout. I have 4 main lines, each line is powered by a Lionel Brick / 180 Watt Powerhouse. I do run MTH / RailKing at the same time on the same line. The speed control on both locos will keep them apart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1IqzW9IL7U

Gary - Cheers from The Detroit and Mackinac Railway

 

Last edited by trainroomgary
pine tree junction posted:

I heard after September, or later.

Hi Pine Tree Junction / One of the OGR Sponsors, Train World is showing,  June 30, 2016 (Late)

Has anyone heard why.........   My LHS went out of business, so I am in a holding pattern at the train station, but I did find a new dealer. One in Michigan and the other in northern Ohio, between Toledo and Cleveland.  I did not do a built to order, with Lionel.  Waiting to see if these units work and are reliable.   Magazine or YT review maybe helpful.

Gary

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