When I first saw this engine, I was over the moon. Thinking Lionel was going to stop the unnecessary holiday gimmicky trains, this would be their redemption
@@Coloribus2004 i KINDA like the holiday gimmick trains because i love running them during holidays but i do want more realistic sets and more variety in locos. overall i wish they'd release more standalone affordable lionchief locos by themselves too
Two things: 1. the voice recording is hilarious. i have the polar express set and i recorded the fnaf 1 night 1 phone call, you have better / slower speed control in the app, and momentum settings for slower take offs which is great 2. i was really excited to see old MTH tooling and i kinda hope they get some more. the blue comet needs an affordable redemption arc as well (i have the original PS2 blue comet)
The modern o gauge Lionel trains like that, the 0-8-0 and even the 4-4-2 sets from the early 2000s are pretty good However they don’t hold a candle to the rugged reliability to postwar locomotives. All my original train set engines have issues including my original polar express. Yet a postwar engine can sit in an attic for 50 years and with just light cleaning will work flawlessly. Newer Lionel rolling stock though is absolutely fantastic. I don’t mind tossing modern made cars in with my postwar cars
All things considered, you've got to give props to Lionel for using the old MTH tooling effectively here. It is genuinely nice to have an engine like a 2-8-0 in O Gauge for cheap, considering how ubiquitous they were (and still are.)
we need MTE to cover Lionel's 'Readt-to-Play' sets. I quite like them, and they're good for garden railroading or large layouts indoors. oh,, and Christmas trains.
Bluetooth actually “saved” me with a LionChief set. Got a Santa Fe ft and some cars for under 200, and the remote that came with it was broken. Luckily I can still run it worth bluetooth, and not have an expensive paperweight. Still prefer running the original postwar F3 for some reason.
I bought the up 0-8-0 for pretty cheap a few years ago and I will be honest it’s brought me back into trains I grew up playing with conventional trains but found that lioncheif engine for a good deal and fell in love. I love the Bluetooth and the easiness of it. It’s game changer when you have a big layout and you can walk around and see the layout. Since the first one I have bought 4 more sets and a legacy sd90 and with the updates app where you can run multiple trains it’s so much fun. I think 450 is steep for the sets but if you wait a few years most come down to 350 or less which I think is reasonable all things considered
Man, you’re not kidding about the sound! I know from experience given I have an original Lionel Polar Express set(yes, the original which they’re remaking/rereleasing this year in honor of the tenth anniversary of the movie and set), and _it_ came with FasTrack too. Boy, was it noisy on hard floors. Heck, it also shows here with it nearly drowning _you_ out at some points. Still, plenty fun(if I can get my poor set running again, hasn’t had a proper cleaning in a looong time 😔)
Regarding the poor low speed control: try running it on a lower voltage. I've gotten some Lionchief engines to creep decently well that way, especially older pre-Bluetooth ones. Newer ones like this may not get quite as much of an improvement from it, but it should help at least a little. To find the minimum voltage it will run on, turn up the throttle on the Lionchief remote and then turn down the power on the ZW until the train stops.
8:02 It might be the ZW because I once tried to run a modern Lionel locomotive (SD40T-2) at a slow speed and big puffs of smoke came out of the ZW, but both the engine and loco where fine afterwards.
Have you tried putting back the wires for the terminal? They can get loose. My draw bar broke on a Lionchief general from 2016. It was terrible because an asked a friend to fix it and instead he broke the motherfrickin speaker. Otherwise good model. Loved this honest review.
It’s all fixed, I soldered it all back together and wrapped it with some electrical tape. I also ended up making the hole for the wires a bit larger and using some electrical tape to give them a bit more relief.
@@cobramercilesswhat about the track piece that powers up the track? I feel like you could fix that too. Probably a broken wire connection to the track? I have the polar express set and I couldn’t hardly believe how bad the wires are on these sets. They are so small and break very easily on the locomotive and the lighted passenger cars.
You should check out the Lionel Vision Line Triplex locomotive. It's huge, powerful, and is really awesome! It has whistle steam, a bell that moves on its own, wheelslip for the tender driving wheels, two smokestacks, and awesome lights and sounds!
the one thing I hate about Lionel lionchief steamers is that stupid drawbar electrical connection. my Santa Fe 0-8-0 is currently away being fixed because of that
To me, the current Lionel starter sets lack the quality that older sets had. The Lionchief stuff is nothing compared to the PS3.0 that MTH was putting in their starter sets. The trains aren’t as durable and I feel as if people aren’t getting the bank for their buck when it comes to these modern starter sets
I haven’t dealt with an MTH set yet. I’d like to someday, but my only current MTH locomotive is currently sitting on a shelf currently bending its own frame somehow
I've been kicking around the idea of getting this set. I absolutely do not need it, but...just look at it. As an NYC fan, I quite like it, the fact that it's a PRR engine in NYC paint is something I can overlook in a set like this. Also, I want to try FasTrack...
