Would anyone here happen to run Lionel diesels?

Hi Dan

You probsbly mean “G” scale

I run some lionel Diesels but they are “O” scale.

Bill

Right church, wrong pew. I’m hoping to get some feedback on their operation.

Hi Dan… I ran Lionel G gauge diesels a number of years ago. They ran quite well but there are 2 motors in each truck and drew quite a few amps. I ran these on battery power and found them to have much less run time that other manufacturers…

If you’re running track power, they should run fine but keep the wheels clean. They have a tendency to get quite dirty…

Also, be aware that Lionel doesn’t have parts for them.

Just my thoughts… Hope this helps…

Thanks Stan. That’s the answer I was looking for. I do run battery power. I was thinking of using them for scratch building. I will rethink my power requirements.

Dan,

The bodies are 1/32 but the trucks are 1/29. Sounds odd but if you take a tape to them you will see what I mean.

I bought a Lionel GP-20 diesel with sound at a train show when they first came out. It was alright if you ran it with track power. But it is U-G–L-Y. The pilots rotate with the trucks and the grab irons are strangely angular. The horn and bell operate by a trackside box with two buttons. As our club railways are not track powered, those two functions could not be used.

As Stan said there are four motors in it. I removed two to cut the power draw down. I tried to battery power and radio control it. It would sit until massive amounts of powered were applied, and then jack rabbit away. A totally useless piece of equipment for battery power.

I gave it to a Lionel enthusiast a number of years back, with the instructions that I never see it again. He did bring it out to one of our operating sessions this past summer and sold it with a bunch of other junk.

Strange the speed was not controllable. I’ll have to play with one sometime, but too much work to make it “pretty”…

Greg

I found if you by pass their circuit boards and wire motors direct you have less power drain. Also earlier models only had one motor per truck
Mike

Greg Elmassian said:

Strange the speed was not controllable. I’ll have to play with one sometime, but too much work to make it “pretty”…

Greg

I was told the sound board was an O Scale AC board with an adapter board to make it run on DC for large scale. That may have been part of the reason for the high power draw.

There was a lot of circuit boards, wires and wire nuts in the GP-20. I probably should have gutted it and started from scratch. I did like the light set-up in it. The lights were mounted on stands attached to the locomotive floor and shone through lens. The shell could be removed without dealing with connectors.

Yeah, funny but a smoke unit and sound card can each equal the draw of the motors.

Old sound cards used analog amps which are pretty inefficient compared to today’s class D amps.

Smoke units were never designed to save power.

Nice feature on the loco with the lights on the stands. USAT did something almost close with the contacts between the shell and the body, but only used 2 of the possible 4 contacts, they should have done that for all the lighting.

Greg

Gee, there is one up for auction for a decent price. I am toying with the idea of getting it so I have a 1:32nd diesel to run with my growing fleet of 1/32nd (MDC/Roundhouse, Piko) cars. So, are there any new thoughts on the subject?

I have two that I double head and use Aristo TE with one battery 18 volt in trailing car no problems.

Ron, ok. I will be using track power. I will see if the price has gone up tomorrow, it is an auction.

hi Dan, i actually have 5 lionel gp 20. i run track power, they do draw alot of amps. but. i will tell ya they are good pulling power. you have to keep the track and wheels clean 3 of my gp 20 i rebuilt they were dummies and i was able to get motors and parts off ebay. however with track besure your blocks set correctly for your direction and if for any reason you across polarities. grab the engine quick and get it off the tracks. it will melt and burn. i know this because. i did it. and rebuilt the trucks and electrical system inside. as far wiring directly from the track to motors, im not too sure about that one. circuit boards for me are really confusing for me. there are alot of wires.in there. however i am happy with them. i would not pay full price them. due to the spring and bushing type of pick up they have. which i changed out on all of them. i also have 4. lionel alantic 4-4-2. i also added wieght and pick ups on the tenders. lionel was kind of on to something . i wish they had continue with large scale

Interesting Jim. If I do decide on getting a Lionel diesel, it would be converted to battery power.

Well, I didn’t get the Lionel diesel. when the bid was $74, I was game. When the bid was going past the $140 mark, and still rising, I quit watching. Since it was not a road name I would probably run, it would have required a repaint, and of course cleaning up a few details, and then a good dose of grime, and maybe some sound, and… I don’t need another project, especially at that price.

My friend has a Santa Fe Warbonnet A-B-A set and they run great. Of course, he is using track power.

I would love to have a lat run Burlington Northern version with sound and its matching dummy unit. But the asking prices or finaly auction prices are a bit to much right now. Since my garden line is a mix of LGB R1 and R2 the pivioting pilots help and allow me to have 4 axle diesels that can run on my line other than the REA/Aristo FA-1’s. I have seen folks rework the pilots to be frame mounted and once detailed look like a much higher quality model. Yes they draw high amps with the 4 motors. I for one would love to see Lionel bring them and the Atlantic back, but with reworked drives that reflect current technology, pilots that do not swing and all metal wheels on the Atlantic and its tender. They could also do a 2-8-0 drive for the Atlantic boiler to better maximize thier tooling dollers. With 1:32nd scale gaining massive amounts of traction over 1:29th, the time is right for some affordable plastic models in that scale. Lionel just missed the boat on the drive quality. Step that up a bit and they could have really had some awsome models. Mike

Mike, yes. Now with Aristo’s demise, and MTH being in and out and in the large scale market, Lionel could capture some of the market share if they wanted to. But, except for the plastic, battery powered stuff, they aren’t doing much in large scale. That’s a shame.