What's your worst locomotive?

Couple of postwar favorites aren't particularly good runners.

1. My old 1666 2-6-2 only runs REALLY fast and lacks much pulling power.

2. My PW WARR General has never been a good runner. Looking forward to reserving it to shelf status and picking up a new Lionchief replacement come Spring/Summertime.

Any locomotive that has been infested with zinc pest and/or fried electronics for which there are no orderable replacements, and whose original price tag elicited pangs of buyer's remorse even before the worst became apparent.

Yeah.  Been there.  Felt that.

(Sort of like 10 years into the first marriage!)

Of course, hindsight is always 20-20.  OTOH, it's still the World's Greatest Hobby...for which I'm a player all the way to the Pearly Gates.

C'est la vie.

KD

I don't have any "worsts".

The 'worsts" got sold.

I have 2 lightweight locomotives that drive me nuts.  These are all go or no go, so they aren't much use to me as I like to run things at a slower pace.

1. 246 (from 1960-61) - this one sits on permanent display in my office in order to keep me from getting angry at home. (see attached)
2. 1060 Scout (from 1961-62) - this one gets used by my nephews so that if it flies off of the table at full speed, who cares?!?  My Grandpa bought it when I was a kid for the same reason!

My worst is a !ionel sd40t-2. It came with the old Odyssey jerkiness. A gear on the front truck broke and it took 6 months for a repair station to get a replacement truck and repair it. At slow speed I can hear a clicking sound that seems to be coming from an internal gear meshing with another gear, and the truck assembly is impossibly complicated to dissassemble to check it out.

Terry

The grey 2-6-4 from The Great Lakes Express set.  Crappy smoke, no sounds at all… except the sound of the flywheel rubbing on the shell.  Crappy little oil tender.  Great cars though!

Jon

None for me except when I break them lol. I do have a Lionel UP SP 1996 Heritage I bought for retail used on ebay and it arrived with a blown speaker.

You guy's sound like a bunch of snotty rich Kids. Back in the 50's you would love what ever you got!!!!! Mine are ALL GREAT>

Um, no. Having grown up in the 50's with one of those notorious Lionel Scout engines, I only loved it after a repair shop put in a "regular" motor.

Terry

• Lionel Commodore Vanderbiilt can't pull it passenger set. Should of had traction tires.

When I had my Lionel collection #41 Army switcher and its clone's nothing but coffee grinders

I’m a modern command control operator/collector and a tinplate(Marx),mainly prewar(US- Ives, AF etc...and European Bing, KB, Märklin, etc...) operator/collector. The later category has some BUT that’s due to mechanical or electrical problems. So I’ll limit this to working/should work and/or bought it working and still not right after repairs. The Last one listed- Lionel Legacy SD60, is my most frustrating.

Tinplate/Prewar

Lionel 204 Steam Loco(uncatalogued 1941)- It has worked well, then I took it for repairs. Now the armature/commutator/stator assembly is “loose”. It won’t run. If I put my finger on the stator on the non-brushplate side, it’ll start to move a bit but then something goes out of whack.

Marx Monom F unit: I do love this engine and it’s actually a somewhat rare version(2 wheel mini motor). The motor works, but the way the previous owner had it in the body was causing some issue(I actually forget) that I took it out. Now it just doesn’t sit correctly in the body and doesn’t properly contact the track. I’ve been tinkering to get it going correctly. Also- it’s a pretty poor puller but that’s to be expected considering it’s lack of weight

modern:

Lionel Milwaukee Road H16-44 w/ TMCC & Odyssey: theres absolutely nothing wrong with this loco- runs smoothly, smokes, good sound. I just happened to buy it at York and subsequently found a Union Pacific Legacy H16-44. HEnce, the Milwaukee Road barely gets run

Lionel Amtrak Dash 9 w/ TMCC: my first tmcc Loco. I bought it because it was a good deal, it was o scale, and I love Amtrak. Unfortunately, not knowing As much about Amtrak as I do now, I didn’t know Amtrak never had a Dash 9. It’s also a bull in a china shop due to lack of Odyssey- it can really pull BUT it’s also wildly fast and that I very much dislike. THe fact it’s not a prototype leaves me with no desire to upgrade this to ERR