Having tried Fastrack... I wouldn't buy it again. It's very noisy, even on carpet, and I've found the electrical connections between track sections to be quite unreliable (and you can't just tighten them with pliers like you can with tubular). If you're curious, by all means get a small loop and experiment with it, but don't get your hopes up too high.
The metal used is cheap, corrodes easy, and kinks easy. Wiggling the sections to disconnect them, as shown, will also ream the ends of the rails wider, resulting in poor conductivity. It's expensive, noisy, and not reliable. The hollow roadbed acts like a resonating chamber, amplifying the track noise too.
I have the Lionchief Polar Express and an LC2.0 Hudson, why does this starter set engine come with road specific dialogue but my $600 engine does not???
@@cobramerciless For what it's worth a switcher locomotive will usually do tight curves even if it's Legacy. They said their A5s and SW1s could do O31 and I've seen MPC era engines made on older versions of those toolings handle O27.
I thought these locomotives looked a lot like MTH's starter set steamers, personally I would say it looks a fair bit worse than the 0-8-0, something about the pilot just looks really cheap and toy-like to me. I understand why they do it but I always really disliked the look of the simplified valve gear on these starter locomotives. Interesting that it was so much quieter on the tubular track for you, personally I screwed my fastrack down and once I did that it actually ran a fair bit quieter than tubular track. I never used the terminal sections either so now I almost want to pull one apart and see if I can find out why they seem to break so easily, I know a lot of the fastrack pieces with wiring are just using quick-disconnect spade connectors that can fall out pretty easily so I wonder if that's what happened to yours or if there was something wrong with the barrel plug.
Meh. When it comes to O scale anything, I prefer 2 Rail O scale. I just don't like that center rail for power as it look odd to me. I am just too used to 2 rail trackage ,lol.
I do understand that, but I do beg to differ. The MTH was more expensive and requires a special system or command control station. This one is one self contained unit that just needs a power connection to run everything.
@cobramerciless I don't believe the mth one was more expensive. Atleast when it first came out. But even so it's system was included in the starter set and allowed you to upgrade to the full layout control system. Mth ran off one system... DCS. It was the same system no mater what it was in. Starter set, high end set, etc. Not lionel with it having 3 separate systems.. LC, LC2.0, and Legacy. Which only just now have been able to all be completely controlled on the same system but can not be used in conjunction with one another. Such as lashups. Mth's DCS was a way better system compared to lionels 3 totally different systems.
I died laughing at the goat scream whistle
When I first saw this engine, I was over the moon. Thinking Lionel was going to stop the unnecessary holiday gimmicky trains, this would be their redemption
@@Coloribus2004 i KINDA like the holiday gimmick trains because i love running them during holidays but i do want more realistic sets and more variety in locos. overall i wish they'd release more standalone affordable lionchief locos by themselves too
I wouldn't count on it. The way Lionel presently is run, even the scale items are getting the pop culture/licensed paint jobs and holliday schemes.
The dispatcher left to get the milk and never came back
Two things:
1. the voice recording is hilarious. i have the polar express set and i recorded the fnaf 1 night 1 phone call, you have better / slower speed control in the app, and momentum settings for slower take offs which is great
2. i was really excited to see old MTH tooling and i kinda hope they get some more. the blue comet needs an affordable redemption arc as well (i have the original PS2 blue comet)
WAIT WHAT ABOUT THE FNAF 1 PHONE CALL LMAO?
@@sfm_ferguson5033 yeah i recorded a whole minute of it 😭 i also did the vine boom sound lmfao
Didn't MTH recently say they were doing a Blue Comet rerun?
@@asteroidrules oh??👀 i wouldn't know lol
@@asteroidrules ohhh yeah but those are spensive, i meant the budget one making a comeback like the ready to run set
I find it funny that the newer ready to run sets get road number specific dialogue yet for scale offerings its only for the visionline engines
I have that locomotive in PRR from MTH, runs like a charm
The modern o gauge Lionel trains like that, the 0-8-0 and even the 4-4-2 sets from the early 2000s are pretty good
However they don’t hold a candle to the rugged reliability to postwar locomotives. All my original train set engines have issues including my original polar express. Yet a postwar engine can sit in an attic for 50 years and with just light cleaning will work flawlessly.
