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Well, the extra 15% off sale that Charlie Nassau is having pushed me over the edge. When he put the FlyerChief Milwaukee Road 4-8-4's on sale a little while back, I was really tempted, but it seemed like such a large loco (especially since I already had the Berkshire, which is pretty big too), that I held off, remembering that my wife had mentioned that I already have too many trains. Then along comes the new sale at Nassau Hobbies, and "resistance was futile". I really haven't seen many comments about this loco here, so I'm wondering how it is. Does it have the same poor smoke issues as the Berkshire? I'm not a great smoke fan, so I can live with the smoke being turned off, but I must admit that I did enjoy the smoke feature on my AF 21085 during my club's Holiday setup at a county library. I hope that this "impulse purchase" won't be something I'll be having second thoughts about...

Bill in FtL

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I have the NYC version, it runs well, smokes well the coupler works and the sounds are ok. Not Legacy quality but fine for the price. I see no reason to avoid buying it. The iPhone app from Lionel offers more control than the included remote.

Here is a picture of the NYC pulling a cut of 10 Christmas Boxcars around the floor of my office  7256A554-C32F-483E-A5D6-8FE4D77606CF

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Well, FedEx delivered my Milwaukee Road FlyerChief 4-8-4 this morning (Saturday), just as I was leaving for the county library to attend the last day of operations for our club's Holiday display. Of course, it came with me to the event, where I ran it for most of the afternoon, pulling my Polar Express passenger cars. Power was supplied by an MRC 9500 (HO) D.C. power pack with volt & amp meters, and I ran it with both the FlyerChief remote and also my cell phone using the BlueTooth app. It ran smoothly, sounded good, and smoked like crazy! The only thing that didn't work was the electrocoupler, but I think that was because the power pack was only putting out 12 volts DC. I know from experience that my LionChief O Gauge locos have coupler operating problems with voltages less than about 15 volts, so I suspect that was the issue here. The 4-8-4 runs every bit as nice as my FlyerChief Berkshire, but smokes way better than the Berkshire. I was never a big fan of model train smoke, so the weak smoke of the Berkshire didn't really bother me (I keep it turned off), but I must admit, I did really enjoy this feature on the 4-8-4. The only downside was that it seemed to run dry pretty quickly, using what seemed like a lot of smoke fluid (but all that smoke has to come from somewhere, right?).

so to answer my own question at the head of this thread, "I like it!" Thanks for everyone's comments.

Bill in FtL

 

Chuck,

I have noticed the problem with side rod noise.  In my opinion, there is too much play in the holes in the side ride.  The holes that are on the lead drivers are elongated ovals, instead of round.

I ordered replacement rods from Lionel thinking I got ones that were drilled wrong, but the new ones from Lionel were the same way.

FlyerMike posted:

Chuck,

I have noticed the problem with side rod noise.  In my opinion, there is too much play in the holes in the side ride.  The holes that are on the lead drivers are elongated ovals, instead of round.

I ordered replacement rods from Lionel thinking I got ones that were drilled wrong, but the new ones from Lionel were the same way.

That's helpful Mike.  I need to put it on my testing rollers and watch and listen up close.

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

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