# Lionel g scale??



## sailbode (Jan 2, 2008)

Wondering how the Lionel G scale trains stack up? I see the price is very low (tells me they're made in China. I see they're Radio controlled with battery. Any of you folks have any experience with theme?
Thanks,
Don


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## Ralph Berg (Jun 2, 2009)

For the most part, Lionel large scale is very toy-like. I have no experience with the battery power loco, but doubt it would be very robust.
There are a few "diamonds in the rough" to be found among the older rolling stock. I'd post a picture or two, but haven't figured that out yet.
Lionel also made some structure kits in the 1980's that were very nice and highly detailed. I have the station kit and water tower kit. They also made an engine house
kit that I'm trying to get my hands on.
Ralph


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## Steve Stockham (Jan 2, 2008)

Lionel has never been known for scale fidelity _especially_ in Large Scale! Quite honestly, in the early 80's Large Scale still hadn't found it's "niche." With the exception of Delton all the manufacturers were making more toylike designs than anything scale! I'd stay away from Lionel as a rule of thumb.


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

From what 've seen the new lionel large scale is oddly sized and very toy-like, very cheaply made. I'm very fond of their now-discontinued Atlantic, but as it left the factory it's not good--it barely pulls its own tender: it has poor power pickup and its prone to strip its gears. I did extensive work to one Atlantic, to make it run better, and I converted a second Atlantic to an H-10 consolidation. I bought two at once on ebay--both had been repainted badly and one didn't run at all. I recenlty bought another derelict Atlantic on ebay and I'll get around to making another consol out of it. 


Somebody ought to reissue these locos. It would only take a small amount of factory imprvements to make them run well, and while the level of detail is only fair, you can add on. They're sized very nicely for smaller and medium layouts. Lionel must still own all the old tooling and molds. But then, they never reissued the Thomas trains, even though those poorly made models were going for hundreds of dollars, used, on ebay.


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

I had a radio battery Lionel 2-6-2. It made okay parts fodder. Two axles, the motor and part of the chassis and cylinders ended up here


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## bahn1225 (Jan 27, 2008)

People tend to forget that along with the* Atlantic*, Lionel made a beautiful *GP *freight unit that had four (4) motors and could out pull anything.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Those are hard to find.. have not seen one in a while. If you follow George S's site, the Atlantic is a very serviceable loco. 

Regards, Greg


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## ThinkerT (Jan 2, 2008)

I've picked up a couple of the older Lionel track powered 
0-4-0 loco's. They actually do all right; I've had them pull ten plus 
cars on a level surface (allbeit with a few sparks and a wee bit of 
wheel slippage to get started) and they've managed to pull four 
cars up a 4% grade without much difficulty. They also seem to do 
allright with Bachmann, Aristocraft, and LGB switches - Aristo switches 
being the bane of some other small locos.


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## stevedenver (Jan 6, 2008)

yes those 4 motor GPs were impressive 
and needed lots of power 
and man were they heavy 

and 

had that classic Lionel swivel full front pilot attached to the trucks and classic Lionel not so great paint over semi translucent plastic bods (cept for the BN versions)


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## ThinkerT (Jan 2, 2008)

IF anybody is interested, there is a Lionel four motor GP unit on EBAY at the current time.


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