Newer Lionel rolling stock though is absolutely fantastic. I don’t mind tossing modern made cars in with my postwar cars
All things considered, you've got to give props to Lionel for using the old MTH tooling effectively here. It is genuinely nice to have an engine like a 2-8-0 in O Gauge for cheap, considering how ubiquitous they were (and still are.)
we need MTE to cover Lionel's 'Readt-to-Play' sets.
I quite like them, and they're good for garden railroading or large layouts indoors. oh,, and Christmas trains.
11:17 this is a cool idea
Also FINALLY SOMEONE DID A REVIEW ON THIS SET
Bluetooth actually “saved” me with a LionChief set.
Got a Santa Fe ft and some cars for under 200, and the remote that came with it was broken. Luckily I can still run it worth bluetooth, and not have an expensive paperweight.
Still prefer running the original postwar F3 for some reason.
The player is the dispatcher.
I'm sorry, the custom sound bit gets me every time!😂🤣😆
IVE BEEN WAITING FOR A VIDEO ON THIS!!!
If I get into O scale, I'll probably get this set, since I like New York Central.
If possible I recommended Santa Fe Super Chief set that Lionel offers.
Either that or the Pennsy keystone. Both fabulous sets!
10:56 I might buy the set just for this feature
Most of the newer Lionchief Bluetooth locos have this feature.
First
1986 Ford Taurus
1930 Ford Model A
1993 Ford Probe
@@vehicles_n_stuff 1903 ford model a
@@J50Fan202008 ford crown Victoria
2010 ford mustang gt
I bought the up 0-8-0 for pretty cheap a few years ago and I will be honest it’s brought me back into trains I grew up playing with conventional trains but found that lioncheif engine for a good deal and fell in love. I love the Bluetooth and the easiness of it. It’s game changer when you have a big layout and you can walk around and see the layout. Since the first one I have bought 4 more sets and a legacy sd90 and with the updates app where you can run multiple trains it’s so much fun. I think 450 is steep for the sets but if you wait a few years most come down to 350 or less which I think is reasonable all things considered
Man, you’re not kidding about the sound! I know from experience given I have an original Lionel Polar Express set(yes, the original which they’re remaking/rereleasing this year in honor of the tenth anniversary of the movie and set), and _it_ came with FasTrack too. Boy, was it noisy on hard floors. Heck, it also shows here with it nearly drowning _you_ out at some points. Still, plenty fun(if I can get my poor set running again, hasn’t had a proper cleaning in a looong time 😔)
Regarding the poor low speed control: try running it on a lower voltage. I've gotten some Lionchief engines to creep decently well that way, especially older pre-Bluetooth ones. Newer ones like this may not get quite as much of an improvement from it, but it should help at least a little. To find the minimum voltage it will run on, turn up the throttle on the Lionchief remote and then turn down the power on the ZW until the train stops.
Oh yeah that’s a trick I’ve messed with a couple times, disappointed it can’t do a smooth couple without it though :/
8:02 It might be the ZW because I once tried to run a modern Lionel locomotive (SD40T-2) at a slow speed and big puffs of smoke came out of the ZW, but both the engine and loco where fine afterwards.
Have you tried putting back the wires for the terminal? They can get loose. My draw bar broke on a Lionchief general from 2016. It was terrible because an asked a friend to fix it and instead he broke the motherfrickin speaker. Otherwise good model. Loved this honest review.
It’s all fixed, I soldered it all back together and wrapped it with some electrical tape. I also ended up making the hole for the wires a bit larger and using some electrical tape to give them a bit more relief.
I’m glad.
@@cobramercilesswhat about the track piece that powers up the track? I feel like you could fix that too. Probably a broken wire connection to the track?
I have the polar express set and I couldn’t hardly believe how bad the wires are on these sets. They are so small and break very easily on the locomotive and the lighted passenger cars.
You should check out the Lionel Vision Line Triplex locomotive. It's huge, powerful, and is really awesome! It has whistle steam, a bell that moves on its own, wheelslip for the tender driving wheels, two smokestacks, and awesome lights and sounds!
@@AnimalsVehiclesAndMore wish I had that sort of money and space :/
the one thing I hate about Lionel lionchief steamers is that stupid drawbar electrical connection. my Santa Fe 0-8-0 is currently away being fixed because of that
I have this set and it’s a absolutely amazing I love this train set
Seems like a pretty cool set, you should add a rodney kantorski audio to it since it's NYC lmao
You’re a genius
those customs sounds got me lol
The cabooses are likely descendants of the Lionel SP style caboose toolings from postwar era
11:13 Screaming Train (Goat)
Lionel , all the way !