Lionel Legacy CSX SD60 from 2011: Started out great, then the HD04-T bridge rectifier on the Legacy RS Lite board went(apparently somewhat common). So I lost sound and then smoke(not sure if they’re related, the fan works). Next it started to frequently derail, I found that the centering spring for the front axle was bent and then I lost a small but essential part nended to reassemble so I bought a new truck. Ok so that should be it.  it should be running without issue- right? Right? Nope- for some reason at 25 steps this loco moves like it’s at 10- which doesn’t even allow for it to be in a MU for which this loco would be perfect. I’m thinking of taking the new truck off, putting the centering mechanism on the old truck, and hoping that the reason for the issue with its speed is the lack of “wear” on the new truck Vs the old truck.  Maybe then it’ll be back to at least running normally & consistently  at speed steps 40 and below and be able to run in an MU.

That said, I’m lucky to have as many prewar & TMCC/Legacy & Proto2/3 locos that Work as well as they do! So I’ll name 2 or 3 to end this post on a good note:

prewar:

Ives 3250- first Ives loco

Lionel-Ives 3251(not working but I love it)

Karl Bub electric steam outline- first Prewar European electrically powered

Modern:

Lionel Legacy GECX SD40t-2 #8678- I love this patched ex- Up, ex-SP tunnel motor. With it being a leasing company Loco it’s  versatile in terms of consists it runs

Lionel Legacy Amtrak F40PH Phase III &  NPCU- Love the F40PH. Love Amtrak. Love Using the cabbage in MUs

Triple Toss Up!: TMCC Dash 8, Legacy ATSF Kodachrome GP35, Legacy BNSF GP35 “Santa Fe” yellow lettering on blue background and BNSF painted on each side of the hood

@dk122trains posted:

• Lionel Commodore Vanderbiilt can't pull it passenger set. Should of had traction tires.

I'm fairly certain there may have been replacement drivers for Hudsons with traction tires at some point.  If you can track them down, it could resolve your issue.

I have first been excited by, and then eventually disappointed by several Williams diecast scale Hudsons.

I also bought a new Mercury 4-6-2 from Sunset third rail. I brought it back to them to fix so many times that eventually the only original part was the boiler casting. After that, I did not trust it anymore, even though it was completely new again by then.

There has never been a Weaver brass steam locomotive in my roster that has not disappointed, either.

@RoyBoy posted:

I have first been excited by, and then eventually disappointed by several Williams diecast scale Hudsons.

I also bought a new Mercury 4-6-2 from Sunset third rail. I brought it back to them to fix so many times that eventually the only original part was the boiler casting. After that, I did not trust it anymore, even though it was completely new again by then.

There has never been a Weaver brass steam locomotive in my roster that has not disappointed, either.

And I havent had  1 problem with either

I had an early K line engine and it ran like CRAP!  It was supposed to resemble a S2 it was not even close to a S2.  It wound up down at the range where it met its end.

@dk122trains posted:

• Lionel Commodore Vanderbiilt can't pull it passenger set. Should of had traction tires.

Don, mine pulls 15 18” cars without breaking a sweat without traction tires. Send it to Harmonyards for a Pittman swap.

My worst was a first edition Williams Mikado. Sold it as it wasn’t worth the effort to make it right.

Pete

@Norton posted:

Don, mine pulls 15 18” cars without breaking a sweat without traction tires. Send it to Harmonyards for a Pittman swap.

My worst was a first edition Williams Mikado. Sold it as it wasn’t worth the effort to make it right.

Pete

Should have added climbing grade is the issue, but you gave me an idea.

@dk122trains posted:

• Lionel Commodore Vanderbiilt can't pull it passenger set. Should of had traction tires.

I've heard this. Always wanted one but I'd need to see it running and pulling first.