Cool. I've had my eye on this retool of the MTH 2-8-0 for a while, bit on the fence about getting it as I have the original Railking version.
Ive been happy with the ho Lionel stuff i have. They fill a spot no one else does. Bob Ross, super hero stuff. Polar express
To me, the current Lionel starter sets lack the quality that older sets had. The Lionchief stuff is nothing compared to the PS3.0 that MTH was putting in their starter sets. The trains aren’t as durable and I feel as if people aren’t getting the bank for their buck when it comes to these modern starter sets
I haven’t dealt with an MTH set yet. I’d like to someday, but my only current MTH locomotive is currently sitting on a shelf currently bending its own frame somehow
Lionel might’ve cooked this time…
why must lionel be so expensive :(
I've been kicking around the idea of getting this set. I absolutely do not need it, but...just look at it. As an NYC fan, I quite like it, the fact that it's a PRR engine in NYC paint is something I can overlook in a set like this. Also, I want to try FasTrack...
Having tried Fastrack... I wouldn't buy it again. It's very noisy, even on carpet, and I've found the electrical connections between track sections to be quite unreliable (and you can't just tighten them with pliers like you can with tubular). If you're curious, by all means get a small loop and experiment with it, but don't get your hopes up too high.
The metal used is cheap, corrodes easy, and kinks easy. Wiggling the sections to disconnect them, as shown, will also ream the ends of the rails wider, resulting in poor conductivity. It's expensive, noisy, and not reliable. The hollow roadbed acts like a resonating chamber, amplifying the track noise too.
Also magnetraction from postwar trains won't work on FasTrack
@@michaelramsey82 I don't have any interest in using it beyond a loop on the carpet. I already have a large amount of tubular track.
I have the Lionchief Polar Express and an LC2.0 Hudson, why does this starter set engine come with road specific dialogue but my $600 engine does not???
Did you just sneezed into your audio? lol
I was going to record something stupid, then had a coughing attack and considered it good enough to leave in
You should get a Legacy locomotive. They cost a lot, but they are so fun.
I just can’t afford one. Not exactly thrilled at the idea of having to replace a lot of my curves just to run one locomotive as well
@@cobramerciless For what it's worth a switcher locomotive will usually do tight curves even if it's Legacy. They said their A5s and SW1s could do O31 and I've seen MPC era engines made on older versions of those toolings handle O27.
I just want a conrail starter set
I’m going to need proof that your cat can run this. Definitely not an excuse to see a cat. Definitely
I couldn't even hear you over that Fast Junk, ah, I mean, Fast Track noise.
I wish they brought the transformer in sets back, the lionchief remote has always felt "gimmicky" to me
I thought these locomotives looked a lot like MTH's starter set steamers, personally I would say it looks a fair bit worse than the 0-8-0, something about the pilot just looks really cheap and toy-like to me. I understand why they do it but I always really disliked the look of the simplified valve gear on these starter locomotives. Interesting that it was so much quieter on the tubular track for you, personally I screwed my fastrack down and once I did that it actually ran a fair bit quieter than tubular track. I never used the terminal sections either so now I almost want to pull one apart and see if I can find out why they seem to break so easily, I know a lot of the fastrack pieces with wiring are just using quick-disconnect spade connectors that can fall out pretty easily so I wonder if that's what happened to yours or if there was something wrong with the barrel plug.
Now if Lionel could redeem their Ho scale and quit charging us so much for the g scale trains…
Meh. When it comes to O scale anything, I prefer 2 Rail O scale. I just don't like that center rail for power as it look odd to me. I am just too used to 2 rail trackage ,lol.
Wait there two rail o gangs?
I hate the fact the engine is ex mth tooling yet does less than half what an mth engine can do
I do understand that, but I do beg to differ. The MTH was more expensive and requires a special system or command control station. This one is one self contained unit that just needs a power connection to run everything.
@cobramerciless I don't believe the mth one was more expensive. Atleast when it first came out. But even so it's system was included in the starter set and allowed you to upgrade to the full layout control system. Mth ran off one system... DCS. It was the same system no mater what it was in. Starter set, high end set, etc. Not lionel with it having 3 separate systems.. LC, LC2.0, and Legacy. Which only just now have been able to all be completely controlled on the same system but can not be used in conjunction with one another. Such as lashups. Mth's DCS was a way better system compared to lionels 3 totally different systems.
8:39 i have that xbox
that aint it. THAT AINT IT.
11:02
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